Wednesday, 22 January 2014

Get orff my land!

Imagine you are out driving and you are looking for somewhere to park. The roads are full of cars but, eventually, you spot a gap. Great. You pull up alongside the car ahead and are just about to reverse into the gap when the owner of the car comes out of their house and says 'Can you move on and find somewhere else to park'.
I was with a new pupil this morning. She has had lessons with another instructor, but wasn't confident reversing, so we did a turn in the road (fine), then a reverse into a side road (a bit hesitant, but fine). Time to look at parking. I picked a really quiet side road, with nothing to worry about and asked my pupil to pull up alongside the car ahead and try to complete a parallel park within two car lengths. She made sure it was safe to move off, positioned herself perfectly alongside the car (a white Range Rover), just under a metre away, checked all around, reversed back until her back wheels had gone beyond the Range Rover, then turned toward the curb. Nice control of her speed and regular checks around the car - excellent. Just as we were almost finished she paused. She had seen a pedestrian nearing the back of the car and was waiting for him to continue on, away from the back of the car. But he didn't move, he ducked down, looked into our car and gestured for me to wind the window down.
"Can you not use my car as an obstacle. "
It's not worth me doing anything than acquiescing and driving on, even if I did think he was an arse.
"Yes, of course..... " I began to reply, but he continued, "I know you have to practice, but not here."
I politely asked "So you would like us to practice with someone else's car? " but he didn't really answer.
I have dual controls, so there is absolutely no danger of us going near his car. In my lessons, if we are practicing reversing maneouvres, I don't like to spend too long in the same place (or use the same car) - twice maximum. Simply because, if it was my car, I would get a bit anxious if someone was endlessly practicing, using my car. I guess he had every right to politely ask us not to use his car, but it was his manner that rubbed me up the wrong way. We were inches away from completing the maneouvre and he could see we were away from his car.
I was reminded of a news story a few years ago when the inhabitants of an estate in England got up a petition against driving schools using their estate to practice. All the driving schools obliged, which made the locals happy until they tried to book driving lessons for their children, because all the instructors has got together and agreed never to drive in that estate.
I wonder what Range Rover man would do if he has children that want to learn to drive.

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