[HOW TO LEARN TO DRIVE A CAR TO PASS YOUR ROAD TEST FIRST TRY]
Hi there smart drivers, Rick with Smart Drive Test talking to
you today about slow speed maneuvers and
learning how to drive faster.
I had a comment from Areej and she
wanted me to give us more information
about slow speed maneuvers. Now the slow
speed maneuvers can be broken down into
three categories: the first one is
learning how to use the primary controls
of the vehicle. And you're not going to
have any markers in the parking lot or the
closed-circuit area where you're
learning how to drive to use the primary
controls. You're just gonna drive around the
parking lot and get used to the primary
controls, which are the steering wheel,
the brake, the throttle, and if you're
driving a manual transmission, the clutch.
The second part is speed and space
management. You're going to get some
pylons and you're going to get a piece of two
by four and we're going to show you
today some techniques that you can do in
the parking lot - specific exercises that
will help you to manage speed of the
vehicle and space of the vehicle. And the
last category is the specific slow speed
maneuvers that you need to do for a road
test, which include parallel parking,
three-point turn, two-point reverse turn,
etc., etc. There aren't a whole lot of slow-
speed maneuvers, but I will tell you that
7/8s of the road test is in a forward
motion, 1/8th is slow speed maneuvers,
but unfortunately it's that 1/8th of the road
test that give new drivers the most
difficulty. So we're going to spend some
time telling you what the slow speed manoeuvres
are for the purposes of the road test,
and give you some more information. And
the last point that I'll make here in the
introduction is that you need to spend some time on
these slow-speed maneuvers because this practice
is going to improve your overall driving!
So stick around, we'll be right back with
that information.
[OPENING CREDITS & MUSIC]
Hi there smart drivers. Rick with Smart Drive Test
talking to you today about slow-speed
maneuvers for the purposes of learning
how to drive and preparing for a road
test. Yes, going out and doing slow speed
maneuvers is not sexy, it's not even fun
in the greatest to stretch of the
imagination. But it is a necessity for
you to learn how to drive and prepare
for a road test. And if you spend time in
the parking lot doing slow-speed
maneuvers, you're going to learn how to
drive faster. You're going to be a better
driver overall, and you're going to be better
prepared for your road test. So spend
time doing slow-speed maneuvers.
It's like any skill that you're going to
learn: there are fundamentals and the
slow-speed maneuvers are the
fundamentals. Now the other thing that
I'll say, seven-eighths of your road test
is in a forward motion; 1/8 is only slow-
speed maneuvers, but for most new drivers
it's that one eighth--the slow speed
maneuvers--that gives them the most
challenges. So if you spend the time in
the parking lot, you're going to be
better prepared for your road test. Now
slow-speed maneuvers in the parking lot
can be broken down into three categories:
1) primary controls: the steering wheel, the
clutch, the brake, and the throttle. Clutch
if you're driving a manual transmission.
Otherwise for most of you driving
an automatic transmission, the clutch is not going to be one
of your primary controls. The next
category for slow-speed maneuvers is
speed and space management. You have to
learn how to control the speed of the
vehicle with the throttle and the brake.
And as well, you need to have space
management as well, and you're going to
need some pylons for that. If you go out
and rent some of those meter tall pylons
from your local shop--
you only need four of them--and you can
rent it for less than ten bucks for a
day. Get four of those and take those out to
the parking lot and they'll really help you. Now
the other thing for speed and space management is
you need an 8' foot two-by-four. And
I'll leave the metric measurements down
in the description there for you (2.4m X 5.08cm X 10.16cm) But you
can pick up a eight-foot two-by-four
down to your local lumber shop for less
than a couple of bucks. So just go and
get one of those and those two will help
you out and i'll show you here in the
rest of the video the techniques for
driving around pylon and what you can do
with the two-by-four to learn speed and
space management around your vehicle. And
the last category for learning
the specific slow speed
maneuvers is that you need to know for the
purposes of your road test three-point
turn, parallel parking, two-point reverse
turns, reverse stall parking, and curb
parking. Those are the specific
slow-speed maneuvers that you need to know
for the purposes of a road test. And like
I said, those make up a small part of the
road test, but that small part of the
road test is often the biggest grief for
new drivers taking a road test.
So the first part of slow-speed
maneuvers is getting used to the primary
controls and how the primary controls
response. For those are you driving
automatics, it will be the throttle, the
brake and the steering wheel. Now when
you go out to the parking lot,
turn the steering wheel in either
direction to learn how far the steering
wheel goes. On most passenger
vehicle's it's going to turn
one-and-a-half revolutions to the left
and to the right. And just bring it back
one-and-a-half revolutions when the logo
is straight across the steering wheel
you know that your steer tires are
straight. And if you don't know that the
steer tires are straight because you
didn't keep track of steering wheel, the
other way you can do it is just inch
forward a couple of inches and you'll
know very quickly whether the wheels on
the vehicle are straight or not. The
other thing you want to do, is you want
to drive straight up and down the
parking lot and brake. And brake
aggressively and get used to the
response of the brake. Now as well,
most vehicles in this day and age are
equipped with ABS brakes--anti-lock brakes.
As well you want to go down the parking
lot fast enough and make a hard, hard
brake application to engage the ABS so
you know what the ABS feels like in the
event that you get into an emergency
situation and you have to brake hard. And
as well, I'll leave a card up here for you in
the corner on braking with ABS brakes
and knowing how those operate. And what you
have to do in order to get them to work
for you. And the purposes of ABS brakes
is so that you maintain steering in the
event of an emergency. Because when the
wheels lock up - a spinning or locked up
wheel is always going to lead. You don't
want to steer tires to lock up in an
emergency situation. As well, with primary
controls your are going to drive around in
circles and you're going to get used to
how sharp the vehicle steers. So straight
line back and forth. You're
going to get used to straight line
backing. As well, because one of the other
techniques that will improve your
overall driving is straight line backing
and backing in circles. So do that as
well to get used to the primary controls
and how the steering feels and the
throttle feels when the vehicle is in
reverse, because it feels very, very
different. And when you're reversing in
your car, put your right hand over the
back the passenger seat. If you're on the
other side of the road in Australia or
UK, you can put your left hand on the
back of the passenger seat and you're
going to look out the back window of the
vehicle. So essentially what you're doing
is getting used to the primary controls:
the throttle, the brake, and the steering
wheel. And for those driving a manual
transmission, you're going to get used to
the clutch as well. And you're going to
learn clutch control, because those of
you driving a manual transmission, if you
can learn clutch control that is
the fundamental to learning how to drive
a standard transmission. Essentially in
this day and age of electronic fuel
injection engines, if you're on a flat
surface in the parking lot you just want
to bring the clutch out to the friction
point and then control it out the rest
of the way and get the vehicle moving
forward. And the friction point on the
clutch is when the two clutch plates come
together and the vehicle begins to move
forward. That is the friction point. And you
essentially have to control that clutch
to bring it out the rest of the way so that
the engine won't stall. And you don't
need to give it any throttle, just work on
that clutch control. So that the other
primary control that you need to do for
the purposes of learning how to drive.
The next category for slow-speed
maneuvers is speed and space management.
And this is where your pylons are going
to come into use here. And as well, the
two-by-four, but don't use the
two-by-four right away. We're going to
use the pylons. And essentially what
you're going to do is put the pylons in
the configuration that you see here in
the image and that is going to give you
essentially a T-intersection. And you're
going to be able to drive up and down on
both sides of the pylon in a straight
line - both on the passenger side of the
vehicle and on the driver's side of the
vehicle. And that is going to give you
some speed and space management. And as
well, you're going to get some
familiarity with the blind spots around
the vehicle. As you can see here in the
image, there are significant blind spots
both to the rear of the vehicle and on
the passenger side of the vehicle. Those
are your two biggest blind spots. And you
need to figure out spatial
relationships around your vehicle and
figure out how close you can get to
those pylons. Because if you can't get
close to a 36 inch pilot that you can in
fact see from the driver's seat on the
passenger side, it's going to be pretty
tough to curb park. So you need to get
used to that. So drive the vehicle on both sides of the pylon
in a straight line: reversing and driving
forward. When you get comfortable with
that, then you want to put a pylon in the
center of the parking lot and you want
to drive around in circles both
clockwise and counterclockwise. And when
you get comfortable with all of that, the
last exercise that you want to do in the
parking lot is you want to do forward
figure-eights. When you get comfortable with
that, then you want to do reverse figure
eights. And you essentially set up three
pylons at a distance where you can do
the figure-eight forward and in reverse.
And again, all of this will build on the
primary control exercises that you were
doing at the beginning of working in the
parking lot. And this will teach you
speed and space management, it will teach
you better control of the clutch, better
control of the throttle, better control
of the brake and the steering. And you'll
get used to that. Now when you're doing
your circles, and you're doing your
figure '8s' in both in a forward motion
and in a reverse motion, as you get
better and better with that you can move
the pylons closer and closer together.
Now the last exercise that you can do
for speed in space management is take
your 2X4--your 8-foot two-by-four--and put
it down on the ground as you can see
here in the image and drive over in a
forward motion on the driver's side and
on the passenger side. And when you get
comfortable with that and you can do
that well and hit the two-by-four almost
every time with the tires on your
vehicle, then do it in reverse. You can
see here in the image when I tried it
the first time with the two-by-four, I
missed because I was looking out the
back window.
I actually had to use my mirrors. I'm very
comfortable with using the mirrors on
the vehicle and when I use the mirrors I
could hit just about every time. So
reversing with the vehicle, if you can
get used to using the mirrors and
getting comfortable with using the
mirrors and hitting that two-by-four--
driving over the two-by-four, not hitting
it--but driving over it with the
vehicle's tires on both the driver's
side and the passenger side - that is the
pinnacle of speed and space management.
Because you will have a really good
sense of where your vehicle is in space
and spatial relationships to other
things. So if you can use the mirrors,
that will advance your skills and make
you better on a road test. Because
mirrors are an advanced skill for
drivers operating passenger vehicles. And
then if you move up to a up commercial
vehicle, you're definitely going to have
to know how to use the mirrors. So if you
can use the mirrors to get the tires
over the two-by-four, that's going to
really help you out and improve your
overall driving.
And the last slow-speed maneuvers are the
specific slow-speed maneuvers that you
need to know for the purposes of a road
test: parallel parking, two-point reverse
turn, three-point turn,
reverse stall parking, and curb
parking. And I will put the links to all
of the videos for those maneuvers down
in the description box here because
YouTube only allows me five cards up
here and I can't possibly put them all
up for the cards. Now I will put
description down--links--in the
description box, so look down there for
the specific maneuvers and how to do
parallel parking,
how to do two-point reverse turn,
three-point turn, curb parking and
reverse stall parking, and 2 point
reverse turn. Now you can set up the
pylons in the parking lot and you can
practice that, especially your two-point
reverse turn, your parallel parking, stall
parking and whatnot. All of that can be
practiced in the parking lot, especially if
the parking lot has parking stall
lines in it. You can use the parking
stall lines in conjunction with the pylons
to practice those specific slow-speed
maneuver. So do that as well. And practice
these and take the time and spend the
time to do these because as I said ,
each category of practicing the slow-
speed maneuvers, working with the primary
controls, doing speed and space management,
and then doing the specific slow-speed
maneuvers that you need to do. If you do
all these in the parking lot, once you
get out onto the roadway, it's going to
be easy because you've already done it.
Now the last part that I'm going to say
about specific slow-speed maneuvers is
what Bruce Lee said in "Enter the Dragon" when
the guy comes up and smashes the
board. He says, "board not hit back," which is
very true in martial arts. It's one thing
to practice all of your punching and
kicking when you're by yourself and solo.
But it's a completely different thing
when somebody swinging at you and you're
trying to do those maneuvers and techniques.
So it's the same thing in driving. When
you go out and start practicing your
slow-speed maneuvers on a road where
there's traffic and there's the pressure
of social driving, it is a different
exercise. Because now you have to
communicate and you have
to observe with other traffic and other
road users. And that will create pressure
and create anxiety and frustration. So if
you spend the time in the parking lot
doing the slow-speed maneuvers; when you
get onto the road and other road users
are there, it's going to make it easier
for you and it's going to reduce your
stress level, and it's going to reduce
the amount of anxiety. So practice the
slow-speed maneuvers in the parking
lot before you go out and practice on
the roadway. Quick review of slow-speed
maneuvers for the purposes of learning
how to drive and preparing for a road
test. Spend the time in a parking lot,
spend the time in a closed circuit area
where there isn't much traffic doing the
slow-speed maneuvers. Start with the
primary controls: the steering wheel, the
clutch, the throttle, and the brake just
driving straight lines backwards and
forwards. And then start driving in
circles and get used to the primary
controls on the vehicle. When you get
some familiarity with the primary
controls and you know how they respond,
you know how sharp the vehicle turns, you
know how fast it comes to a stop, you
know how fast it accelerates - all of that
is going to make the next part of your
learning how to drive and do slow-speed
maneuvers easier. The next part is speed
and space management. As I said, there's a
link down here in the description. You
can go over and get a set up at my
website for the 36-inch meter tall
pylons that you can hire from a local
shop for very little money - less than ten
dollars for the day. And also, you're
going to need an 8-foot two-by-four and
this will help you with speed and space
management. And get comfortable with the
blind spots around your vehicle. Once you
get comfortable with the blind spots
around the vehicle and you can move the
vehicle through space and you can
orientate spatial relationships around
your vehicle, it's going to be easier to
handle the vehicle in traffic and center
it in the lane. And it's going to translate
into all of your driving and make you a
better driver faster. The last part, as I
said, is the specific slow-speed
maneuvers that you need to know for the
purposes of a road test:
three-point turn, parallel park, two-point
reverse turn, reverse stall parking, and
curb parking. These are all slow-speed
maneuvers that you must know for the
purposes of a road test and are fair
game. And an examiner can ask
to do any one of the slow-speed
maneuvers. And as I said previously in the
video: seven-eighths of the road test
in a forward motion 1/8th is slow-speed
maneuvers. But for most new drivers, it's
that 1/8 that is going to give you the most
grief, especially if you neglect that
and just drive around in the city [CHUCKLING]...
when the examiner asks you to do slow-speed
maneuvers, it's really going to be a
telltale sign whether you've done your
homework or not in preparation for
preparing for the road test. So
practice the slow-speed maneuvers, go
to the parking lot and do that. Question
for my smart drivers: do you have any tips
for new drivers to learn how to control
the vehicle better and to learn how to
drive more efficiently and be a better
quality drivers? Leave a comment down in the
comment section there - all that helps
us out.
I'm Rick with Smart Drive Test. Thanks for
watching. If you like what you see here,
share, subscribe, leave a comment down in
the comment section. As well, hit that
thumbs up button. Check out all the videos
here on the channel if you're working
towards a license or starting a
career as a truck or bus driver. Lots of
great information here. As well, head over to the Smart Drive Test website,
good information over there, and
online courses that you can purchase.
Stick around to the end of the video,
funny bit and links to the other videos
and to my website. Thank you for watching.
Good luck on your road test. And remember,
pick the best answer not necessarily the
right answer.
Have a great day. Bye now.
[BRUCE LEE] "Boards don't hit back!"
[MUSIC & OUTRO]