Diary Of An ADI

I’ve just had a sudden rush on this search term, including one with “AA” in it. There is no specific “AA” method – instructors all teach it their own way, and good ones will use different methods for different pupils and different cars. I touched on the subject a while back, but not in great detail.

Having said that, there isn’t much to it and it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that if you lumped all the methods together you wouldn’t have more than a handful at best. ll the examiner is looking for is a safe controlled turn, and he or she doesn’t care how it is done beyond that. They aren’t looking for a specific method.

The first thing you need to do is pull up about ½ metre away from the kerb, and about 2-3 car lengths past the side road so that you can see the straight part of the kerb in the mirror, as shown in the diagram. You can also look for the straight part of the kerb out of your back window, but this depends on the car – in some, you can’t see the kerb line.

Make sure that you check your mirrors for following traffic as you move in and indicate if necessary. And you must also look into the side road for any obstructions as you drive past. If you don’t do either of those things you’re probably going to get a driver fault for it – but if someone is following you and you don’t signal to pull over you could easily end up with a serious fault. You need to be driving reasonably slowly to be able to do all this in a controlled manner, so take your time.

Get the car into reverse so that people know what you intend to do (i.e. your reversing lights will come on). Check all around, and if it’s safe, start to reverse back until you get to the turning point – that’s where the gap between car and kerb begins to get wider (use your nearside mirror for this). Keep a look out for cars and pedestrians while you’re moving, and deal with them appropriately. Stop at the point of turn – you don’t have to use the handbrake, but it can help prevent you rolling if you’re on a slope.

Before you turn the wheel you MUST check all around. The front of the car will swing out, so you will cause problems if you start moving and something is coming. Not checking properly before you turn is almost certainly a serious fault (unless the examiner is in a generous mood).

If it’s clear you can start to turn.

How you do this is up to you – some people are naturals and can steer the car smoothly, keeping the kerb in the same position either in the nearside mirror, or out of the nearside rear windows (it depends on the car, as I have already mentioned). However, other learners will have more of a problem.

Some people seem to be mentally pre-programmed to steer the opposite way to where they should when they reverse, and it helps if they stop frequently – at least while it is new to them – to work out which way to steer, instead of just doing what their brain tells them in the heat of the moment. I’ve written a separate article on what causes this problem in some pupils.

The golden rule is to steer in the direction you want the back of the car to go (which is exactly the same way you’d steer going forward).

Some people will steer too much or too little, and they have to learn to make small adjustments and see what effect this has on their position. Others will be unable to hold the steering wheel still, even when there’s no need to adjust anything (that one drives me mad). A way of managing all of this is to put, say, one full turn on to begin with, then adjust the steering by fixed ¼ turns depending on which way the kerb is moving in the mirror or out of the window. It’s basically steer-check-steer-check-steer-and so on. It may even help if the ¼ turns are done whilst stationary with some pupils. It’s up to the ADI to work out what’s best in each case (if you’re a learner who is reading this, make sure you choose the best method for you). Some pupils have a problem with the concept of  a “¼ turn” (or any other fraction), for example, but in other cases a rigid approach like this can work very well.

Remember that you MUST keep checking for pedestrians and other traffic throughout the turn, and deal with it as necessary. Don’t reverse directly towards anything which is close to you and moving. Stop and make sure it is safe to continue.

If someone flashes their lights at you to continue, don’t assume they are going to sit there all day waiting for you. Keep an aye on them because they will probably go past you as soon as you move a little further out of their way (and they’re not doing anything wrong if they do go past). The examiner will quite probably consider that you are at fault if you don’t see them start to move, and depending on the actual situation that could mean a serious fault (and, therefore, a fail).

Once you’re around the corner, make sure you’re parallel with the kerb using your nearside mirror and/or by looking out the back window, then straighten your wheels. Keep checking for traffic and pedestrians, and correct your angle if necessary with small adjustments – it doesn’t need full lock, just small corrections (usually ¼ turns again).

Go about 2-3 car lengths back and stop (or stop if the examiner says he’s seen enough – they often do that if they’re happy).

And that’s it. It sounds complicated when you write it down – and you’ve got to remember that I’ve lumped several methods together in my explanation – but there isn’t much to it at all.

Bear in mind that when I talk about serious faults I can’t be certain what the examiner on your test is going to decide. I can only go on my own experiences. The main thing to remember is that not checking for other cars and pedestrians increases the risk of failure dramatically, so learn to do it properly.

The more often you do it right the sooner it becomes habit – and the less likely it is to go wrong on your test.

Remember: drive slowly and stop often. You ARE allowed to stop. At each of these short pauses work out what you’re going to do next, and don’t just steer for the sake of it. Going too fast or not stopping just forces your brain to go into autopilot, and that can make you panic and do it wrong.

At what point do I turn?

It doesn’t really matter. All you’ve got to do is follow the kerb around, and as long as you do that you’re on the right path. A better question is “when SHOULDN’T I turn?” – to which the answer would be not when you would hit the kerb or move too far away from it.

Generally, you want to start turning just as the kerb starts to curve away from the car, but the exact position isn’t critical. You can tell when this point is reached by looking in your nearside mirror.

I suspect this question arises when a very specific method being taught and the learner doesn’t understand exactly what they are doing. In that case, you must talk to your instructor and get them to explain.

How much should I turn the wheel when reversing around a corner?

First of all, it depends on the corner – some are much tighter than others. But the real trick is to think how much you steer when you go around one going forwards. It’s almost exactly the same going backwards (and it’s in the same direction, as well).

Let’s say that in your car (that makes a difference, too – if you don’t have power steering then you’ll have to steer more than in one that does) you need between a half and one full turn to get round most corners when driving forwards. So, when you’re reversing around one, start with a similar amount of steering when you get to the point of turn, and then adjust it with small amounts on and off to keep the kerb a suitable distance away from the car.

Which way should I steer?

I’ve found that up to 80% of people are somehow pre-programmed to steer the wrong way when they try to turn the car when reversing. In most cases, it’s got something to do with the direction the front of the car moves in when you steer – turn the wheel left, and the front of the car goes to the right – and their brains try to make sense of that and get muddled.

The secret is to remember that when you are reversing, it is the BACK of the car that you’re steering and not the front. So stop often and turn your head around to think about where you want to back end to go – closer to or further away from the kerb. The worst thing you can do is keep moving, because that will create panic and your brain will just revert back to what it thinks it should do, which is nearly always wrong (plus, you’re likely to lift your foot off the clutch even more and the whole thing escalates out of control).

Remember: to get closer to the kerb, steer towards it. To move away from it, steer away.

Another source of confusion is the mirror, and what it is telling you (if you use the mirror, of course). Some people are conditioned to believe that if something is coming towards the car in the mirror, then it is actually going further away. Mirrors don’t make everything the opposite of the real world – the only thing that IS the opposite is the line symmetry (hold up your left hand in the mirror, and the symmetry of the reflection changes into a right hand; but point to the left with your hand – either hand – and the reflection also points to the left).

How far away from the kerb should I be?

Or “how much gap am I allowed?” – as someone used to find the blog. Quite simply, as long as you don’t touch the kerb and don’t go too wide, you’ve nothing to worry about. But how far is “too wide”?

It’s the examiner who decides, but the way I teach my pupils is to tell them that anywhere up to ½ metre is perfect (that’s about the width of a normal drain grating in the gutter), up to ¾ metre is pushing it a bit (but still OK), and anything above that – well, you’d better keep your fingers crossed if it happens on your test. Out on lessons, if I think they’re a bit wide then I say so. No point pretending everything is hunky-dory when it isn’t.

I hear stories of examiners who are happy as long as you stay on your side of the road and don’t go beyond the half way point (on some wide roads, I’d consider that way too far out). If you go that wide on your test, start praying. In the meantime, learn to do it properly.

What happens if I touch the kerb?

If you brush the kerb, that isn’t an automatic fail in itself – or it shouldn’t be (according to the examiners’ own internal reference document). Some examiners seem to be harsher than others considering all the tales I hear, so the best thing is to avoid touching the kerb altogether – but keep your fingers crossed if you do.

If you ride up on to the kerb, that’s almost certainly a fail – but don’t assume anything! Again, from tales I hear, a very good drive otherwise can affect how other faults are regarded, and people apparently get away with riding over kerbs on normal turns if the drive is otherwise good. Indeed, one of my pupils passed this year, even though she rode up the edge of a kerb when emerging from a junction (the examiner mentioned that in the debrief).

The main thing is not to self-assess your driving on test. Don’t decide that something you’ve done is “a fail”. People who do are usually wrong, and in any case it isn’t their decision. It’s the examiner’s.

Is it OK to keep stopping?

Yes, yes, yes, YES! Even if stopping means you take a bit longer to do it, that is much better than screwing it up completely.

You CAN fail for taking too long over it, and the judgement over what constitutes “too long” lies with the examiner and the situation at the time, but you would have to be ridiculously slow to fail outright for this. I’ve had a handful of pupils who have only ever managed to master this manoeuvre to the barest minimum of level acceptability, and on their tests they will move half a car length, stop, look around, move another half a car length, and so on. They do not fail for it if they do it reasonably promptly and safely. I’ve never had anyone fail for taking too long – although once in a debrief the examiner said to a pupil “you don’t need to keep putting the handbrake on every time you stop” (but no fault was recorded).

In any case, trying to do it as a continuous single movement is more than likely going to lead to safety check/observation errors if you get it wrong and miss something. So, stop and check properly.

You should also remember that taking 10 minutes to do it on a lesson as part of a learning process is NOT a fault, especially if you’re having trouble with it. After all, if you want to learn to juggle, you will not start out doing it as fast as those who can already do it! You’ll start slow, and build up from there without even noticing you’re getting faster.

It’s the same with learning any driving manoeuvre. Start out slow – a suitable speed will come naturally.

What if I don’t have power steering?

It doesn’t matter. You need to steer enough – and the amount going in reverse will be the virtually the same as the amount when you go forwards around the same corner.

My last instructor told me to look out of the back (or side) window to follow the kerb

Welcome to the real world!

In my car – and many others – the rear sill is too high for this to work, and people who have been taught that way mess it up completely when they try with me. I teach people a method that will work in ANY car. And that involves using your nearside mirror to watch the kerb (but maintaining all round checks).

I can’t see the “point of turn”

Yes you can! As I mentioned above, welcome to the real world.

Make sure your mirrors are adjusted properly for normal driving and you’ll be able to see the point of turn in those. You don’t need to angle them down especially or anything.