My First Driving Lesson…

This week, I had my first driving lesson.

I’ve been old enough to drive since December 2009, when I turned 17, but I never really felt any need to drive (who needs a car when my legs function perfectly well!??) – it wasn’t until October last year (2010) when I even applied for the license.

And then on Wednesday I had my first driving lesson with BSM. I was picked up from home in the evening by the instructor, and he drove me over to Chesterton, where the roads were quiet. Once I was sat in the driver’s seat, we started with the basics – check the doors, seats, seatbelts, mirrors etc. Then, how to work the thing… controlling the clutch, the break and accelerator pedals. That’s harder than it seems – you really don’t need to press very hard on the accelerator to make it move, and you don’t need to press as hard as I was on the break to make it stop, either!

After I’d managed to make the car go forwards, I had to stop it without crashing in to the car in front (I didn’t hit anything, luckily). But what I then kept forgetting, was that after putting my foot on the break pedal, the car would stop… and that if I was to remove my foot from the break pedal, I would roll forwards slightly, before putting my foot back on the break pedal.

After a while my instructor told me how, once stopped, I can “secure” the car, so that I can take my feet away from the pedals… this was the easy bit – handbreak on, neutral, foot off, signal off, engine off. We did this a few times (revsersing back each time obviously – otherwise the group of cars in front would no longer be there).

I am proud of the fact that, in my first driving lesson, I drove
a) at rush hour…
b) in the (almost) dark…

My next lesson’s this Thursday morning.

Fred Hart

Stock Controller and Radio Presenter/Producer

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