To think that if you can't reverse, you shouldn't be driving?

[MoonlightKissed]

I live in a semi-rural area. To take my DD to school (not walkable, no school buses pass us) I drive through a single track country lane. It's not the kind of lane you go down if you don't know the area/road. It's quite long, about a mile, and bendy. There are passing places, but some of them are currently unusable as so wet - you'd end up stuck in deep mud.

This morning, I was driving through, and met a car coming the other way (regular thing). This car had a passing place about 5 yards behind them, whereas the nearest passing place behind me was about 50 yards, and would have involved reversing round several bends - I can do it, but it's not very safe if there's a better alternative. Other car spent ages refusing to reverse. I tend to just sit quietly, I don't get irate. Eventually they did reverse back to it - or at least, they attempted. And quite honestly, I was embarrassed for them! It was only a few yards, and all they needed to do was go back a bit, then in to the pull in by a couple of foot. It took ages, and involved being in the middle of the road, then hitting the bank. It was very clear they couldn't reverse at all. Eventually they got to a point where I could squeeze past, even though they were in the weirdest position.

There's another road I go on with passing places on a single track road, also on a hill just to make it even more exciting. This one is a very common cut through for cars - and the amount of reversing I've seen on this road that is creative is shocking. I've seen people zigzag from side to side of the road, hit the banks, mount the kerbs. There's been times I've been torn between crying with laughter, and other times I've been tempted to get out & offer to go & reverse their vehicle for them.

Surely if you drive on the roads, you ought to be able to reverse? Definitely if you're going on country lanes? It's not safe if you can't? I'm not expecting everyone to be able to reverse really complicated turns, but surely they ought to be able to go backwards in a straight line, perhaps pull in a bit to one side?

Pahaha! I decided to for a little drive down memory lane (literally) a few weeks ago, past the house I grew up in. Should've known really that the lane would be flooded. I ended up reversing half a mile in the dark with full ditches either side of me until I could find a gateway to turn round in. Haven't had my car long so it was a great way to get used to the weird, loose steering in reverse.

YABU, people who sit and wait for you to reverse, often looking on high from their 4x4s, are a pain in the ass.

What gets me is that reversing isnt even skilled. If you want to go left you steer bloody left. Why does that baffle so many people?

If you can find an empty car park which is large enough, doing tight figures of eight in reverse is good practice!

Op... I get you, 100%

The most dangerous places on earth are supermarket and school car parks.

People have barely any concept of control of vehicles, it’s frightening

I also wasn't taught to parallel park as there were no place to do it in my town.

There were no roads in your town?? What do you think parallel patking is??

Maybe driver was pregnant? From about 30+ weeks I couldn't reverse my bump was so huge. Once had to get out of the car and tell an angry man he'd beat reverse as I was going nowhere!

This ridiculing of inexperienced drivers is exactly why I didnt have the confidence to learn to drive till so late. Why are some drivers so impatient with other drivers’ safe but imperfect manoeuvres?

No I completely agree, when I first passed my test I was petrified of having to reverse, and I actively avoided it for the first few months but I think there comes a time when it’s only practical to reverse and you just crack on with it.

Learning how to get comfortable with it is something that we should be doing ourselves once we pass our tests.

Silver It's not the nervous driver that's the problem (and I say this as one myself), it's the drivers that won't even try that are the issue.

And - again as a relatively nervous driver - it's not on to be in control of a ton of dangerous metal if you can't overcome the anxiety to perform perfectly normal maneouvers.

Reversing back into a passing space on a country lane is not a particularly complicated thing to do, especially as if you're no good at turning in reverse you can reverse past the passing space and then pull forwards - that's what I do down a lane a use often because I can never remember which bits are safe and which are boggy until I can see them in front of me.

I do have sympathies with those who are nervous, or have not long passed - but I do think that if you cannot do what is actually a basic skill in driving, then you really do need to work on that, until you get better. As others have mentioned, shopping/industrial estates at night are brilliant for that.

I get that some people may have extenuating circumstances - but the sheer volume of people I meet who cannot or will not reverse, suggests otherwise. They cannot all have problems. In the event that someone did look particularly vulnerable, then I would happily reverse if it was safe to do so.

And I never get angry, or am unpleasant to people. I just sit quietly and wait. I think the most I have ever done was one particularly shocking occasion when it was so bad, I may have put my head on the steering wheel as I couldn't watch anymore. And no, on this occasion it was impossible for me to reverse - the other vehicle had to.

Someone asked why it's considered so difficult by some people. Having been a driving instructor, the answer is usually down to one of several things - oversteering (this causes the zigzagging), going too fast (I was always telling my students to do their manoeuvres slowly - if you go slowly you can see it start to go wrong and correct it before it actually does), lack of awareness of the dimensions of your vehicle (this one is usually just down to practice, and either just comes in time, or can be helped by a bit of time spent with cones in an empty car park to learn how big your vehicle is), and finally just nerves - I had a number of pupils back when I taught, who were fantastic drivers, until they were in test, or put under extreme pressure, and then it all went wrong - again, the answer there is usually just practice in a non-pressure environment, until you feel confident enough.

I do feel though, that another poster had a point - a vehicle is a serious thing, and we really should be able to use all it's basic functions - which does include reversing.

I drive a lot in rural tourist spots with people driving hired motor homes. So you've got people in vehicles far larger than they're used to, driving on the wrong side of the road than they're used to on single track roads, which they've never driven on. It's a fucking nightmare. I see one approaching and know fine well it's me reversing regardless of who is nearest to the passing place. Sometimes I just sit and blink for a while just to be mean, I know I'll end up reversing but I like a wee Mexican stand off just to make my point.

nomore, can I have your dad's number? grin

He's brilliant, most patient man in the world, also the most helpful man in the world, if you lived near us he would indeed probably offer to teach you, he's taught as least half a dozen unrelated kids how to ride their bikes!

Poor reversing is among the least of concerns about the state of driving generally.
"Nipping" through red at traffic lights, speeding esp in poor conditions, parking on pavements and blocking them to prams etc, texting, close-passing cyclists, not respecting the 'bike box' at traffic lights, seeing everything as a selfish competition.

Poor reversing skills and confidence? Nah.

And why are folks going to Mexico for a stand off?

I drive an old car and reversing is a doddle. I find manoeuvring much more difficult in newer cars because visibility is rubbish - a necessary side effect of increased safety measures like thicker pillars.

I'm used to manoeuvring my vehicle through large windows, not the tiny portholes in the modern cars I've driven.

I live rurally and reverse cautiously,what a I can't do easily is reverse uphill(cant turn around and keep good clutch control)
I'm not talking short reverse where mirrors are adequate but the long haul round several sharp bends type that lorry's seem to think you can do.
Also 4x4drivers, it's muddy at the moment so I'll reverse so that they can get into the passing place(that I would be stuck in)and the looks and attitude of some.The local farmers that know I use this lane are fine.

I am actually quite surprised that so many people on the thread is defending not being able to reverse! surely it's ( a significant )part of driving and not being in the test is irrelevant, do people seriously think they will never end up in a situation where they need to reverse?

I get the fact that nerves can play a part but I would seriously suggest to practice, perhaps with a friend or partner or parent until they feel a bit more confident

I was in the Lake District last week driving down a hilly single lane. Came face to face with a woman in a Fiesta who didn't seem to understand that if she squeezed over on a wider part of the road, with me doing the same, we could get past each other without too much trouble. She just stopped dead in the middle of the road and looked terrified.

I ended up having to reverse for ages, she was very grateful but ffs I was in my crossover car but I also saw a lorry and a tractor on that road, god knows how she coped with them!

There’s a back lane near us that I have to use from time to time. The pull in is about 200 yards from the main road. Met an elderly couple in a shiny little SUV who just sat there expecting me to reverse. The pull in must have been about 20 yards behind them. The elderly bit is relevant - the lady driving was so tiny she could hardly see over the steering wheel. I didn’t realise this till I’d got a bit closer.

I wish I’d just reversed all the way to the main road. It was excruciating watching her trying to reverse this car. In the end I drove through a bank of nettles and brambles into an overgrown field entrance - I’ve got a 4x4 - so she could drive past me, I couldn’t let her go any further. Probably scratched my car to shit but it was preferable to watching her trying to reverse.

I once met another couple down there who kept gesturing at me to pull over so they could pass. I know I’ve got a 4x4 but it can only go off road, it can’t jump three foot deep water filled ditches. Twats.

Speaking of that, it’s amazing the amount of people who do think your 4x4 can swim or fly and expect you to magically get out of their way, whether it’s a grass bank, ditch or ploughed field. It really can’t, it is still just a car, not a bloody tractor.

MsAdorabelle yet the 4x4s I was meeting on this bloody road wouldn't pull into a tarmac pull in as it had mud on it!

But if they can't even reverse into a passing place how do they get in/out of parking spots, driveways etc?!

I hear you. I used to live in a block of flats with quite a narrow drive and a silly cow had parked blocking it so that even I, in my tiny city car, couldn’t squeeze past. When I asked her to reverse back to the parking area so I could get in she just looked panicked and said “but I can’t reverse that far!” in a silly little girl voice. Not even “I can’t reverse”, “I can’t reverse that far” - what the fuck?

I had this recently! I am an awesome reverser, through practice, so usually capitulate as it's quicker for everyone. But on this occasion I could see his passing space and I knew mine was quite a way back round a corner. He (early 60s, 5 door sedan) motions for me to reverse. I point to the space behind him and wait. Oh my goodness! 3 x he tried. 3 x he got out and looked at what he was doing / had done. I refused to pull past him because he was at such an angle and the banks were steep and covered in brambles and just why should I risk it (I absolutely know how wide my car is). He eventually pulled into the gap straighter and I politely thanked him and went past. How did he get to his age and not be able to reverse a normal car?? I reversed our removal van onto our driveway because DH can only reverse by looking out of the back. I used the wing mirrors

To the poster saying they couldn't reverse after being 30 weeks pregnant. I literally do not understand how being pregnant affects ones ability to look in your rear view or wing mirrors?

Oh, the inability of some people to reverse a car drives me nuts. Our drive is really easy to drive down (we had a concrete mixer reverse down it one), but my MIL & PIL just cannot reverse down it. They now park on the main road outside as the twice they drove in forwards the first time they pranged their car reversing up the drive and the second time they did a 20 point turn and nearly ended up embedded in the lawn!