Driving With Dyspraxia: Problems After Your Test

[jl151080]

Hi all,

I finally passed my test last year after finding a great instructor who was familiar with the problems of dyspraxia.

However, I still have problems due to spatial awareness, such as judging whether there is enough room when there are parked cars on your side of the road and oncoming traffic.

I also have trouble Bay parking, parking straight. It puts me off going to places, because I know I will struggle to park when I get there!!

I enjoy going to air shows, but they often have marshals directing the parking who use hand signals, & I struggle to understand what they mean, which is no good because you have to be able to park accurately!!

Does anyone else who has passed their test suffer from these types of problems?

[agsiul]

If you are still having trouble there is no reason why you wouldn't get an instructor to give you lessons in that area of trouble so that you'd feel more comofrtable. They could go to the places you use most often. What I do it keep going until I get a spot that there is plenty of room for me to drive in so if that means going further away from the shops or going onto the next floor that's what I do. I generally reverse into a spot so that I can drive straight out. It just takes practice... and ignore the people who are giving instructions because they are totally confusing. Just take your time and don't expect to get it off right away.

[jl151080]

Thanks for your reply.

I agree, having some more sessions with my instructor is a good idea.

[Jim]

I enjoy going to air shows, but they often have marshals directing the parking who use hand signals, & I struggle to understand what they mean, which is no good because you have to be able to park accurately!!

I wouldn't worry too much about that, I doubt there is any person alive ilregardless of any learning difficulty who understands what on earth car park attendants are on about, and what's more I suspect car park attendants themselves haven't a clue what they're on about!

[Shadwell]

yeah I find it pretty tough parking some days, and some days parking up sweeter than candy, my best rule of thumb is pulling along side the gap you want to park in, then when the front end is parrallel with the car passed the gap, turn the wheel 270 degree turn quickly, and then before hitting the cars on the other side turn the wheel 270 degrees the other way, and then reverse. then you can usually end up pretty straight for reversing into a car parking space when the car parking space is 90 degrees from the way of direction. but only really learned it from experience. but also remember to check how far the other cars are from the white lines. anyone parked too close on one side, then you need to turn the wheel more or less. but if about a foot away on both sides, then easier to park in.

another rule of thumb is not to listen too much to parking attendants, it is better to learn what you are comfortable with, like the one day flew on to a ferry, the guy was giving me the wave to move forward, but then noticed I had parked tight to the vehicle infront. as I knew the length of my bonnet, the truck pulling on was happy, because he could get on quick as well. but you got to know the car dimensions, which is harder with new cars as even being a tall person, you can't even see the bonnet through the windscreen with most modern cars anymore. whereas when I was learning to drive, I had something to visualize on, and then just guess the couple of inches gap for the bumper before you hit the other car.

but yeah if you don't feel comfortable, then take a few more driving lessons.

[Jim]

I quite enjoy the physical side of driving, and am reasonably confident that I'm no worse than any other average joe on the road. I passed my test first time and I've held my liscence for over 10 years now and have never (touch wood) had an accident. I've had a few near misses, one or two definetly my mistake but many others due to other people's stupidity.

I ocassionally have to tell a passenger to shut up, if they're being too loud and their noise is interfering with my concentration, if I'm a little stressed or theres significantly more hazard about then I'll turn my radio right down and make sure I'm focusing on all the right things. But apart from that and desspite of mild difficulty with hand eye coordination, spatial awareness etc I'm pretty confident behind the wheel and have always driven manuals.

I currently drive a ford focus, which from a spatial awareness point of view is plenty big enough for me, any bigger and I'd feel a but intimidated. I remember once (in an old job) being thrown the keys to an big BMW saloon car and told to go park it.. I just sat there in the low down seat, and thanks to the lack of ergonomics in relation to the view out of the car I almost shat myself. I've also driven a LGV vehicle, and I didn't like that at all.

Parking... Mostly fine, indeed I practice reverse parking and reveresing around corners everytime I drive simply to keep the skill to be able to do so.

I also like go karting and whilst I don't do it often as I'd like and I'd probably struggle against people who partake a little more seriously.. I can drive to a level to which I can feel satisfied with my performance when I take into consideration the limitations imposed on me by my dyspraxia. Indeed via twitter yesterday I learnt that my best laptime at Daytona Milton Keynes (in comparable karts) would have placed me between Daniel Ricciardo and Karun Chandhok (both professional racing drivers to have raced in F1) on their top gear style super stars laptime chart. You can imagine that I was really chuffed with that, even if I know that in reality they'd have no trouble in going signicicsntly quicker!