Learning To Drive: Nervous Wreck 3943

Define "good" driver. In decades of driving (too many, I'm afraid), I've received exactly 2 speeding tickets. Both were before I turned 16. It took a while of on-the-road experience to learn the habits of the cops, who are still the enemy of motorists. But that doesn't mean that I'm necessarily a better driver. It just means that I've learned to avoid getting ticketed while driving way in excess of the speed limit, like everybody (especially cops in uniform) does.

But as far as actual DRIVING goes, I was taught to drive by a stock car racer. In effect, I learned to "run" before I learned to "walk". There's no doubt in my mind that by the age of 15 (when I bought my first car) or 16, I could drive circles around anyone in this ng. I remember in my teens I used to cross icy bridges SIDEWAYS. I wasn't doing it to show off, just having fun, and I was always in complete control. It was a CONTROLLED slide. Some of my friends thought I was nuts, but I had the proper training and a natural talent for driving. I also drove that RWD car through severe winter storms that stopped 4WD vehicles. That wasn't luck. I just was a well-trained driver with a properly maintained vehicle. (weather wasn't a problem)

Other than 2 speeding tickets before the age of 16, I never had any run-ins with the law. The only time I've ever had an "accident" while I was behind the wheel was a situation where my vehicle was rear-ended while it was completely stopped. I was boxed in by traffic, had nowhere to go, and the great-great-grandmother who ran into me was apparently legally blind, as she saw me from a half mile back and made no attempt to slow down until she was almost on top of me. I was in my mid-thirties by then.

Actually, I'm probably a worse driver now than I was in my teens. I haven't done too much drifting for the past several decades, so I'm most likely pretty rusty. But I do have some reflexes left. I know that as my FWD car actually lost traction on the REAR tires through a tight corner recently. Before I even was aware of what what happening, I had already turned into the slide and ended it before it got away from me. That was a pure reflex action, not anything I needed to think about.

I probably should have been a precision stunt driver, I certainly had the talent for it. Awww, to be young again. I'm afraid it's too late to make a major career change now.

But where I grew up, 15 and 16-year-old drivers were relatively send. It wasn't a novelty, everybody at that age drove, out of necessity. I don't buy the argument that someone is a poor driver just because they are young. That is utter bullpoo. You can be a good driver at just about any age, as long as you are tall enough to reach the pedals and coordinated enough to walk and chew gum at the same time(!). I started driving at age 12. If it was legal for me to do so, I'd teach my niece to drive NOW. She's 13 and plenty mature enough to handle the responsibility of driving safely. If *I* taught her, she could be an excellent driver by age 14. There's no doubt in my mind. My 16 -year-old nephew on the other hand . . . I doubt he'd be a good driver at age 36. My point is, age is just a number. That number is IN NO WAY related to how good of a driver any particular person will be. -Dave