I caught an ITV programme on Sunday about learner drivers. I might have imagined it but I'm sure one of the manouevres completed by a learner during the test was to reverse into a parking bay!!
Surely this is hardly a difficult manoeuvre since the car is simply going straight, albeit in reverse. Is this one of the three (or is it four now) required to complete the test??
I always thought the reverse around a corner was a bit pointless, but surely they could have dreamt up a more challenging reversing task.
|
>>Surely this is hardly a difficult manoeuvre since the car issimply going straight, albeit in reverse.
Judging from some of the reverse parking into bays at our local supermarket quite a few people could do with a some lessons. Some of the drivers who go in bonnet first aren't much better, preferring to just leave the car at an angle without straightening up, thus making it harder for the drivers on either side.
As for reversing around a corner, why do they fail you if you just nudge the kerb? Nobody's perfect! I could understand it if you went hurtling round the corner in reverse, mounted the pavement and embedded the car in someones garden wall but gently nudging the kerb...a minor point, surely?
--
Fill what's empty, empty what's full and scratch where it itches!
|
>>As for reversing around a corner, why do they fail you if you just nudge the kerb?>>
Because it's not a test of reversing around the corner, it's a test of car control, observation and knowing where the extremities of the car are. Reversing around a corner is just one way of testing a few things.
When you do a cycling proficiency test and you go in and out of the cones it's just a measure of control - not as an expected daily hazard! Although with roadworks today....
Gareth
|
|
|
|
When I took the test you started the maneuver at 90 degrees to the parking space, which is straightforward enough.
|
|
|
|
When I took my test, the instructor asked me to drive out of the parking space and then reverse back in, but it was made very clear that I'd be expected to drive out, turn through 90 degrees and then reverse back rather than just going forwards and backwards. It's about observation coming out as well as accuracy going back in.
|
It is not as easy as everybody thinks especially if the parking bay lines are not well defined.
Mind you - he was a bit of a wassock to open the door and lean out while the car is in motion on his test - he wants to be a Formula 1 driver ! I don't think Shumy is quaking in his boots.
|
The four maneauveres (how DO you spell that word!) are:
1. Turn in the road (aka 3 point turn)
2. Reverse around a corner
3. Reverse into a parking bay (yes from a starting point pointing 90deg from the space
4. Parallel park
You will generally be asked to demonstrate two of these on your test - which two is pot luck
|
If the test centre doesn't have a suitable parking bay at its site then you will not be asked to do bay park.
In Sheffield there are two test centres, one has a bay, one does not; I picked the one without a bay cos it's probably the hardest move to do.
However, I had to be shown HOW to do one even though I would not be asked to do one on my test.
Also I think you could be asked to do all the 'moves' if you're unlucky!
Kev
P.S. I now always reverse into bays and am quite a demon at it!
|
The Welford Road test centre in Leicester doesn't have a car park. However, I've been told of the odd instance of examiners catching out candidates who haven't been taught the manoeuvre by taking them to the nearby Wigston test centre.
I'm not sure I agree that it's the hardest manoeuvre. I've always thought it's the easiest of all, at least in the virtually empty car park that's likely to be used. To pass you just have to end up within the white lines but, oddly, there's no regulation width for a parking space.
|
|
I took mine at the Wigston centre and was asked to do the reverse bay park as my final manouevre - It seemed at the time that the spaces there are far wider than average. The amusing thing is that the spaces outside the centre face directly towards the waiting room window so you get to see all of the scared faces peering out to see how you do ;)
|
|
|
|
Don't forget the emergency stop, which I think should be compulsory rather than potluck (unless it's changed recently..)
|
|
|
The four maneauveres (how DO you spell that word!) are: 1. Turn in the road (aka 3 point turn) 2. Reverse around a corner 3. Reverse into a parking bay (yes from a starting point pointing 90deg from the space 4. Parallel park You will generally be asked to demonstrate two of these on your test - which two is pot luck
What about the handbrake turn? That's what all the new drivers in Saxos seem to be practicing in carparks.
Gareth
|
Just a reminder of requirements to be satisfied in Car Licence Test when mobile:
D. Technical control of the vehicle
1. Start the engine and move off smoothly (uphill and downhill as well as on the flat).
2. Accelerate to a suitable speed while maintaining a straight course, including during gear-changes.
3. Adjust speed to negotiate left or right turns at junctions, possibly in restricted spaces, while maintaining control of the vehicle.
4. Brake accurately to stop where directed, if need be by performing an emergency stop.
5. Either -
(a) perform any two of the following manoeuvres -
(i) reverse in a straight line and reverse right or left round a corner while keeping within the correct traffic lane;
(ii) turn the vehicle to face the opposite way, using forward and reverse gears;
(iii) park the vehicle and leave a parking space (parallel, oblique or right-angle) both forwards and in reverse, on the flat, uphill and downhill; or
(b) (in the case of a test for a licence authorising the driving of vehicles in category B+E only) reverse in an S-shaped curve.
E. Behaviour in traffic
1. Observe (including the use of the rear view mirrors) road alignment, markings, signs and potential or actual risks.
2. Communicate with other road users using the authorised means.
3. React appropriately in actual risk situations.
4. Comply with road traffic regulations and the instructions of the police and traffic controllers.
5. Move off from the kerb or a parking space.
6. Drive with the vehicle correctly positioned on the road, adjusting speed to traffic conditions and the line of the road.
7. Keep the right distance between vehicles.
8. Change lanes.
9. Pass parked or stationary vehicles and obstacles.
10. Approach and cross junctions.
11. Turn right and left at junctions or to leave the carriageway.
12. Where the opportunity arises -
(a) Pass oncoming vehicles, including in confined spaces.
(b) Overtake in various situations.
(c) Approach and cross level-crossings.
(d) Drive in road tunnels.
F. Alighting from vehicle
Take all precautions necessary when alighting
(M/vehicles (Driv Lic) Amendment Regs 2003)
Phew did we do all that?
DVD
|
"2. Communicate with other road users using the authorised means."
Lol
|
Took my test in 1998 when the emergency stop was definitely part of the test, but the reverse park wasn't.
I hit the kurb during the reverse around the corner, but still passed first time with the least amount of faults seen at the test centre that year (4). Don't think it's any reflection on my driving ability though, as I've since proved!
I haven't parallell parked since learning to do it, and would always choose to drive into a space and reverse out.
|
What time of the year was it, PG? I got 3 minors :-P
Sorry, couldn't resist!
|
Hehe.... it was July, and at the glorious Basingstoke centre where if you time it right you can actually spend half your test waiting to get onto one of the town's busiest roundabouts.
|
|
|
|
I haven't parallell parked since learning to do it..
How have you managed that? The only way of avoiding it that I can think would would be if you only ever parked in a driveway, in a car park or on a fairly empty road. I'm bad at this manoeuvre but there's no other way of parking where I live.
|
PG - IMO hitting the kerb on your test should have resulted in a failure. You are not in proper control of your vehicle if you cannot judge your position on the road when reversing and you hit the kerb.
We also have the photograph of Polo parked on what looked to me very like a pavement or was it the grass ??? on a previous thread ..... Could this be why the parallel parking is not necessary ?!!!!
|
I nudged the kurb on my test... went forward and started the whole thing again. I can't help it if the examiner liked me! (And no, it wasn't a man!)
|
|
|
|
To this day I can't reverse park with any degree of competence. I am hopeless at it. I recall the retired police officer in N. Wales who was my test examiner many many years ago giving a very audible resigned sigh and signing off on my slip.
Perhaps he just wanted his lunch.
Well, women can't read maps. I mean, everybody's got something, right?
|
> Well, women can't read maps. I mean, everybody's got something, right?
I can read maps... I just have to turn them around so they face the way we're going. Well, I thought it was logical!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
