Driving Lessons: Day 1
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
afunaStarted driving lessons today, took two hours (of ten).
It's surprisingly not as scary as I thought it would be. Having three pedals (clutch, brake, gas) was confusing, as was trying to remember when to switch to first gear, and when to simply stop while in second, but the car handled smoothly (except when I mishandled it), and I didn't hit anything.
The hardest part for me to get used to is that I need to ease off on the clutch to make the car go. It seems counter-intuitive to raise your foot to go. Most computer games just have you step on the gas...
The beginning was definitely the scariest, as well as driving on any part of the road where there are people. Or cars. Or animals. Or random stationary items.
Can turn on the ignition, start, stop, slow down, speed up, change gears (from 1 to 2 and back again), reverse, and park. I'm also slowly learning how to deal with the machine dying on me because I didn't use the clutch properly.
Hit a top speed of 30km/h! I am a daredevil >:-)
One thing I need to do now is to be more aware of the road around me. I made do because the instructor guided me through every action, but I'll need to learn to think about these things on my own. I also need a better grasp of how things line up/how far items are when viewed from the driver's seat. I hope that comes with experience.
It's surprisingly not as scary as I thought it would be. Having three pedals (clutch, brake, gas) was confusing, as was trying to remember when to switch to first gear, and when to simply stop while in second, but the car handled smoothly (except when I mishandled it), and I didn't hit anything.
The hardest part for me to get used to is that I need to ease off on the clutch to make the car go. It seems counter-intuitive to raise your foot to go. Most computer games just have you step on the gas...
The beginning was definitely the scariest, as well as driving on any part of the road where there are people. Or cars. Or animals. Or random stationary items.
Can turn on the ignition, start, stop, slow down, speed up, change gears (from 1 to 2 and back again), reverse, and park. I'm also slowly learning how to deal with the machine dying on me because I didn't use the clutch properly.
Hit a top speed of 30km/h! I am a daredevil >:-)
One thing I need to do now is to be more aware of the road around me. I made do because the instructor guided me through every action, but I'll need to learn to think about these things on my own. I also need a better grasp of how things line up/how far items are when viewed from the driver's seat. I hope that comes with experience.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 05:07 pm (UTC)What he said.
And I also think it's a good idea to learn stick shift since then you can drive both.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 01:58 pm (UTC)I really hope I can get my hands and feet coordinated soon. That's the first step, I guess. It would be really scary if I suddenly forgot how to stop in the middle of the road.