As we know, at some point in the driving test the examiner will ask you to carry out a manoeuvre.
Following changes to the driving test in 2017, the manoeuvre that you will be asked to carry out will be focused on parking your vehicle safely, leaving it in a convenient place and carrying out your exercise with due regard for other road users and pedestrians.
Many new drivers become overwhelmed when it is time to carry out these exercises. Let’s try to stay calm and break the exercises down into smaller more manageable pieces.
Let’s take the parallel park exercise as an example. The examiners brief will sound something like this:
“Pull up on the near left at a safe place well before the blue parked car in front of you. I’d now like you to pull out into the middle of the road and stop alongside the blue car. You will then reverse parallel with it and continue to reverse your vehicle in behind it parking in a parallel position and reasonably close to the kerb. I’d like you to complete your exercise within two car lengths of the blue car. Move off when you’re ready.”
It sounds very daunting, doesn’t it? Why don’t we change that wording in our minds eye to:
“Can you show me how you’re going to reverse park your car when you’re on your own. I’d like to see you do this safely and make sure that you leave your car where it won’t inconvenience other people.”
Ok – we can work with that.
The most important thing to remember here is that we do not have to get this exercise right first time – we can correct it. Beyond the test in real life if you don’t get your parking right first time it’s only a problem if you leave it like that. We really do have enough careless parkers out there on the road already so we certainly don’t need another one.
Let’s use this as a chance to shine!
Ask yourself, what’s the worst thing that I could do while I am parking? As long as we don’t hit something, somebody or cause another driver to swerve or swear we can say that we’ve done our job. I always say to my drivers, “Imagine you are parking your car outside a school with lots of children hanging around.”
We need to be reasonably accurate of course, but we can tidy up our parking if we don’t get it quite right first time. We can’t un-squash next door’s car! Therefore, the safety is much more important than the accuracy.
With all this in mind, we are going to move off when it’s safe. Let’s try to wait until the area is clear as it can be. We’ll stop alongside the blue car trying not to completely block the road if possible.
We are going to check all around and make sure it’s safe to block the road with your front end as you steer your back
end in first. Now we are going to change your steering to bring the front end in. You can use your own judgement or any focal/reference points that you and your driveJohnson’s instructor have agreed work for you.
For most new drivers, the worst fear is carrying out your exercise and blocking the road delaying other drivers. Try not to worry too much about this as all we can do is make sure that it’s clear before we start the exercise. If a vehicle approaches halfway through your exercise again don’t worry because that driver is simply waiting for you to unblock the road. Try not to panic – if there is room for him to get around you and he wants to get around you let him go. If there isn’t try not to rush as he can go in a moment when you have finished parking.
Once we have steered our car in behind the blue car safely we can then work on tidying up the accuracy if necessary when the street has cleared.
Take a moment to check your final position and make sure that you are reasonably close to the kerb (within about a drain’s width). If the examiner is happy with your parking they will say something like, “thank you – move off when you’re ready.”
If they stay quiet and look across at you for example, there’s a good chance something is not quite right.
This is ok – they are giving you the opportunity to make any necessary corrections. You are still on course for that pass.
Stay calm and ask yourself, “would I lock my car here and leave it like this overnight.”
Check for things like your distance from the kerb and if your car is straight. Make sure you’ve left yourself enough room to get back out but also that the gap in front of your car isn’t big enough to allow another vehicle to park in between you and the blue car. That is what the examiner means by, ‘finish within two car lengths’.
Lastly, don’t be reluctant to ask your driveJohnson’s instructor to show you how to recover if you don’t get your manoeuvre right first time every time – which none of us do!
Remember it’s an exercise. You’re being asked to demonstrate how are you going to park your car when you’re out and about on your own.
