Author Topic: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?  (Read 1162 times)

neophyte

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I've only driven for about 20 minutes in the past, uh, 9 years or so. I have a license, but it's gotten to the point where I'm afraid to just go rent a car and practice. The pandemic has taught me that I would really like to be comfortable doing this though.

How do carless folk keep up their driving skills? Do you intentionally practice periodically? Wait until you don't have another choice and hope for the best? Should I take a driving class?

MilesTeg

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Re: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2021, 11:28:16 AM »
I've only driven for about 20 minutes in the past, uh, 9 years or so. I have a license, but it's gotten to the point where I'm afraid to just go rent a car and practice. The pandemic has taught me that I would really like to be comfortable doing this though.

How do carless folk keep up their driving skills? Do you intentionally practice periodically? Wait until you don't have another choice and hope for the best? Should I take a driving class?

Yes, if you haven't driven in 10 years you need to take a driving class and re-learn and then maintain. Lots of driving tasks are learned as muscle memory. Got to regularly maintain that. If you have to take the time to think about tasks you are a hazard to yourself and others.

Just like any other skill: use it or lose it.

You can run errands for friends or family (with their car) or find some other way to regularly drive without actually having to own a car.
« Last Edit: April 08, 2021, 12:12:39 PM by MilesTeg »

Just Joe

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Re: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?
« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2021, 02:49:44 PM »
You can always rent one if you want to avoid risking your friend's or family's car to a mishap. A scrape either way is a hassle but at least your social circle won't be impacted.

Had a business associate come to our site once from NYC. They assumed they'd just catch a train or cab to our site, we assumed they would just rent a car. A car is really the only way.

NYC associate did not have a license anymore, let it lapse. We all received an education that day and NYC associate had a good time here seeing the contrasting lifestyle. As i recall someone had to fetch them from the big metro airport in the next city.

Hula Hoop

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Re: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?
« Reply #3 on: April 12, 2021, 03:10:53 PM »
I'm a native New Yorker and I have a license both there and here in Italy but I never use it.  I'm also kind of scared to drive at this point.  If we ever decided to get a car, I'd probably have to do some driving lessons to re-learn how to drive.

draco44

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Re: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2021, 07:04:52 PM »
Others have spoken to how to access a car (rent or borrow, basically). But I think another element of the equation is specifically where you start your practice driving, and easing back into things. I can understand the hesitation to not go to a rental place yourself and immediately get on the highway after that big of a time gap in your driving.

I think the ideal thing to do would be to get a friend to come with you in their car and have them drive you to a big empty parking lot. Then you take the wheel and drive around the parking lot very slowly until you regain some confidence.

Phase 2 can be driving slowly around someplace with roads but that has a low speed limit and few pedestrians. Office parks on a weekend, or cemeteries, are ideal. You can practice all your turns and stops and go 10 mph if you want. That's golf cart speed. If you do phase 1 and 2 in the same day, your friend can drive you between sites.

From there you can do residential back roads, then main roads, then highways. Immediately expecting yourself to get on a busy road may be setting yourself up to fail, at least in terms of your anxiety. You didn't originally learn to drive in one day, so go easy on yourself on getting back into it when you are ready. But also remember: you've done it before! So you can do it again.

Travis

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Re: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?
« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2021, 07:28:23 PM »


Phase 2 can be driving slowly around someplace with roads but that has a low speed limit and few pedestrians. Office parks on a weekend, or cemeteries, are ideal. You can practice all your turns and stops and go 10 mph if you want. That's golf cart speed. If you do phase 1 and 2 in the same day, your friend can drive you between sites.

From there you can do residential back roads, then main roads, then highways. Immediately expecting yourself to get on a busy road may be setting yourself up to fail, at least in terms of your anxiety. You didn't originally learn to drive in one day, so go easy on yourself on getting back into it when you are ready. But also remember: you've done it before! So you can do it again.

This is how I learned to drive as a teenager. I spent a couple months just doing turns in a parking lot in the evenings before going to friend's houses in the neighborhood.  I also felt I needed to "level up" when I got here to Korea. Their driving etiquette is something else. I spent weeks just driving to work on village streets before attempting the freeway.  Also, after not driving for a year in Iraq I didn't forget how to drive, but that muscle memory was definitely atrophied and I needed a week to feel comfortable behind the wheel.

GuitarStv

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Re: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?
« Reply #6 on: April 13, 2021, 08:12:25 AM »
Don't stress it.  Most people who drive on a daily basis have no idea how to do it either.

RWD

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Re: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?
« Reply #7 on: April 13, 2021, 08:40:00 AM »
Don't stress it.  Most people who drive on a daily basis have no idea how to do it either.
Truth.

Hula Hoop

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Re: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?
« Reply #8 on: April 13, 2021, 01:46:49 PM »
Don't stress it.  Most people who drive on a daily basis have no idea how to do it either.

Very true.  Especially here in Italy.

I learned to drive in the US in an automatic and then had to learn on a manual car here in Italy as automatics are rare here.  I spent quite a lot of time stalling at traffic lights and learning how to find the friction point.  If we ever buy a car, I think I'll try to find an automatic (they do exist here although they are rare). 

RWD

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Re: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?
« Reply #9 on: April 13, 2021, 01:51:32 PM »
Don't stress it.  Most people who drive on a daily basis have no idea how to do it either.

Very true.  Especially here in Italy.

I learned to drive in the US in an automatic and then had to learn on a manual car here in Italy as automatics are rare here.  I spent quite a lot of time stalling at traffic lights and learning how to find the friction point.  If we ever buy a car, I think I'll try to find an automatic (they do exist here although they are rare).

All [mass-produced] electric cars are automatics. ;) The Italians make an excellent electric city car: https://www.fiat.com/500-electric

Hula Hoop

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Re: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?
« Reply #10 on: April 14, 2021, 05:09:05 AM »
Yeah - if we ever decide to buy a car it would probably be something like that or maybe a Yaris hybrid.  I see them everywhere here.

A couple of years ago we got a lift with one of my daughter's classmates in his dad's new car.  The classmate (8 years old) was boasting to us about how his dad's new car was the absolute height of the latest technology as it shifted gears automatically!  No need to shift gears!  Look where the gearstick usually is there's just this thing that says "drive/park".  I didn't have the heart to tell this kid that in the US pretty much all cars are automatics and have been for 40 years or more. 

norajean

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Re: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?
« Reply #11 on: April 14, 2021, 07:23:09 AM »
Driving is like riding a bike. Once you get the hang of it you can pick it up again even without cycling for years or even decades.

Just Joe

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Re: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?
« Reply #12 on: April 14, 2021, 07:32:24 AM »
Yeah - if we ever decide to buy a car it would probably be something like that or maybe a Yaris hybrid.  I see them everywhere here.

A couple of years ago we got a lift with one of my daughter's classmates in his dad's new car.  The classmate (8 years old) was boasting to us about how his dad's new car was the absolute height of the latest technology as it shifted gears automatically!  No need to shift gears!  Look where the gearstick usually is there's just this thing that says "drive/park".  I didn't have the heart to tell this kid that in the US pretty much all cars are automatics and have been for 40 years or more.

But did it have air conditioning? Automatic and a/c might be a mind blowing combination for you young friend. 

When I lived there in the south I had an American spec VW with a/c. It was a used car and came that way. My Italian friends thought that was ridiculous. One claimed a/c in a car would give a person a cold. Still, darn nice thing to have when you wanted it. I didn't use it alot b/c of the cost of fuel though.

I agree with everyone else, you'll remember how to drive pretty quick. Just start out in a parking lot if you can find one or on quiet neighborhood/country streets. I don't recall which part of the country you are in but driving in the south in the 1990s was like participating in a non-contact demolition derby and there was a learning curve for everyone who learned to drive elsewhere.
« Last Edit: April 14, 2021, 08:20:25 AM by Just Joe »

FIRE Artist

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Re: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?
« Reply #13 on: April 14, 2021, 07:47:04 AM »
You could hire a driving school for a couple of hours of "re-training" if you like, I am sure they would jump at the business and they provide the car and supervision, and you get some decent feedback on your skills. 

Dancin'Dog

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Re: How do you maintain your driving skills when you don't have a car?
« Reply #14 on: April 14, 2021, 10:26:23 AM »
Mario Carts!  ;)

 

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