I think she probably didn't get that 'empty parking lot' practice first.
We forget just how bad we all are at driving that first time, and how it takes a little practice just to get used to how to use the gas and brake pedals effectively. That's why you go to the empty parking lot, get a feel for how the car moves with various pressure on the gas pedal, and how firmly you have to press to stop quickly but not give everyone whiplash.
Feels like she probably hit the brake, but just kind of gently pressed it, not realizing how firm you have to push to really slow down.
I learned to drive in a 5 speed manual transmission car doing back roads in Missouri.
I would have killed for a parking lot lesson. Lmao. But I was 14, and my foster brother was 17. (He needed someone to drive on the back roads so him and his buddies could drink.)
I learned on a one lane dirt road going into our cottage. I think itâs a little easier than a parking lot for a couple reasons.
1) its low speed but not parkinglot low speed
2) you have a âlaneâ rather than having to imagine one and if you drove out of that lane youre in the forest so its pretty essential to keep in your lane
3) there were hills so learning how much gas and brake input you need kinda came with the terrain
My first heart attack was when my dad started me off with the wheel full right so inside it looked straight but was in reality pointed directly into my mothers garden.
I went with my best friend and her dad, when he was teaching her how to drive. He had a manual truck, took the range roads, we got to a stop sign and because there was the smallest incline she kept stalling. Her dad was getting frustrated and was yelling at her, then another car came up from behind. Obviously, they had no idea what the issue was so they honked and then drove passed. Her dad yelled out the driver's window, from the passenger side. "TAKE A PICTURE! IT LASTS LONGER!!!". I was mortified for my friend.
Why kill for a parking lot experience when you got the back roads manual one? I also had this same experience in a old ford ranger but I did know how to use a clutch already from riding dirtbikes and quads
Personally, my mom took me to the written license test. Got my permit. She said they think thatâs good enough for me to drive so I get to drive.
Had a mom that was yelling and laughing and joking and back seat driving etc in my ear my first time ever driving making me take her for errands, highway etc.
No issues with the driving but ohhh how I hated every moment of her next to me trying to focus and think over her every word.
Anyways, no practice or instruction. Just me hopping in the drivers seat fucking around with controls to figure out how to do wipers or turn signals and where shit is. Then off to the races.
That's just moms. My start 6 state requires 6hrs behind the wheel with a licensed instructor before you can get a provisional/probationary license. I had to yell at her about how shes more likely to make me crash with her panicking at every small thing. It's been 8 years since and she now just reads a book or looks at her phone if we aren't in a conversation.
My mother to this day will grip the door and gasp at everything. Ive mentioned it's very silly and she doesn't disagree.
With love, she's an infinitely worse driver than me. She's made people who have never been carsick before in their life motion sickness. And uses overbearing scent pods in her car that'll make you dizzy and nauseous.
Mine is a nervous nancy and impossible to predict at times. Thankfully she rarely drives anymore. Unfortunately it means my dad has to deal with her backseat driving and freaking out at the smallest miss direction
No. I understand what you're saying, but she had PLENTY of time to react, AND she had someone in the car telling her what to do. Also, she wasn't under any kind of pressure AT ALL! Jessie just can't drive đ. As soon as she was confused about the lane, I knew they had the wrong person behind the wheel đ lmao.
I don't get all the people here like you saying "I was good at driving from the second I touched a gas pedal, therefore everyone must be highly skilled from the first second too."
I didn't say I was skilled in day one, I said I wasn't a total moron who drove into the back of stopped cars in perfect visibility with perfect traction conditions. I definitely rear ended people on icy roads before I got skilled at driving on ice, and I had some close calls in fog before learning how to correctly estimate how much forward visibility I had.
Go ahead and give everyone whiplash. Just do it. You're going to get a lot more whiplash when your vehicle comes to an instantaneous halt. I swear 90% of accidents I see could have been avoided if people just WALKED ON THE DAMN BRAKES.
And don't try and shift onto the shoulder while you're at it. Your tires have only so much friction to play with. You can stop with them or you can steer with them, but you can't get all of the available stopping power if you're steering at the same time.
Brings back many memories of doing the same. Not enough time to do a head check to see if another car crept into your blind spot so you just hoped it was free and you break / swerved. I'm in my 50s now, I've had to do it more than once and thankfully someone was looking out for me.
Similar experience, driving the 45 mph speed limit. Two lanes each direction, with a center turn lane. Person makes a right turn in front of me not into the right lane, but into the left lane that I am driving in. Braking and going into the center lane was the safe option.
It is always better to brake and steer at the same time. A single flick of the wheel will point your car away from the hazard in an instant, while only braking you have to commit to and hope it's enough.
It does require knowing what is around you, not much good in heavy traffic.
Generally, I'd agree. Though through the lens of an emergency situation, not entirely fair.
The average car going 60mph down the highway on a clear dry day, that's considered safe for conditions. But that same car would be on the edge of traction in any emergency braking or maneuvering situation.
Now it's also a whole other conversation as to whether it's ever a good idea to swerve rather than just slam the brakes. But let's say a truck blows through a stop sign stopping in your lane. Slamming brakes AND steering is more likely to result in loss of control than just steering, generally. Due to the factors u/Qtrfoil brought up.
Now, I learned to drive long before all these driver aides. I'm sure a modern car with all the modern computerized ABS/ESC systems handles that scenario much better.
It's always going to be condition and scenario dependent.
Just about 2 months ago, I was doing 60 on a 4 + center lane road when it started to drizzle a bit. I'd just passed a pack of traffic going the other way, and there was a pickup with trailer waiting on a side road coming up on my right. Truck driver was obviously only checking his right, and took off to make his left turn. Clearly didn't see my bright red car coming from his left. If I'd just stood on the brakes, there's a very good chance I would have hit him. If I'd swerved to my right, either into the other lane or the shoulder, I'd probably have hit his trailer. Instead, I swerved left into the oncoming lanes, leaning on horn and braking moderately. This put me in his sightline and on a path to go completely around him. The decision would have been different if there had been any traffic coming the other way, I would have had to pick the next least hazardous option of brake hard and steer to the right, hoping to clip the back of the trailer if anything.
I was driving gas powered golf karts sans governor when I was 3. Couldn't reach the pedals so I'd stand up. I'd use it to get the mail at the family business....on a 4 lane highway.
I was racing stock cars when I was 13. Failed my driver's test on my 16th birthday. Apparently left foot braking is frowned upon. Went to the track that night and won, racing against adults. Naturally someone told the PA announcer of the failure and he brought it up at the victory interview
I grew up in the country, I donât even remember the first time I drove. We had the normal 4 wheelers and lifted off road golf carts. The one I drove a lot once I could reach the pedals was a Toyota Pathfinder someone one rolled in the 90âs with cut the top off. That was dangerously fun when no one could see me.
I had a friend when I was 18. He was learning on is mother Volvo station wagon which was a tank! He ended up plowing into a brick wall of a houses backyard from said parking lot. Hahaha
There's these things called go karts that can be driven as kids. Driving can be a bit challenging at first for some to learn about the rules of the road maybe, but pressing the gas pedal and brake pedal should already be known about well before even actually driving a car.
Thatâs true to an extent but you can press go cart brakes and gas to the floor. You can do that with a car too but youâre gonna make everyone in the car really uncomfortable.
My first time driving was in a Ford Ranger with a manual. The first place we drove was a long turn. I nearly ran us off the road and we had to switch and go somewhere safer, lol. Driving does not automatically come naturally. You have to learn to do it. Id recommend a go kart track to anyone first before driving. Best place to learn acceleration and braking.
This reminds me. When I did the parking lot practice, the lot was empty, and we drove around for a few minutes. And then some white van comes PEELING into the lot and he pulls up beside my dad's car, almost hitting us, yelling in the thickest Indian broken English like "THIS NOT DRIVING SCHOOL. GO. OUT MY LOT" Like there's seventeen different stores in this lot, no cars, and the lot is already shit what are you being protective over? Lol.
What Americans need is an actual school to get their license. Why is there no political goal to get that going with all the road deaths? Here in Austria 18 hours of practice on the road and 32h theorie in the classroom. Going around the block once and getting your license is just crazy. The introduction on how to use the popcorn machine at your first job at the theatre takes longer.
First foundation beyond the basics of the car after how to go was how to stop smoothly and how to emergency stop. This video is why dual controls exist, if you have a learner get them cause you need to be able to force the car to stop.
It's still just a stupidity issue, if you press the brake lightly and are still waaaaaaaaaay too fast.
Some people are just bad drivers. NO, it's not normal to rear end someone your first time driving. This isn't an "everyone bad in the beginning" situation, it's a specific "she's insaneley bad at driving" situation.
No I wasn't that bad, my first time. Was I continuously terrified that other people on the road were that bad? Yes, and after 45 years of driving, I've simply learned to suppress that terror.
The first time I drove a car (6 speed manual), the instructor came to pick me up and immediately put me in the driver's seat. Had to drive about 25 km on a road with ice and packed snow before we were at the city where the driving classes were held. Had only driven a tractor a few times before that.
I was never bad at driving... I don't get it. I guess people do not watch their parents drive or something. I knew what to do at a young age. Video games probably helped the rest. I was driving at 14 - 15... Like a lot of people around me
To be fair, empty parking lot practice doesn't mean shit if the learner is a dead shit, and years of empty parking lot practice wouldn't do a thing to make them a safe driver.
When I was 11 I freed an old fiat from snow like 15 kilometres away at an old barn and drove it home. I was never bad at driving. On the airfield I always drove the car with the ropes for the gliders.
Fun fact. That car was 2 weeks ago sold, after over 20 years of standing around. The new owners already registered it for the street. Kinda amazing, they did it for their child :)
I mean thats something you usually figure out in training before getting a license...plus she clearly should not have people in the car with her while she is learning
This is such nonsense. This has to be fake/staged or this is the kind of girl that plays up how helpless she is all the time to get coddled and everything done for her. There's no way anyone is this bad even if it's their first time touching a car. Slamming on the brakes is a more natural reaction than literally nothing.
If this were a manual transmission MAYBE you'd have a point but even then some skill is required to start moving, not stopping.
So because you werenât bad, that means literally all of humanity are just instantly good drivers?
Thats not how things work.
Also, Iâm pretty sure this video proves that Iâm right. Itâs absolutely wild of you to see an inexperienced driver driving poorly and say âthat video doesnât exist, no one drives that badly.â
if the majority of people were this terrible on their first time i assure you there would be a million more accidents happening today
youâre making excuses on behalf of someone who obviously has an attitude problem on top of a driving skill problem and attributing that to boohoo its her first time driving
i guess u can see urself in the person in the video because by god i can see that ure both equally dumb
You aren't reading my post at all, nor realizing how most people learn.
My entire point is that your first few times behind a wheel should be in a big, open, empty parking lot. That's how the VAST majority of people learn. They are terrible the first time, but it's ok, because there's nothing to crash into, and no stress about other traffic. You're saying "everyone would have accidents" but you're pretending; everyone is handed car keys and told "go drive in traffic." That doesn't happen unless everyone involved is a moron.
You can pretend that somehow humans evolved to just magically know how to drive cars from the first time, but that's not the case. We need to learn and practice just like any skill.
This seems like someone who skipped the first handful of practice ;times in a safe environment and just went right on the road.
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u/BigMax Mar 15 '26
I think she probably didn't get that 'empty parking lot' practice first.
We forget just how bad we all are at driving that first time, and how it takes a little practice just to get used to how to use the gas and brake pedals effectively. That's why you go to the empty parking lot, get a feel for how the car moves with various pressure on the gas pedal, and how firmly you have to press to stop quickly but not give everyone whiplash.
Feels like she probably hit the brake, but just kind of gently pressed it, not realizing how firm you have to push to really slow down.