a reply to:
cody599
I am holding up pretty well.
I involved myself in the arcane art of roundabout usage today as part of my driving lesson, so that was good, if initially baffling. It also made me
aware of something that I had previously been successful at totally ignoring for the most part, that being the speed at which traffic behind me, wants
to be moving.
My instructor told me that he wanted me to go around the roundabout at the lowest speed that I could imagine taking a roundabout at, and when I did,
he told me to do it slower. Now, I know that he is the instructor, and knows what he is talking about, and so I complied, but it was very clear to me
that I was taking that roundabout at thirty percent of huge actual speed that people take roundabouts, AND that I am not talking about the nutters who
take them too quickly. I am talking every person who has ever gone around a roundabout, will have done so at perhaps as much as ten to fifteen miles
an hour faster than I was going.
Also, before the first contact with the scenario, my instructor had me look at a diagram while we were pulled up by the side of the road. It featured
three scenarios, all at the same featured roundabout. The left turn, the straight over, and the right hander. Now, I will not bore you with the
details of all of those, since you must surely be aware of them already. However, what confused me, is that despite being instructed that I must keep
to the right hand lane if turning right, when I actually got to the roundabout, and crawled round it with glacial speed, he was overly concerned with
my distance from the edge of the roundabout itself.
Now, as the person in the driving seat, I was able to ascertain that although I was not half a mile from the edge of the roundabout, at the speed we
were traveling there would have been no way for me to scuff his car on the kerb of the roundabout, unless someone else's car had hit us, and pushed
us there. I was actually monitoring our clearance with regard to the roundabout very carefully, using the mirrors, and direct line of sight, WHILE
getting the indicators right and all the other malarkey which is involved.
This is perhaps the first time that I have not been able to square my instructors words, with his desires upon actually reaching the point of
applying his instructions.
However, we made several passes of the roundabout, and I improved my performance with every pass, despite the fact I still have not been instructed
as to how to take a roundabout at a reasonable, normal speed. I find myself questioning the worth of any driving lesson which does not teach the
learner how to ACTUALLY take a roundabout at a half way normal speed, since an examiner is hardly going to pass one for taking a roundabout at such a
low speed that the entire flow of traffic is disrupted, or at a speed which results in the slowest other car on the road becoming intimately familiar
with the rear end of ones own car, having failed to slow down through sheer disbelief on the part of its driver.
How the heck are you?
Oh, also, it appears that I am suffering from some sort of verbal explosive event at the moment, so I apologise for the essay response!