[ajayon]

Hi all,
I had one of those moments during my third driving lesson today. My instructor asked me to reverse into a bay at the supermarket car park. Sounds simple, right?
I started lining it up, felt pretty confident... then suddenly a car zooms past right behind me — didn’t even notice it coming. I slammed the brake, my instructor grabbed the wheel (lightly), and I just sat there thinking, “Welp, I’ve failed driving forever.” 😅
Turns out I wasn’t even that far off, but my nerves went through the roof.
Has anyone else had a small moment like that that felt huge at the time? Did it get better for you?
Would love to hear your early lesson stories — make me feel less alone in my chaos 😂

[olduser]

With hind sight, I say I was lucky to be driving tractors, off road, from about 10 -11 yrs old, lessons were learned often the hard way.

The lesson for you would be, no matter what you are doing when driving it's up to you to be sure it's safe to do so before you start and while you are doing it.
In practice you have to keep a lookout for what's going on around you at all times.

Just because you are reversing, there is no compulsion for others to give way to you, you must give way to them.
Your instructor should be telling you to partially turn in your seat to look rearwards, this leaves you able to keep an eye out sideways using peripheral vision.

As to getting into the parking space, it's just practice, and more practice, the novelty is you are seeing what happens at the back when you move the steering at the front, for the first time.

After a while getting into a car will be like putting an overcoat on, you subconsciously allow for the extra width of the coat, and avoid brushing everything as you pass.

Try and enjoy it!

[Santa]

I took my test in 1951, when I was 18 and failed the first time. We were living in Cardiff, and I had a job right in the middle of town. My father collected me after work, and I drove home through the rush hour traffic to the suburbs, as well as some trips out of town at weekends, so I was a fairly confident driver.

My first test started badly with a confusion over which number plate I was supposed to be reading for the eyesight test. We set off in Friday afternoon traffic, and I was told to make a right turn. I stopped on the crown of the road but blocking traffic. There must have been a factory further down the road where the workers had just finished for the day, so there were hundreds of bicycles stopping me from moving. After what seemed an age, some cyclists stopped and waved me through.

The examiner decided that I should have waited and failed me for inconveniencing other road users. My second test, on a Monday morning, went well and I passed with just one minor reversing round a corner.

[Neeraj1990]

Hey mate@ajayon

I had a similar experience the happen to me. I was doing my driving lesson in pinner (Northwest london) and i had to reverse and park the vehicle. I was in complete control of the vehicle and only going1mph on the reverse and car comes zooming past me. I dint even see it coming past. I quickly slammed the break pedal so that there was no collision more so because my vehicle was at an angle and that whole situation made me so nervous. My driving instructor took control of the steering wheel and I panicked if what he might say. Although at the back of my mind I knew a collision would be unlikely as I was only going 1mph. Hope that is b helpful.

[olduser]

Originally Posted by Neeraj1990

Hey mate@ajayon

I had a similar experience the happen to me. I was doing my driving lesson in pinner (Northwest london) and i had to reverse and park the vehicle. I was in complete control of the vehicle and only going1mph on the reverse and car comes zooming past me. I dint even see it coming past. I quickly slammed the break pedal so that there was no collision more so because my vehicle was at an angle and that whole situation made me so nervous. My driving instructor took control of the steering wheel and I panicked if what he might say. Although at the back of my mind I knew a collision would be unlikely as I was only going 1mph. Hope that is b helpful.

Thoughts on reading your post;
Because you are going slow at the time of a crash doe's not prevent a crash, and the impact speed is the sum of the vectored speed's of the vehicles involved.

As a rough rule of thumb, when driving, if you are doing something out of the ordinary, (reversing) the onus is on you to do it safely, even if another driver gives way to you, (which has no need to do) safety is still your responsibility.

Your driving instructor should be teaching you to reverse by half turning in your seat to enable you to look out of the rear window, this enables you to use your peripheral vision to see if anything is approaching from the side's. Mirror's or reversing cameras cannot do this.

Good luck.

[Santa]

@olduserI have difficulty turning like that.

If I don't need to open the tailgate, I park nose-in, but otherwise, I rely on mirrors and the camera.