OK, so I know that some people think that learner drivers shouldn't be on the road, but where else can they practice?
It would be fab if there was a special car park or a village in the area to practice parking and dealing with junctions just for learner drivers and away from the general public, but there isn't. We have to use quiet areas of superstore car parks and hope we're not asked to leave because customers are nervous of us hitting their car that is parked on the other side of the car park!
As driving instructions we try to pick our areas carefully, choose somewhere quiet to begin with, off the main roads, but eventually learners have to get out there and play with the big boys. As they soon find out, it's not just about learning to drive a car..... that's the easy bit. It's about dealing with different road conditions, road signs and markings and dealing with other road users. Now that's the tricky bit! Anticipating what other people are going to do next, allowing for them to make errors i.e. not indicating, cutting us up, bad lane discipline etc.
So how come learner drivers don't receive the same respect on the roads as full licence holders? After all they have a driving instructor making sure that they stick to speed limits, get in the correct lane for roundabouts and indicate at junctions. Now sometimes, even learners make mistakes; stall, panic and cross lanes on roundabouts, hesitate at junctions.... and as soon as they do, other drivers show their annoyance by beeping their horn, tailgating, or using hand signals (and I'm not talking about those you find in the Highway Code)!
A few instances of this inconsiderate behaviour spring to mind......teaching a pupil the turn in the road, and a resident stopping his car behind us and asking if we could go somewhere else to practice; stalling at a junction and getting beeped from a driver behind who then followed us home and subjected us to verbal abuse. Nice!
At the end of the day, learners are insured and have a licence to be on the road. Deal with it - you were a learner once!
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Have to agree! Having recently passed my test I've noticed that other drivers treat me differently now compared to when I was learning. I lost count of the number of times it felt like I was towing someone whilst learning. It's as though pepole are more forgiving when you're part of the 'driving' club. I guess no one wants to be 'stuck' behind a learner. Everyone on the road deserves the same amount of respect, whether they are a learner or full driver, cyclist, on a motorbike, riding a horse, etc... A bit of consideration and patience goes a long way on busy roads.
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