I’ve just got back from another great lesson with Shaun, this week I learnt about Crossroads and Control stops. Here’s my thoughts throughout the lesson and the difficulties I faced.
This week, I was straight into the driver’s seat, started and were off to recap on the lesson last week. Firstly, we did quite a few left and right hand turns just so I remembered everything that we went through the lesson before, as we were driving around we noticed quite a few potential hazards, such as pedestrians in the middle of the roads etc and I was able to spot these straight away.
After recapping last week’s lesson we pulled up and went through crossroads. I had already done quite a bit of research beforehand on crossroads as Shaun had told me we we’re going to be doing this so I understood quite a bit. We went through the lesson plan for crossroads, we went through approach and the LADA routine (look, assess, decide, act) which I couldn’t remember at first but can now, positioning, priorities and turning.
After going through the lesson plan we drove around to find a crossroad, we came to one, I did all the necessary checks and then we were through the crossroads. We did this quite a bit and drove round for a while, I even had my first traffic light experience, 2 in fact! Then we pulled up to talk through it.
We had a chat about crossroads, I felt it went really well for the first time too! We then came on to the lesson plans for controlled stops.
I was really scared at first about controlled stops, and that’s only because my mum told me she hated them! We first went through how to avoid them, with concentration, speed etc and then we went through the method of a controlled stop.
I’d done quite a bit of research around controlled stops, probably through being very nervous, so I quite understood the method. It was then time to actually do one! We drove along the road in second gear, when Shaun yelled out STOP, I carried out the method correctly. Shaun was very impressed so we did it again, second time correctly too!
Now I feel better because if I ever end up in a situation where I need to use a controlled stop, I have the confidence to do so.
It was a really great lesson with Shaun, and I feel like I am definitely improving as the weeks go by (I didn’t even look at my gears whilst changing today) Now that I’ve started to drive, I can definitely notice the difference when needing to change gears, slowing round corners and so much more. I look forward to my next lesson of pedestrian crossings and signals!
If you’re looking for a great driving instructor I would definitely recommend Shaun Murray. This is my third lesson so far and I have already learnt so much, he gives me so much confidence in driving, oh and his car is great for small people like me!
