Your Driver's Ed Stories!

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

My dad taught me to drive manual before I took Driver's Ed in high school. When I did finally take it, the teacher happened to be the football coach whom I'd garnered some animosity from (why I've no clue) and despite his attitude, I aced the class. I never had problems driving and remained accident free until I was 26 when I was rear-ended and then plowed into (two separate accidents) a few months later by a person who ran off and reported the car stolen 1 hour after the accident and had no valid insurance.
No accident to date has ever been my fault, and I've only ever had minor tickets for forgetting to re-register my car. Also funny story, an ex-girlfriend tried to foist an accident off on me where she'd got very drunk and plowed through two mailboxes in a hit-and-run and then later told the cops who came knocking on her door that I'd been driving (we were broken up at this point and I no longer lived in the same state). Apparently she had a spare Drivers license of mine and gave it to the cops who later sent a local highway patrol to my house and I explained, along with my parents, that at the time of the accident I was there at my parents house, 5 states away from where the accident occurred. As far as I'm aware she went to jail for a bit for that... Hilarious.

 

[Mezahmay]

The one I remember best from Driver's Ed was my second on-road lesson with my instructor Paul. We were driving along some narrow road that bordered a lake and Afterlife by Avenged Sevenfold came on the radio. We heckled it for a while and we started talking about metal music and other music we liked until the lesson was over.

There was also the first time I was behind the wheel of my mom's SUV and I managed to vastly underestimate a turn and get stuck on a hill on a narrow road around a curve. We were very fortunate to not get hit for the few minutes it took to get the vehicle back on the road properly.

 

[Rabbitboy]

I once almost ran over an old man. And on my second practice exam attempt I almost crashed into a freight truck while driving on the highway at 100 km/h. When the examinator needs to pull the wheel you know you fucked up. From beginning to end it took me about 18 months to get my driverslicense. I consider myself fortunate enough that my grandparents payed for my parents lessons so that in turn they felt obligated to pay for mine.

 

[NeutralDrow]

My lead-up to getting a driver's license involved three driver training lessons, with a large gap between the second and third (intended to give a learner about six months to practice). On my third lesson, which took place much longer than six months afterward, it was a practice test...which the instructor told me I failed. Then she admitted that they were supposed to deliberately fail learners (even if they'd otherwise done fine) so they would be shocked into paying more careful attention on their actual driver test.

No one was more shocked than me, because I'd actually taken and passed my driver test the previous day. My parents and I just figured "hey, we paid for three lessons, may as well use them all." The teacher was caught just as off-guard as I was.

 

[Gizmo1990]

I went out with my teacher for an hour before my test and I was fine. I was not nervous, I was carm and confident. I met the guy who was going to test me and I was still carm and confident. Then I started the ignition and everything went to hell.

I was beyond nervous. I was sweating through my shirt and then it got even worse. In the UK test you are asked to do two maneuvers and I was asked to do the one I was worst at, that my teacher had promised me I would probebly not have to do as only 1 in 8 are asked to do it. I had to parallel park.

I managed to do it but there was less then a hairs gap between a parked cars mirror and the training cars door at one point. I was sure I had failed. When I got back to the center I was told that I had 14 faults and I have never been more happy in my entire life. To put that into context for non UK drivers, in your test you can have upto 14 minor faults and still pass.

My instructor said that it was close but he was letting me pass because the place he asked me to do the parallel park was abit small and the pavement was covered in leaves so it was hard to see where the road eneded and the pavement started. He also said he was giving my the benifit of the doubt a little as I was obviously very nervous. The other reason, which he did not say but I am sure had a hand in it, was that he was a friend of my teacher and he knew that my teacher would never have told me to take the test if I was not ready.

Still went better than my sister tho. She has... issues with anger when driving. The first time she took her test (first of 5) her response to a driver pulling in front of her on a dual carriageway without indicating was to slam her hand on the horn, wind down the window and give him the finger.

She is currently staying with me and I don't let her drive. For the good of all England.

 

[JMac85]

I waited until I was 18 to get my license so I wouldn't have to bother with driver's ed. I read the brochure, got maybe like an hour of practice just to get used to how much pressure I needed to put on the accelerator to maintain the speed limit, and managed to pass the test on my first try. The only mark I got off was because I rolled my bumper past a stop sign a bit before coming to a complete stop. Of course I fucking had to, there was a bush blocking my view of oncoming traffic to the left and I couldn't see way back where the sign was.