I was out with a particular pupil a few days ago and something struck a chord with me as I kept saying the same thing. It then occurred to me that there are several phrases (including variations) which you end up saying a lot – so much so, that I think I may end up having one or two of them carved on my tombstone when I’m gone!
1. “Mind the kerb!”
Especially when they’re just starting out, many pupils have this blind spot which is always occupied by the kerb. You can be driving down a straight road and the smallest thing – sometimes it’s so small it doesn’t even exist – will make the pupil head towards the kerb.
I had one who subconsciously steered away from those pedestrian refuges (with the tall white lamp on them) every time she passed one. Steering away from other vehicles is very common. It doesn’t matter if there is a 15-metre ditch, a lamp post, a tree… steering away from the other car is the only priority!
2. “That’s too fast!”
Just about everything they do wrong can be attributed to excess speed one way or another. For example, when you’re still new to it, you can’t use the MSM routine properly when you’re approaching within two car lengths of a junction at 30mph, anymore than you can check to see if it’s safe to go.
3. “Watch where you are going!”
Some pupils can easily ‘switch off’, especially if they are tired at the end of a lesson. You’ll be driving on a long, straight road and you start to get uneasy as the car starts to drift. You don’t say anything immediately because you don’t want to over-instruct… but then it drifts further. If you allow it to continue, then before you know it, you’re on the other side of the road.
4. “Now plan ahead for this”
You’re doing something simple, like turning left at traffic lights or a junction. You ask them to ‘plan ahead for it’. As you come round the other side, before you know it, you’re across the other side of the road or heading on to the left pavement as the pupil either under- or oversteers – because the plan ran out before they got that far.
5. “Stay in lane!”
Perhaps tied in with ‘switching off’, some pupils have really serious problems seeing white lines on the roads. Add to that the fact that they see roundabouts as something similar to a Rubik Cube and you’ve got a deadly combination.
The one that particularly bugs me is when they are doing the roundabout perfectly then – all of a sudden – they decide they’re not and jerk the wheel so hard, almost full lock, that the car just about tips on to two wheels as they try to change lanes (or go over the roundabout itself). God knows what they think they’ve seen. And it’s usually more than one lane they’re trying to jump – nothing is simple for them.
I’ll always remember one pupil – Chris – who had had problems on roundabouts, but we’d just about got them sorted out. I once asked him what he thought the problem was, and he said:
I honestly think I’m going to kill us both when I’m on one.
Anyway, he drove on to this large roundabout perfectly… and then decided he shouldn’t have, and that the best solution was to stop dead. In the middle of a busy roundabout with cars coming in from all sides!!!
I pulled him over and said:
Chris, you know how you said you were worried that you might kill us on a roundabout? Well, stopping in the middle of one like that is a good way to do it!
6. “Did you see that skip around the corner?”
One time I was just about to do a Reverse Around the Corner exercise with a pupil. I always look into the road to make sure it’s clear as we pass it, but I know that they usually don’t. So, I ask them if it is safe before they start. One pupil cracked me up.
Me: Did you see that skip just around the corner? [there wasn’t one, but she hadn’t looked]
Philippa: [quick as a flash] “Yes. It was yellow”
I was really impressed.