Transport Page

It's intimidating it can be for young drivers to get in the driver's seat of a car for the first time ever. I should know, I was in that position not too long ago. I remember, it was the day I turned 16 that everyone started getting on my case about learning how to drive to "relieve my parents of the burden". Unlike my peers, I was reluctant to even begin to learn, anticipating certain and immediate failure the moment I got behind a wheel, and I can't say that my friends' comments of "Oh my God, stay off the roads!" helped my confidence very much either.

So after dilly-dallying about for almost half a year, I finally decided to get my act together. First order of the day, look for driving schools in my area and pick one. Easier said than done. The internet provided a plethora of driving schools to pick from - The Western Suburbs Driving School, Defensive Driving Academy, Barrie's Driving Academy... Being so spoiled for choice and not having a clue as to their reputations (or a friend's reference to go by), I randomly selected one from the list and called up.

The lesson was scheduled for the next week, and I was nervous as hell. He came, I got in the car, I had a lesson. To call it unnerving is to make the understatement of the year. It was terrifying, heart-stopping, nail-biting...and all I was doing was learning how to move off from a stationary park. Back in the safety of my home, I decided that it would be best to learn how to drive an auto car (which I had just had a lesson in) as opposed to a manual one. If I had problems with an auto, how much worse would I be when I had to worry about changing gears and the clutch and all that jazz?

I was prepared for my next week's lesson. I was relaxed and thinking positively, telling myself that I could do it, that I could drive the car, when I got a phone call. It was my driving instructor telling me he couldn't make the lesson today. Why?

His car was stuck in the middle of a lake that he drove it into on the weekend.

AND THIS MAN WAS TEACHING ME HOW TO DRIVE?!

Needless to say, I terminated his services and went back to the massive list of driving schools on the internet again, all the while wondering whether the insurance group he was with covered cars going into large bodies of water. As I sifted through the list of driving schools I hoped that I wouldn't choose a washout instructor like I had just had.

I finally found one who sounded alright. "Barrie's Driving Academy" - nothing fancy. Turns out "Barrie" was an old Irish ex-engineer who spent half the lessons telling me about how the car worked. Aside from his multiple digressions into physics, he was an excellent instructor who even managed to calm me down when I started fretting on the road (which happened almost every lesson).

All thanks to him, I passed my driving practical first time around and now have my full licence. In all honesty, I hate to think where I'd be if I had stuck with that first guy.