Rate your driving ability

[Dabbles]

1) 9 - I rarely miss anything awareness/anticipation/perception wise. However I'm not perfect, nobody is.
2) 9 - I can park anywhere, in any car.
3) 8 - I am very smooth under braking, my clutch control at low revs could be better
4) 2 - I have no time for useless people on the road and think it is far too easy for a lot of muppets to get their driving licences
5) 9 - Pretty damn good, but not perfect, but it is the road traffic act that matters more and I'm about an 8/9 on that too.
6) 9 - Better than most, probably not as good as Senna .
7) 9 - I've never seen anyone cope with all the conditions I have, regularly have I been the only person to attempt let alone manage some icy conditions
8) 7 - Not a lot of practice. I can drive very fast and handle fast corners, but lack practice in having to correct MAJOR mistakes. These sorts of skills are best learned on the track.

 

[mrk]

1) General awareness/anticipation
10. I don't anticipate anything and know when its safe to do whatever.

2) Parking ability
Said it before but 10, I am king of parking.

3) Brakes/Clutch control - nice and smooth or bucking bronco?
7. It's easy to smooth upshift but smooth downshifts require some precise throttle blipping to rev match. My light clutch pedal can feel too light at times as I drive other cars that have heavy clutches.

4) How patient and courteous are you to other road users?
10. If it won't hold up and create a queue behind me then I always give way to people looking to join or whatever.

5) What is your knowledge of the Highway Code?
0. The what?


6) High speed control of your car in dry conditions
9, when using my phone.

7) " wet/icy conditions
"

8) Your ability to correct your car when out of shape
DSC saves me so it's ok.

 

[snowdog]

1) General awareness/anticipation
Depends on mood, early in the day very rubbish and as a result I drive very carefully, later in the day I'm very aware of everything, rarely get suprised by anything.

2) Parking ability
Parking is easy peasy, no problems pushing myself through tiny gaps either. I don't get why people have trouble, you get used to your car in no time and it's all repetition. Then again, I have to park the work van about 20 times per day on working days and that's all in busy town/city areas so I've had a lot of practise.

3) Brakes/Clutch control - nice and smooth or bucking bronco?
Brake - Brake at last moment often
Clutch- Very smooth

4) How patient and courteous are you to other road users?
Depends on if I'm in a hurry or pooting around at CC/calmly.
If I'm in a hurry I often take large risks and have 0 patience, overtaking at any chance possible, people who don't see me usually get a blast of the horn and I'll first try to evade/pass people rather than braking for them, only brake when really neccesary, always take the right of way then I have it.
But when I'm driving calmly, I usually let cyclists or peds or other cars out first, don't mind people not keeping to the right, and don't mind waiting on people or braking for their mistakes.

5) What is your knowledge of the Highway Code?
-

6) High speed control of your car in dry conditions
I believe it's fine, I make it no secret I think speed limtis are rubbish and at night you'll often find me doing speeds that would make me lose my license ( usually keep it just at the 50 kph over the limit, but I occasionally when there's no-one around just floor it and go as I please, when there's not a car in sight on the motorway behind or ahead of me ), during the day I usually keep it at 10-20kph above limit on motorways and up to 10 kph over in urban areas. All a matter of looking as far ahead as you can, checking mirrors often, and subtle steering.

7) " wet/icy conditions
Overconfident, bad, stupid. All my close calls/ near accidents/misjudgements that would be my fault were always when wet/icy/snowy. Usually involved me approaching a junction a bit to fast and only just having enough space to brake, or entering a corner way to fast and going straight ahead due to understeer. Always managed to correct it pretty quickly but still... Grip is **** when wet and especially in the beginning I forgot that from time to time, these days I just drive like granps in rain.

8) Your ability to correct your car when out of shape
So far so good, managed to evade someone over the grass at high speed, never lost control of the car except when acting silly on empty parking lots or industrial estates at night ( sideways action going not as planned ). But not in any normal driving situation.


General opinion of myself is that I'm sometimes to impatient, I should generally drive more carefully and economically and brake/roll out sooner, and not get so frustrated by people not keeping to the right or them generally being indecisive when I'm in a hurry. I believe the biggest danger is when I'm on the road just after getting up, while driving calmly early in the day I clearly notice in retrospect that my awareness/anticipation is crap, my reactions are crap, and that an accident is around the corner while I see awkward situations coming up from a mile away once I'm awake later on.

 

[TB1968]

Have any of you considered going on additional driving training? I have done a a couple of courses now and I like the result. I used Jon Cave at DriveTrain - great ex-police driver instructor.

Various types of courses too - gets great write ups from most of the forums I've seen him on.

Quite ironic when the majority of people rate themselves as above average as a driver isn't it! I took the training simply because I thought no matter how unlikely, it must be possible to improve on perfection. Or something.

Output from my initial one in my '4 here:

Looks worthwhile doing, think ive heard of this guy before.
Anyway I did ok on the quiz

You Have Completed the Test
Score = 100 %

Number of people tested = 2351
Average of everyone = 82 %

Tony

 

[TB1968]

I love the motorcyclists saying that being on a bike makes them more aware, I would say being a motorcyclist makes them more aware about bikes on the road but the single biggest cause of deaths/accidents for motorcyclists are single vehicle accidents, 10 times that of car drivers and considering the percentage of cars to bikes on the road, thats pretty high, but seeing all the holes in the dry stone walls near where I live shows you they normally only get the one chance, hitting one of those is normally terminal

As for the questions...

1) General awareness/anticipation
Give myself an 8 here, goes down if I'm tired though
2) Parking ability
7, usually reverse into any spot.
3) Brakes/Clutch control - nice and smooth or bucking bronco?
8, If my knee hurts it goes down (old injury)
4) How patient and courteous are you to other road users?
8, use to be much worse, ive mellowed out, still get annoyed with the drivers who do
40mph in a 30mph zone then stick at 40 in a national speed limit...
5) What is your knowledge of the Highway Code?
9, Well I got 100% but a bit of guess work on a couple of those
6) High speed control of your car in dry conditions
8, not bad, I have fwd and awd cars and I try not to slack on tyres with wanlii hedge hoppers.
7) " wet/icy conditions"
7, I adjust to the conditions and maintain a greater braking distance, shame the guy behind is still 2 inches off the rear bumper.
8) Your ability to correct your car when out of shape
6, Only ever had the one real issue and the road wasnt wide enough to correct so rolled the works van (cheap tyres, damp spot/diesel), great to see the dunlop was the only tyre not to blow out and the other 3 budget ones did, still this is best left to an airfield/track day

 

[bigredshark]

God it is amusing watching people rate their ability, so before I do I'll say I think I'm a reasonable driver, I've had a single accident which can't be attributed to me (van pulled out in front of me doing 60 as 'there were leaves covering the road markings' apparently). Out of my friends / colleagues / relatives I can fairly say I acknowledge that two or three are better drivers and I'm roughly average.

Anyhow: (Assuming 5 is average)

1) General awareness/anticipation: 5 maybe, I find driving boring most of the time and my concentration isn't at it's best. I'm capable of being more aware and anticipating, I just can't be bothered. I do enough

2) Parking ability - 3 or 4 say, I can't park terribly well, I mean not utterly terrible but I'd say I'm below the average.

3) Brakes/Clutch control - 6 nice and smooth or bucking bronco? I'd say 6, definitely above average, it's not like my gears changes are super quick but they're smooth and my braking is controlled. Better than most people I know.

4) How patient and courteous are you to other road users? 7/8 - generally very, I don't get bothered about people driving slowly, I don't get bothered by genuine mistakes if people apologise. I do dislike people being stupid, and I'll go to extra effort to not let people force their way in though. I can get a bit frustrated at junctions when it's busy and pull half way across blocking the opposite side, that's my main bad habit in that respect.

5) What is your knowledge of the Highway Code? 8 maybe, it's very good, I've actually read it fairly recently and I don't think I'd be caught out by anything.

6) High speed control of your car in dry conditions : I'll say 6, that is, a little above average. I have a good feel for the car and I learnt to drive in twisty country lanes driving faster than was entirely sensible. I think I'd probably do well on a track but I've never been interested enough to try it.

7) " wet/icy conditions: I'll say 6 again. It makes me more alert and doesn't really diminish my feel for the car so I'm fairly confident driving in snow/ice. I still feel I know what the car will do so it doesn't bother me too much.

8) Your ability to correct your car when out of shape
On snow or ice, at moderate speed (up to 30mph or so), pretty good. I'm not sure I'd like to try that trick at higher speeds under different conditions but then I don't drive in such a way I expect to need to. So we'll say 6, a bit above average

 

[Overlag]

this is why there are so many accidents on the roads, almost everyone overrates there ability on the road...



...but here goes:


1) General awareness/anticipation
6: I generally can read the road traffic well and rarely have to brake on the motorway as i look far ahead rather than just the car in front of me etc. There are sometimes however where i will miss the fact someone is braking harder than i expected.

2) Parking ability
7: Between the lines, and straight every time for me. Parallel parking brings the mark down, but i can still do it unlike some...

3) Brakes/Clutch control - nice and smooth or bucking bronco?
6 (FiestaST 185): My car having got cams acts goes a bit bucking kangaroo in traffic sometimes. Brakes are perfect.
2 (Renault scenic): Dont like the clutch postion, so can barely control it, and the brakes bite so badly i generally have no brakes, or put myself through the windscreen.
6 (Nissan Primera): Still getting used to clutch but the car is smoother than mine on power and the brakes are great.

4) How patient and courteous are you to other road users?
4-6: Depends on the mood. Most the time i shock people by letting them out or being fine when they mess up etc.

5) What is your knowledge of the Highway Code?
4: I just follow common sense, but don't know the Highway Code down to every section.

6) High speed control of your car in dry conditions
7: I keep within my limits so my control is relatively good.

7) " wet/icy conditions
7: I purposely go out in the snow to practice practice practice. Plus low grip levels make it more "fun".

8) Your ability to correct your car when out of shape
6: Two spins on racing circuits (one published in Performance Ford) prove im not a demon at correcting slides. On road ive not really got out of shape, because you have to be going very fast to get out of shape, and with good anticipation I rarely go into a corner faster than i should have.