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From cycling to clutches


Joe

Joe is 20 years-old and lives in Poole, Dorset. He's decided to let us in on his experience of learning to drive, and promises to tell us exactly what happens when he takes his test; minors, majors and everything.
Entry: 1

Joe explains just why ditching the bike and getting behind the steering wheel is so important to him. All he has to do is get over his fear of roundabouts.

Driving. Why would anyone want to drive? It's bad for the environment, people tell me it's stressful, it's ridiculously expensive and yet I have to learn. But why? Because it beats cycling. I'm in my third and final year at university and I've decided it would be the sensible thing to get my driving license. I hope to get a job someday and I can imagine that it's fairly likely I'll need a car. Besides, I'm sick of buses and I fear for my safety, not to mention my sanity, when I'm on my bike.

I live four-and-a-half miles from Bournemouth University in Poole. The bus system is erratic and as I can't drive legally, I cycle. Every day I turn away from the bike shed where I lock my bike and pray that it doesn't get stolen. Out of breath, I head towards the cosy indoors with a healthy splatter of mud up my back and a sniffly nose. I think I represent a valid case for why driving is good for you.

While I'm furiously pedalling to university in the freezing rain on a frosty winter morning, I imagine just what it would be like to be driving. The thought of sitting comfortably with the light tickle of heat soothing my feet and looking at cyclists with their heads bobbing up and down, routinely wiping the dirty rain from their foreheads, sounds a lot less stressful.

I have a few anxieties about driving that could be quite revealing of my personality. My main fears are to do with holding people up and being a general nuisance on the road. The thought of crashing and potentially hurting myself badly hasn't really entered my mind. In fact, it's stalling at a roundabout or indicating the wrong way that get my brain in a twist - a psychologist would have a field day with me.

"The thought of crashing and potentially hurting myself badly hasn't really entered my mind. In fact, it's stalling at a roundabout or indicating the wrong way that get my brain in a twist."

So, lesson one, and it was time to put my worries behind me. There was mostly a lot of talking between myself and the instructor, but I did manage to drive away from the curb, cruise straight for 20 metres and pull in again. I was calm and easy on the outside, but inside I felt like I could out manoeuvre Lewis Hamilton, until the instructor said: "Right pull over and swap seats". "Oh," I thought, "I was enjoying that".

Driving, if you can call my little excursion that, was a very strange sensation. I expected it to feel very alien and nerve-wracking, but what I can only assume is due to the advances in ergonomics and modern technology, it felt curiously normal and comfortable. I've played all the Colin McRae rally video games, so naturally I expected it to be a more harrowing experience, but it hardly felt like I was driving at all. Talk about an anti-climax. Oh well, maybe next time I'll get to do some handbrake turns and high-speed car chases through the narrow streets of Poole.

Lesson two was far better and very eventful. I did lots of turning left, cruised down 30 mile per hour speed limit roads and familiarised myself with the clutch. Great stuff. I started to feel as if I was ready to jump the Grand Canyon until I glanced in the rear view mirror (for the first time ever) only to spot a young lady in the car behind with half her finger protruding up her nose. Mmmm, nice.

It was all going swimmingly until I had to execute a big busy roundabout. Uh-oh, that was definitely out of my comfort zone and resulted in a mental shutdown from sheer panic. "Driving would be so easy if it wasn't for other cars," I think to myself. Two stalls, a few beeps and a shaken driving instructor later, I was on the other side of the roundabout and safe until the next lesson.

My first taste of driving was definitely as disorientating, confusing and sometimes as scary as learning to cycle, but the big difference is that I'm far less likely to be squashed by a bus when I overtake something. I can't wait to get behind the wheel again and I'm looking forward to letting you know just how well, or not, I progress.    


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