Dyspraxic Adults

Does anyone have any tips or tricks for judging where you are on the road or your distance from the kerb?

I failed my test today and one of many issues I have is my judgement of road position. I feel like i'm steering in a perfectly straight line and am giving plenty of room to cars but i'm clearly not (this got me a serious fault today and i'm really embarrassed about it) and I tend to drift to the left.

Even when my instructor asks me to pull up on the side of the road, i feel like i'm a close enough distance but I never am.

I find it really hard to judge and it is driving me mad.

bookish wrote:Does anyone have any tips or tricks for judging where you are on the road or your distance from the kerb?

I failed my test today and one of many issues I have is my judgement of road position. I feel like i'm steering in a perfectly straight line and am giving plenty of room to cars but i'm clearly not (this got me a serious fault today and i'm really embarrassed about it) and I tend to drift to the left.

Even when my instructor asks me to pull up on the side of the road, i feel like i'm a close enough distance but I never am.

I find it really hard to judge and it is driving me mad.

I passed my driving test in 1984, so I don't know if I can offer much help even if I can remember having some issues with distance.

As you probably know, we dyspraxics tend to benefit from extensive repetition of tasks
until the skills become internalized.

Do you have a friend or family member who is willing to help you with your driving? What they could do is take you out in a car at a very quiet time on very quiet roads.

They could park the car in various positions on the road. At each position parked, you could get you could get out of the car and look where it is. Then get into the driver's seat and look in both door mirrors to see how it looks from that perspective.

And if you don't have a friend or family member who can do this, perhaps you could ask your driving instructor to do this.

I hope what I have said makes sense and that I haven't just blurted out the blindingly obvious.

Hi Bookish,
Has your instructor helped you find a "reference point" on your windscreen / bonnet area that lines up with the kerb? If not, I suggest that you ask them to do so.
I've been driving for 40 years now, but do still sometimes find this hard. On my current car (a Skoda Fabia) if the kerb lines up with the gap between the windscreen wipers I'm about the correct distance away from it for parking. All cars are different of course and also drivers come in all shapes and sizes, which is why I suggest you get your instructor's help.
Good luck

Hi Bookish,
I failed my driving test two times for the same reason as yours. Once while reversing and the other time while driving in the road. My instructor always said I drive too much to the left, when I found it quite alright. So at my driving test I failed for the same reason. According to my senses I was always keeping my distance from the left line and other vehicles, but it never had been. I backed off from driving for a while. I hope you and I can find a way around it one day. Let's be a help to each other.