To think these driving instructors were teaching students wrong?

[HerNeighbourTotoro]

I live near a road that is one of the routes popular with driving instructors.
The other day I was driving behind an L car (instructor and a student) and I wonder why he would teach a student to rive like this- or am I wrong?

The road is in many places wide enough for two cars driving from opposite directions to pass each other, but most of the time there is not a lot of traffic so you can comfortably drive in the middle'ish. There are cars parked on both sides, and on occasions if another car comes from the opposite direction there is plenty of space to pull up to the side to let them pass and then continue.

The L in front of me was however driving into every single bigger gap. There were no cars coming from the opposite direction (they are the red line on the diagram, except the road is long so there were loads of these). The first time I thought they were parking but didnt have the indicator on, but then they pulled out in front of me, they kept on doing that the whole length of the road, slowing down each time and then driving to the end of the 'gap' and pulling out. Also driving between 5-10 mph.

Scenario B:
Driving behind another L, with one other car behind me. Every time a car would come from the opposite direction the L would instantly pull up to make room for the upcoming car... except that there were two cars behind them- me and the person behind me, with often nowhere to go. I was always taught to assess, if there is a 'single' car coming from the opposite direction and 1 or more from the other, then whichever side had fewer cars tries to make space for the side that has more cars on their side- obviously depending on the room you and they have (so if we have 2 cars and loads of space and the other car doesnt, we make room, etc). This L was however pulling into tiny gaps every time a car appeared on the horizon, even though they had two cars behind, and the one car coming from the opposite direction had much more space on their side, leaving me and the guy behind me puzzled and either hoping that the oncoming car would clock in and make room for us or everyone getting stuck if they were too close and then trying to reverse into another gap. After 4th time (!) when the L pulled up I just drove by, the guy behind me followed, so we left the L behind, the oncoming car made room for us without problems and we continued our journey without the L blocking us. I just wondered if this is something that is being taught to learners here?

A - why would you drive down the middle of the road and not keep left?

B - why are you driving that close that you couldn't pull in before a parked car?

I think the learner and I structure are correct and that you aren't.

Teaching good habits as so many drivers do not look a head and anticipate what is going to happen or even to keep to the left hand side.

Plus I think the requirements have changed. My mate is an ex police driver, his son is learning and he took him out. Son drove through pot holes rather than around he said he was told to do this as it's dangerous to go around on the other side of the road

Surely they were pulling in to let you pass?

You are correct - your driving is much more situationally aware and uses the context to determine what to do... learners are probably not at your level yet - I would certainly expect the first to be corrected, every time you move away from directly ahead is a hazard, so they are introducing hazards... I wouldn't necessarily expect the learner in the second situation to drive as you suggest as a learner - so you probably need to compensate - I would simply give more space behind them...

I can't tell if you mean they were pulling into every little rocky passing place (incorrect) or pulling left every time the road was wide enough to do so (correct). Presumably the driving instructor was taking them down this road to teach them; if they were going at 5-10mph, it must be very early in their set of lessons. I highly doubt any instructor would just tell a learner to purposely drive incorrectly.

Don't forget that learners are learning to pass the test. Actually learning to drive, read the roads/situations etc happens after you have your licence.

There are layers of learning. You master the basics and then work your way up. A good teacher doesn't do all the layers at once. You don't know anything about what level these learners were at. No need to be so judgy, just let them get on with it.

For example my DD's instructor started her out driving extremely slowly. You've just done the equivalent of criticising her teacher for not teaching her to drive at 30 from day 1. It's a process and teachers are trained to break it down into steps. I'm fine with learners internalising sticking to the right side of the road as a default, before they learn where they can safely flex that.

You cant keep left all the time because of parked cars, there is no 'left' as such. It's a wide road with cars parked on bots sides unless there is a dropped curb/driveway. If you kept left, cars coming from the opposite direction still would not be able to pass through unless someone pulls to the side.

I think it's important to learn correct driving, rather than incorrect and then having to reteach/unlearn the wrong habits. I had a crap driving instructor when I first started learning and the amount of bad habits he taught me was so bad, it took me months to stop doing certain things.

When I teach, I dont teach wrong grammar let's say, just because it's complex.

I get that, but I also remember my instructor tell me what to pay attention to, not to pull aside very time I saw a car miles ahead. Quite early on with this instructor I did what the second driver did and he immediately told me that I had three cars behind which would have nowhere to pull up and if I thought what would have happened next and I remember this until now. It was much more useful than continuing making the mistakes.

In each of the 'gaps' there is maybe space enough for 2-3 cars, it's not a long stretch of the road, usually because there is a driveway or a dropped curb. I didnt maybe explain it properly.

No, A was pulling in and pulling out without using indicator but also without stiopping in the gaps, it was impossible to pass by unless I'd majorly sped up (which I didnt want to do as their driving was a bit unpredictable). B was clearly giving way to the cars from the opposite direction without thinking the cars had somewhere to pull up on their side, while the two cars behind them didnt.

They ste teaching correct road positioning and also awareness of where their car is. You'd be very annoyed if a driver drove into your parked car as they didn't know how to manouver their car around it.

I just passed my test in February and my instructor never taught me to drive like the first example.
He would have told me to keep going if the road ahead was clear.

I'm not sure about the second example though.

So in option B you were taught to ignore the right of way?

option a sounds like they were practicing pulling into the side of the road, one of the lessons they teach you early on.

I don’t know how long ago you learnt, I did my test 12 years ago and trailer test 5 years ago and would expect to be taught how these drivers were. Not saying that’s how I drive now of course.

I think the first example is just learning some precision steering - learning the skill of pulling into gaps to allow cars to pass. I don’t think the instructor was training them to drive like that all the time.

They are teaching them to the test, not for actual driving. Although in the first example they may have just been practicing.

I think if you are behind a learner you leave an extra bug gap to accommodate their lack of experience rather than drive drive so close you need them to anticipate a gap big enough for you as well.

I know it is hard to believe , OP. But you might not be the best driver in the world, or have the most up to date knowledge of current driving best practice.

The driving instructor is teaching the student how to pass a current driving test.

But they werent teaching them to pull up, they were driving in and out of the gaps only slowing down a bit. That's wh yI was confused. I assumed they were pulling into the side road and thought Id pass them by, instead they pulled out and kept on driving. They did that 10 times in a row.

Option B to me it seemed the student probably panicked seeing a car and wanted to do a nice deed to the upcoming car, but the instructor should have told them that there were cars behind. They stopped us 4 times to give way to a car which would not be able to pass because there was still me and another car behind.

I dont think I am the best driver in the world and nowhere did I state it, but Id consier myself sensible. I also had really bad instructors who taught me incorrect driving (one having told me to drive in first gear for long periods of time although we were almost at 20mph!) and it took weeks/months to unlearn. Hard to believe, some instructors are crap, just like any other profession.
Do you think the examples I gave showed the students were taught correctly?

On the side we were driving there were very few gaps to pull up (one every 8 or so parkes cars). The other side had a few bigger driveways, so more space. I would have to keep 50-80 meter distance between me and them at all times to anticipate potential need to pull up, not very practical. Do you do this often yourself?

This is one of those threads.

OP if you are so sure that you are correct and the driving instructors wrong, why have you bothered asking for opinions?