- Are you 20, 30 or 40, or maybe even older
and working towards getting your license?
Believe it or not, that's the norm, not the exception.
Today, we have five tips and strategies for you
to get your license when you're older.
Stick around, we'll be right back with that information.
(upbeat music)
Tip number one, just do it.
Like Nike says, go and get your driver's license.
Because you're going to be older,
you might as well be older with a driver's license
and a sense of accomplishment.
On the other hand, driving and knowing how to drive
and being able to drive on your own
is incredibly empowering.
It gives you a sense of confidence.
It gives you a sense of freedom.
There are so many things that you can do,
and if you're older and you've been living
in a large metropolitan with good transit systems,
now you can drive out to the country
and other places and visit your friends and whatnot.
Of course, after all this craziness of the pandemic is over.
It's empowering.
Go and get your license.
Number two, overcoming anxiety and fear.
Yes, you have some fear and trepidation
because maybe you're older and you were getting the license,
because you were living in a city
and you were taking public transit.
It was really good.
And now you have to get your license
because you're moving away from the city,
or you've got another job and you have to have a license.
Or you had a spouse that was driving around
and the spouse passed away
or you got divorced, or what happened.
Life happens, know that you're going to have fear,
acknowledge the fear and do it any way.
As FDR, my favorite president in the United States,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt said
"The only thing that we have to fear is fear itself."
And for more tips on overcoming fear and anxiety,
look at the card up in the corner here
and you can see the full video on tips and strategies
to overcome fear and anxiety.
Tip number three, expectations.
For some of you,
you're going to have to take driver education classes.
And you're going to be in those classes
with students who could probably be your children
or maybe even your grandchildren.
But know that that's going to happen, expect that.
Use the teenagers as a community,
people that you can rely on and study with
and get help from.
So have that as a sense of community.
And that's really going to help you learn as well.
And know that for some of you,
it's going to take you longer.
For every 10 years, that you're over 25 years old,
it's going to take you approximately 10 hours more.
So don't be comparing yourself to the younger students
who are just picking up and going out
and learning how to drive it within 30 or 40 hours.
It may take you a little bit more time.
So budget for that when you're planning your ultimate goal
of getting your license, planning, your learner's test
and planning your on-road tests,
so that you can be successful in passing those tasks
and getting to the ultimate goal
of earning your drivers license.
Tip number four, the goals.
Getting your learners, getting your on-road test,
and finally getting your license.
You're going to have to practice.
You're going to have to take some driving lessons
with a driving instructor.
For some classes, you can take those
and they can be intensive.
So as you're coming up to your on-road driving test
and preparing for that,
you can book, say, three months out or four months out.
And instead of taking a half an hour lesson here
or an hour lesson here and there,
and it's all peppered all over the place,
take some intensive lessons where you're two or three hours.
As well, work with a driving instructor
who has experience working with older people,
working with seniors and those types of things.
And insist, when you're working
with your driving instructor,
you're working with the driving school
that you go out and work with the pylons
in the parking lot at the beginning.
Slow speed maneuvers, do the slow speed maneuvers
because that will help you to get a grasp and a mastery
of the fundamentals.
The primary controls in the vehicle:
the steering wheel, the brake and the throttle,
as well where the vehicle is in space in place.
So insist on not when your setting your goals
and planning out your learning journey
and how you're going to get from here where you are now
to where you want to be of finally getting your license.
And the last tip, tip number five.
When you get to driving and you have a car,
make sure that you get a car that fit you well.
You need to be comfortable
in the vehicle that you're driving,
because if you're in a vehicle
that you're not comfortable with,
it has a lot of blind areas,
for example, a few years ago
I test drove an FJ Cruiser, which is a Toyota vehicle,
it had enormous blind areas.
I did not feel comfortable in that vehicle.
So I wouldn't buy that vehicle.
And for you, as an older learner driver,
you have more resources,
at least we hope you have more resources
because you're learning how to drive
and buying a car and those types of things,
so pick one that works for you.
Don't settle, right?
Don't buy a hot sports car because you think
that it looks great and you're going to look awesome in it.
Buy something that you feel comfortable driving,
that you feel comfortable maneuvering through parking lots
and doing slow speed movers and whatnot.
And as well, last point of course,
make sure that your vehicle is insured
with the proper insurance for you as a new learner driver
and for the requirements of, you know,
you're going to be driving in the city area
and those types of things,
because that's going to determine what the cost
of your insurance is.
But at least to make sure
that you have good insurance on your vehicle.
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And remember, pick the best answer,
not necessarily the right answer.
Have a great day, bye now.