Stuck

Nasty_Girl

Howdy all.
I am a 25 year old woman trying to learn how to drive in North dub.
My instructor is great and I do a lesson once or twice a week.
My problem is I need to be practicing in between my lessons but I have no way of doing this because :
a) my husband doesn't drive either
b) my family live faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away
c) my friends either don't drive or the ones that do live a good hour or more away from me and I can't expect them to drive up to me, sit in a car for another few hours and then drive home a few times a week.
d) none of my workmates are on my route

I don't own a car at present, because it would be rotting in my parking space if I did.

I want to learn and I enjoy the bit of driving I do but I don't think I'm going to progress at all at the rate I'm going.
And if one more smug f*ck says to me "ah just buy a old banger and drive around" I will scream.
Like hello it's illegal.

Any ideas on what I can do?
I have thought about maybe finding someone I could pay to sit in the car with me ... but for that I could just buy more lessons.

I dunno.

Fol20

Nasty_Girl wrote: »

Howdy all.
I am a 25 year old woman trying to learn how to drive in North dub.
My instructor is great and I do a lesson once or twice a week.
My problem is I need to be practicing in between my lessons but I have no way of doing this because :
a) my husband doesn't drive either
b) my family live faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away
c) my friends either don't drive or the ones that do live a good hour or more away from me and I can't expect them to drive up to me, sit in a car for another few hours and then drive home a few times a week.
d) none of my workmates are on my route

I don't own a car at present, because it would be rotting in my parking space if I did.

I want to learn and I enjoy the bit of driving I do but I don't think I'm going to progress at all at the rate I'm going.
And if one more smug f*ck says to me "ah just buy a old banger and drive around" I will scream.
Like hello it's illegal.

Any ideas on what I can do?
I have thought about maybe finding someone I could pay to sit in the car with me ... but for that I could just buy more lessons.

I dunno.

Just buy an old banger and drive around with temp insurance.
Like hello why cant you do that..

Nasty_Girl

Fol20 wrote: »

Just buy an old banger and drive around with temp insurance.
Like hello why cant you do that..

Is that not illegal?
Do I not need to be supervised?

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

christy c

Even though your family are far away maybe you could head their direction for the weekend and practice then, surprising how much you'd learn from a weekend behind the wheel, you'd probably need insurance on their car to do that though. If you've holidays still to take from work it would be very handy, possibly a good week driving.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Nasty_Girl

christy c wrote: »

Even though your family are far away maybe you could head their direction for the weekend and practice then, surprising how much you'd learn from a weekend behind the wheel, you'd probably need insurance on their car to do that though. If you've holidays still to take from work it would be very handy, possibly a good week driving.

Heya, thanks,
Yeah I've tried that, I have holidays soon but my parents are not always helpful when it comes to this.
They always say "yeah yeah come down and drive" but when I get there there's a million excuses as to why we can't.
Maybe I need to be more assertive about it but at the same time they would be the ones doing me a favour so I don't like demanding
I think they just don't want me to smack one of their cars off a kerb ... not that I would of course.

Plus for the price of the travel I could do like two lessons.
I keep kicking myself for not learning when I was 17 but they weren't very helpful then either

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

christy c

Plus for the price of the travel I could do like two lessons.

I hear your other reasons for not going home but don't think lessons are the same as real life driving, there's no substitute, you will get a better feel for driving and will seem more natural and in control when behind the wheel which should be of great help when the test day comes. So if you thought your parents would actually help you and even if the cost of travel would get you like four lessons it would be well worth it

Fol20

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Ok i forgot about the law about about a full license holder to accompany you.No need to get so serious about as i didnt mean it in that way.

I never encouraged her to act illegally so im going to appeal your decision

Raskolnikov

I feel your pain.

The huge number of drivers on provisional licences was testament to the fact that most people learned to drive while not having a full licence. Now that that Gardai have actively clamped down on this behaviour, many people are left between a rock and a hard place. What makes it even worst is that there are thousands on the road who are flouting this law and getting away with it.

Lessons alone are not enough for most people to pass their test. In my case, I was able to book some holidays from work, go back home and get insured under my parents (I'm 25 too!) and get a weeks worth of practice for free (AXA allow you to add a named driver for a week for free).

It's also worth remembering, that for you to get a car, pay insurance, road tax, petrol, etc, it's going to be costing you thousands. if the cost of keeping a car on the road was say €3,000, you'd get the equivalent of 100 lessons from a driving instructor.

Nasty_Girl

Raskolnikov wrote: »

In my case, I was able to book some holidays from work, go back home and get insured under my parents (I'm 25 too!) and get a weeks worth of practice for free (AXA allow you to add a named driver for a week for free).

Yeah I think I'll have to beg them to help me but so far that hasn't been successful.
I'm not nearly ready for a test either so I think I'll just have to keep paying the instructor for now anyway.

Thanks everyone.