So what if you fail your driving test?

Hmmmm, we have a lot in common it seems.   

I tend to ride the clutch when coming to a stop, and it got so bad when I tried to break the habit my instructor told me not to worry about it.  I would mess up my gears, often killing the car, just because I was concentrating so hard to not ride the clutch!

The curb thing was hard too.  When doing a 3 point turn in the US, I generally used a very gentle curb nudge just so I knew where I was in the street.  Here that's the kiss of death on a driving test...  I kind of resented that one for awhile. 

As for the maneuvers, I was praying I didn't get the reverse bay parking or reversing left around a corner - those scared the **** out of me!  I never have been good at reversing, and a parallel park is also difficult, but doable... sometimes.  My favorite is the 3 point turn (even if I can't use the curb for a point of reference  ), so what did I get on my three tests?  The first one was a 3 point turn, which I executed perfectly despite my uncontrollable nervous shaking, the second and third were both reversing left around a corner!  Gah! It was raining buckets on my 2nd test, and I ended up closer to the other side of the road than the one I was supposed to be hugging - but, hey!, I didn't hit the curb!!!  The third test I nailed that left reverse *proudly patting self on the back*, and can't tell you how happy I am to never, ever have to do one again!   

Hmmmmm, those have the ring of famous last words.....   

I ride the clutch too! haha, I'm glad it's not just me. Shifting down because you're coming to a stop is something a friend tried to teach me when I was first learning to drive stick at 16, but it never went smoothly back then... so I rode the clutch! haha.

My little Hyundai Elantra was so tiny I could flip a Uie( how in the world do you even spell that?) in a normal two lane road with her. She was a great car. My parent bought her off me when I moved.

I am looking forward to being able to just drive after taking my test and not having to take a test ever again (we only have a manual car).

What got me is you have to use the hand brake for every manouver 3 pt turn hand brake for every turn you make Christ !!

So my wife has just purchased a car and now has 7 months before her 12 months is up on her USA Licence, so I had a strange thought.

Potentially she can soon get a Provisional Licence and take a test, which in theory could be after 7 months of being in UK and Fail....  so could she just turn to the Driving instructor and say thank you for failing me and telling me I am not safe to driveo n your road but I will drive myself home becuase I can still!.. once again this seems mad to me!!!

So my wife has just purchased a car and now has 7 months before her 12 months is up on her USA Licence, so I had a strange thought.

Potentially she can soon get a Provisional Licence and take a test, which in theory could be after 7 months of being in UK and Fail....  so could she just turn to the Driving instructor and say thank you for failing me and telling me I am not safe to driveo n your road but I will drive myself home becuase I can still!.. once again this seems mad to me!!!

Yep, it's a mad system. I think it's crazy too. *shakes head*

I think there is something deeper going on here clutch-wise, something that speaks to the nature of British Thought.

It makes sense to suggest that having a gear engaged grants more control than free-wheeling along with the clutch....I will give them that. But to what degree really? Does it actually matter?

Another example....the distance we are supposed to put between ourselves and the vehicle ahead....in the US it is simply a car-length for every ten miles per hour....not as precise as the complex formula the British exam requires...but perhaps close enough. Is the average driver in Britain working all that out?

British signage. There are all sorts of little marks and colour codes and shapes seeded into British signs - imparting a great deal of handy information....but do you really have the processing time....travelling down the road at speed, to figure it all out?   

But more to the point....if they are going to make individual vehicle transportation the basis for our economy - and I think they have - then shouldn't it be easy?

Son of Sailor, how do all the things that you mentioned actually relate to British Thought?  I'm really curious because I also recognise the power of British Thought and I'm quite fascinated by it.  I can't see how your examples relate.

My best example of British Thought would be Bloody Mindedness, equivalent to Freedom in the American Mind.  I'm not convinced that the quality of doing something just because you decided you would even if circumstances change and it no longer makes sense is one I admire.

Well, I think there are reasons science took off so strongly in Britain. I think culturally there is something which has fostered this drive to understand stuff. Certainly other societies have it too. But it would be hard to argue that Britain hasn't been in the thick of things as far as scientific inquisitiveness is concerned.

So I can only imagine that when something like driving is mulled over in the places where they mull things over - that learned people aren't brought in to help set up the systems. So if someone in that room said, "Well, the yanks just use a car-length for every ten miles an hour...", there is probablly another person saying, "Hmmmmm, but in actuality according to Newton that doesn't work out....there is clearly a multiplier in the mix".

They are right....but then we are left driving along doing algebra...