Deja vu Driving Lesson.

 Good evening,

Today I had another driving lesson. We had a sort of a deja vu moment up on entering the village. As with last week, just as we got to the straight bit of road that leads in to the village we came upon a tractor and trailer, a different one to last week. 

Dorothy, my instructor was funny because as soon as she saw it she asked, "So tell me, what's it going to do this week?" 

If you don't know to what I am referring you need to go back to my entry on the 25th titled 'Hazard Perception & avoidance'.

I played along and told her that he wasn't planning any challenges this week. We both arrived at the junction together which was how I'd planned it last week until he started doing his maneuvers. We were both turning left along the high street. I was thinking that I was probably going to have the challenge of overtaking him once out of the village. However more or less as soon as he got on to the high street he turned off right and disappeared down a side street. 

Then just after a few hundred meters, as we were coming up to the Co-op, I saw to my left a big white van speeding down the drive from the car park behind the shop, his speed concerned me so I took my foot off the accelerator, and it's a good thing I did too because by the time he saw me and came to a stop he had not only cross the pedestrian pavement but was a quarter of the way across my lane. There was still enough room for me to pass so I went around him and carried on my way.

Dorothy, as with last week complimented me by saying afterwards, "I must say that your observations around you and how you react to them are quite impressive. I don't know whether he would have run in to the side of us or not but because of your observations the way you reacted you made sure he didn't. Well done." So once again I carried out the lesson feeling dead chuffed with myself.

Because of what happened with the van and there was no one behind us, Dorothy stopped me at one of the road junctions we came to and pointed out the mistakes both the van driver and the tractor driver from last week made. She said that the van driver was checking the road from too far back from the junction and because we were close to the entrance didn't even see us until he was about to pull out on to the road because basically he was being to lazy to stop and look properly when he got to the entrance. The tractor driver just didn't look both ways. He cleared the lane one way for which he was about to be traveling on but didn't check what was coming the other way, especially as that thing he had on the front was going to encroach on to the other lane as well.

When I come to a junction I have to clear it of pedestrians, cycles, motor cycles and cars etc. coming from the right. Be aware that cycles and motor cycles often travel closer to the edge of the road and can be easily over looked in haste. Also I must check to my left as well, don't assume the lane to be clear as the tractor driver did. Someone could for instance be overtaking a car coming that way in which case the lane could be very blocked. 

Dorothy said that Giveway signs should only be place on slip roads to motorways etc, as they encourage people to be careless, and all other roads junctions should have stop signs in her opinion.

So that was a good lesson for me to learn. I also had a drive around town which went well. No speeding or anything.