driving? driving! (take 5)
May. 19th, 2014 06:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hermionesviolinYesterday, FCS-Ian and I went driving again.
Early on, I did the thing I seem to do once every lesson where I hit the accelerator instead of the brake. I am trying to train myself to have my foot hovering over the brake, so that in case of panic I won't hit the accelerator, but partly I just don't have the muscle memory of. FCS-Ian said it's good that I don't double-down -- that when I panic my instinct is to take my foot off the accelerator rather than press it down harder. I said yes my instinct is to pull away from the thing I did wrong, though I don't necessarily have the brain to actually do the correct thing (like I'll try to sort of turn because I am blanking on where the brake pedal is so that's the best I can do ... which is not the worst response, but also certainly not optimal).
We started in Mount Auburn Cemetery again -- which has green median lines, apparently. (I hadn't realized until I looked at the tag that I literally haven't been driving since January. Oh, this semester.)
The narrowness of the lanes didn't bother me too much, but I still don't have a great spatial sense, so passing people (and cars, and cetera) made me nervous. But I got lots of practice with "distractions" (as FCS-Ian termed them) as there were lots of people out and about in the nice weather (with mobility aids, children, etc.).
Then we went on side streets -- and I did lots of basically driving in the center of the road, because streets where when cars are parked on both sides of the road you have space for one car and a bicycle. (Biking home after Joe Z's installation later that day, I realized that while my sense of how much space my vehicle is taking up is better on a bicycle than in a car, I also tend to allow more berth than strictly necessary when biking because I'm overestimating how much space I'm taking up. I don't think this is so much socialized female to not take up space as it is that I just don't have a lot of spatial sense -- and skills develop with repetition over time and in the meantime I remain risk-averse.)
We did one round of backing out of a parking space back into the road -- ugh, reversing;. wheel-positioning is so non-intuitive.
We briefly drove on an actual road -- where the lane felt really wide, and I wasn't actually looking in my mirrors (which is totally bad, I know) so the vehicle who was on my tail (and starting to attempt to pass me on my right -- because I was going slower than that driver wanted) didn't make me nervous. We took the next right off the road and did a loop around to come back and this time there wasn't any traffic behind me and I could practice looking in my mirrors except I looked in my driver's side mirror and started drifting to the left (yes, I know I'm supposed to stay to the right 'cause I'm slow-moving traffic) -- 'cause just glancing in the mirrors is a skill still yet to develop; I do it on my bike, but I also know that many times on my bike I look in my mirror for an extended period of time because I can get away with it.
FCS-Ian drove me to Joe Z's installation (because it included what he called the worst intersection in the world) and had me look in the rearview mirror during the drive so I could get a sense for what it looks like when normal traffic is behind you (unsurprising: traffic looks close enough that I feel a little nervous, though on the up-side I don't feel hugely nervous).
Early on, I did the thing I seem to do once every lesson where I hit the accelerator instead of the brake. I am trying to train myself to have my foot hovering over the brake, so that in case of panic I won't hit the accelerator, but partly I just don't have the muscle memory of. FCS-Ian said it's good that I don't double-down -- that when I panic my instinct is to take my foot off the accelerator rather than press it down harder. I said yes my instinct is to pull away from the thing I did wrong, though I don't necessarily have the brain to actually do the correct thing (like I'll try to sort of turn because I am blanking on where the brake pedal is so that's the best I can do ... which is not the worst response, but also certainly not optimal).
We started in Mount Auburn Cemetery again -- which has green median lines, apparently. (I hadn't realized until I looked at the tag that I literally haven't been driving since January. Oh, this semester.)
The narrowness of the lanes didn't bother me too much, but I still don't have a great spatial sense, so passing people (and cars, and cetera) made me nervous. But I got lots of practice with "distractions" (as FCS-Ian termed them) as there were lots of people out and about in the nice weather (with mobility aids, children, etc.).
Then we went on side streets -- and I did lots of basically driving in the center of the road, because streets where when cars are parked on both sides of the road you have space for one car and a bicycle. (Biking home after Joe Z's installation later that day, I realized that while my sense of how much space my vehicle is taking up is better on a bicycle than in a car, I also tend to allow more berth than strictly necessary when biking because I'm overestimating how much space I'm taking up. I don't think this is so much socialized female to not take up space as it is that I just don't have a lot of spatial sense -- and skills develop with repetition over time and in the meantime I remain risk-averse.)
We did one round of backing out of a parking space back into the road -- ugh, reversing;. wheel-positioning is so non-intuitive.
We briefly drove on an actual road -- where the lane felt really wide, and I wasn't actually looking in my mirrors (which is totally bad, I know) so the vehicle who was on my tail (and starting to attempt to pass me on my right -- because I was going slower than that driver wanted) didn't make me nervous. We took the next right off the road and did a loop around to come back and this time there wasn't any traffic behind me and I could practice looking in my mirrors except I looked in my driver's side mirror and started drifting to the left (yes, I know I'm supposed to stay to the right 'cause I'm slow-moving traffic) -- 'cause just glancing in the mirrors is a skill still yet to develop; I do it on my bike, but I also know that many times on my bike I look in my mirror for an extended period of time because I can get away with it.
FCS-Ian drove me to Joe Z's installation (because it included what he called the worst intersection in the world) and had me look in the rearview mirror during the drive so I could get a sense for what it looks like when normal traffic is behind you (unsurprising: traffic looks close enough that I feel a little nervous, though on the up-side I don't feel hugely nervous).