Passed my driving test, nearly forty years after passing my driving test - Would you?

[Feek]

I saw a friend yesterday who I've not seen for about five years and in that time, he's gone from being a driving instructor to being a driving examiner. We were talking and I said that I've often wondered if I'd pass the driving test now. His reaction was to offer to take me out for a 'test' to see.

I agreed and out we went. I drive an automatic now so he suggested that we take his car as it's a manual. I haven't driven a manual for any length of time for years but was quite happy to do so, it's a skill you never forget, right?

We were out for just under an hour, he set up a route on the sat nav which I followed for about twenty minutes and then I had to follow his directions. He made me do three manoeuvres, two simple parking ones and something which I thought was utterly stupid. Pull up on the right side of the road and reverse back a bit. There was no reversing round a corner, no emergency stop, no three point turn, nothing like that at all.

He asked me to tell him how I'd put my main beam on (and how I'd know it was on) and I had to turn the heated windscreen on.

Afterwards he told me I've passed with two minor errors. At one point I indicated before I looked in the mirror and one time I turned the steering wheel with a reverse grip.

I was surprised by how straightforward it was. The trickier manoeuvres have been removed and for part of the drive, I was just following a sat nav. We did hit a dual carriageway for a couple of miles which I don't recall being taught or having to do back in the day but the whole thing seemed very simple.

Do you think you'd pass the driving test if you were to take it again now?

 

[Feek]

It's just a case of driving properly and forgetting habits

Yeah but that's the tricky thing isn't it? If you've developed bad habits then that's exactly what they are, they're things you do automatically and perhaps don't realise it.

A little bit of a contentious one for me having people as passengers sometimes who are driving instructors - from years of gaming and other similar stuff I can be aware of what is going on in my mirrors sometimes without telegraphing it as obviously as many people - occasionally getting well meaning observations about it :s

It surprised me, I'm very observant of what's going on around me, I did question him and ask about it but I'm pretty sure I'd have just glanced up at the mirror first because that's what I do. I reckon he just didn't see me.

No doubt they'd also object to the way I hold the steering wheel but I probably remember to do it the fancy way for long enough.

This was what I was expecting but it seems they're a lot more relaxed about the 'ten to two' grip I was taught. I didn't go out of my way to hold the wheel any different to normal, I wasn't deliberately doing ten to two. The thing he objected to was when I turned a corner, I reached up with my left hand, grabbed the wheel with my fingers facing me and turned it that way. Everything else was OK.

 

[Feek]

I don't drive at 10 and 2

You don’t need to. It’s not a requirement any more.

 

[Feek]

I don't think the emergency stop has been removed, he just didn't give me that one but the other two have definitely gone.

 

[Feek]

The issue for me is the hazard perception test.

I'd never even heard of that until you posted. I've just found some online and I did one without really understanding what I was doing. I saw a hazard and clicked, then waited as I expected more to appear. I got one point.
So I did some more and when I saw something potentially about to happen, clicked half a dozen times and got five points. Did a few more and did the same thing and got five points on each one. Once you understand what you're supposed to do, they're not exactly tricky.

 

[Feek]

You are only suppose to click once per hazard, or that is what i was told, so if you are clicking half a dozen times in how long?? I was told this would result in a fail.

That doesn't seem to be the case with the sample tests I did. In each of them, there's one hazard per test and when you've completed it and take the option to show the result, you're expected to click when you first see it and then click another four times while the hazard is building. It doesn't actually seem to matter if you click about ten times once you see the hazard coming. As long as you click five times during the period when they expect you to click five times, you'll get five points.

That's the impression I got anyway. Perhaps someone who knows for sure can comment.