The 3 Towns Coffee centre

[SDQ]

I would have thought it was just for the first lesson to allow the learner to familiarise themselves with the controls until the instructor is satisfied they are competent enough to hit the open road. I don't see a problem with it as they are under supervision & I'm sure the instructor would pick the quietest part of the car park. Rather there than on a busy highway!
When I learned to drive the supermarkets were closed on Sundays and it was a regular sight in Asda car park. That's if NWCC weren't doing their time trials there!

[Hugo]

I had my first lesson in the car park of the old Llandudno football ground before it was knocked down and Asda built on the site.   Believe me, it was far safer to have had my lesson there than on a main road.   My younger brother can still remember all those Kangaroo starts that I used to make!

[Nemesis]

This was going on in Asda car park on Wednesday morning...........as ME says I am not happy having once had a car damaged in Asda park. I always park well away from the store for this reason.

[norman08]

Looking at some comments you wouldn,t think you were a learner driver at one time ,they usually only go by the old ten pin unit to do reversing /parking . Iv,e witnessed a few bumps in the asda car park and not one was caused by a learner .

[Michael]

  Hello Norman 08. I don't accept one little bit that I don't appreciate that I was a learner driver one time. That doesn't come in to it at all. It is the suitability of the place that I wrote about.

[Fester]

I had my first driving lesson from a mate in a supermarket car park, late at night.
I think it was ideal, as I was getting some familiarity with the controls before I tried the open road.

[Michael]

   Yes, Fester, I don't suppose there is any danger to pedestrians here, late at night. I was writing in the first place about carrying it on in the middle of the day with plenty of youngsters around walking/running haphazard.

[Michael]

  Oh yes, perhaps I had better tell of my learning to drive. Yes I did, it was mainly when I was around 13 years old on residential roads, all unmade and unlit, in Penrhyn Bay. And most of it in reverse. I worked after school in an ironmongers in Rhos and the boss and I delivered paraffin in the wartime blackout around the rough tracks in Penrhyn Bay. He used to take the paraffin cans into the houses and I was allowed as a treat to turn the car around.
   When I eventually went for my test around four years later I passed first time, but it was hard. I was only used to going in reverse in pitch darkness. Going forward in daylight was difficult.

[Ian]

 

[Hugo]

Years ago some learner drivers used to have their lessons at the old Gun site on the Marine Drive which was perfect for learning on as it was very quiet around there.
The driving lessons and the family picnics there all stopped when Mostyn Estates put a gate across the entrance to the site.

[Ian]

I suppose what I find most frustrating is that so many people seem to have abandoned signalling as a form of communication between road users. Signalling's long been an endangered species in the area, but I followed a car through four junctions, from each 0f which the driver turned right or left and twice into a main road, and not once did they bother to indicate, presumably on the basis they considered everyone else using the road to be clairvoyant. This isn't simply lazy driving, it's dangerous and potentially fatal but for many it now appears to have become a lifestyle choice.

Personally, I'd forget the drink-drive campaigns the local police launch every summer and instead institute a 'no signals - no car' confiscation policy for a couple of weeks.

[SteveH]

" abandoned signalling as a form of communication between road users."

I cannot understand why this is happening, like seat belts, it is or should be second nature...
Spanish drivers are terrible for late signalling if they bother at all, however I do like their system of signalling, when the car in front is turning left,(right in UK.) those behind signal too, same at crossings.....saves overtaking accidents ....

[Hugo]

My pet hate too, it doesn't take any effort to use your indicators so I don't know why people are so lazy and ignorant when it comes to that aspect of road safety.

[Michael]

   On this subject the thing that absolutely amazes me is when I see a car starting, or already in the process of, driving around an island---no indicator. The car then goes on, and on, and on and eventually leaves, again without a signal.
   Over a period of years I have seen time and again. A car with no signals doing a complete circle of the island. Ive never bothered to count but my distinct impression is if a car fails to indicate right, over half of them will do the full circle.
   Don't ask me why the proportion is so high. The only thing I can think of is they either don't know where they are going or they are lost and they are not signalling because they don't know where they are leaving the island.
   Watch out yourself. See if you too see the majority of no R hand signallers will continue right around the island.

[Michael]

   Sorry about posting the same item twice. I didn't do it. My post in another thread has also come up twice. Think I will put my Mac to bed for a rest.