Want to learn to drive

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These can be nice but make sure you like how one responds on the test drive, some are maddeningly slow because their programming keeps engine RPM to a minimum.

For short trips on surface streets my car is a lot faster than it looks!

A small car may be better if you have issues with bumping into objects when walking. The small size of the car can compensate for the fact that your brain has issues keeping tracking of where you are relative to other objects.

BeaArthur has a point, chronic pain conditions can be hard to drive with. I have any number of such problems & I still manage to drive my manual Volvo all the time. I think Volvos are great for anyone with sensory issues, they're quiet inside, reasonably powerful & easy to drive, automatic or not. Their focus on safety & ergonomics is great for us & used ones get really cheap. I have their smallest model & the big ones are just as easy to drive.

The choice of vehicles is really secondary to the question "Want to learn to drive!"

The choice is somewhat dependent on where Summer_Twilight lives. In the States, manual transmissions are becoming rarer. In Europe they are more prevalent. Most U.S. cars run on gasoline. Many in Europe run on diesel. Whenever you have a car that is rarer, it generally means that maintenance cost will be higher. There are fewer mechanics with the experience to work on them. So a general rule of thumb is to buy a vehicle that is common for your area. That is unless you have a lot of disposable income.

A Volvo isn't a bad car. It has a good safety record.

So back to the main question at hand. The first step to driving (at least in the States) is the written examination administered by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

How do I get a learner's permit?
Pass a written knowledge test.
Pass a vision test to show that you can see well enough to drive.
Provide documents that verify your identity, age, and home address (residency) in your state.

There is a booklet available at the DMV that has all the information you will need to pass the written exam. There is also online practice test.

With a learner's permit you can:
Typically, a driver operating with a learner's permit must be accompanied by an adult licensed driver who is at least 21 years of age or older and in the passenger seat of the vehicle at all times. This is how you get actual driving experience.

The next step is to complete a driver's education (driver's ed) course.

After you learn how to drive, then you can apply for your driver's license by taking a driver's exam.

With a valid driver's license, automobile insurance, and a car you are good to go.

Summer_Twilight here is an interesting article about driving with autism: Behind the Wheel with Autism: A Personal Perspective

Nope. Not sexist. The OP is a woman and I thought she would appreciate another woman's perspective. You and the other guy just talk like a couple of gearheads. That's great for you all, but goes in one ear and out the other of the typical female. Not sexist!

Please note I did not say you guys were wrong: "They have a typically male perspective. As a woman, I disagree with what they are saying." We can have different perspectives with neither one being the "correct" one.

I drive a small inexpensive Honda Civic that is easy to park and maneuver; an automatic, natch. I've never had it give me any trouble. The track record of Honda Civics is that they are still teenagers at 100K miles. They hold their value well and are pretty cheap to get into in the first place. I've had this one 5 years and only have 33K miles on it, so possibly it might last me the rest of my life.

One feature I recommend when buying a car for one's personal use is the rear-view camera. It's extremely helpful for parallel parking and probably also saves lives ... such as someone running over a toddler, who is too close to the ground to show up in side-view mirrors. These are only found on new-ish cars, which may be a factor in deciding what to buy.

I'm shopping civics as I'm looking for spare wheels with better efficiency for commuting. I think Hondas have some of the best automatics among a lot of cars I've driven, particularly among the simpler models.

I just posted about that because I wish the community, as it were, could be more receptive to female gearheads.

Indeed, Civics are great. They're more fun than most other small cars & available at any power or price level that makes any sense.

1. Unfortunately it does tend to be rather expensive unless you have a friend or family member who can teach you properly. Such a person would need to have a good standard of driving themselves as well as being very patient and be able to provide a structured approach.

Unfortunately, learning from someone who is not a professional instructor is likely to result in you picking up bad habits. If you spend a lot of time observing other people's driving you soon realise how poor the general standard of driving is. It may not actually be dangerous most of the time but people often have poor lane discipline, fail to indicate when turning, swing out into the middle of the road when turning, brake through corners rather than before them and a whole host of other things. It is therefore essential that the person teaching you has a very high standard of driving themselves. Many people think they are good drivers but very few actually are.

Being a good driver doesn't mean things such as being able to drive fast. It means having very good basic car handling skills, an ability to focus exclusively on the driving task, a good awareness of what is going on around you, excellent observational skills and the ability to anticipate risks. A good instructor will be far better able to teach you these skills than friends or family.

Driving is not particularly hard but will probably seem so at first. Like many things it will get easier with practice.

2. It is actually quite rare to witness accidents but is generally easier to cope with if you do not get emotionally involved.

3. Road rage is a potential problem but having good awareness and anticipation will keep you away from trouble most of the time. Many road rage incidents start as a result of people using the horn to rebuke other drivers after an incident, making rude or aggressive gestures or retaliating after an incident by doing silly things such as brake checking another driver. If someone else is acting unpredictably or aggressively just stay well back and avoid getting involved. If you are at fault a friendly wave or even an apology if you have to stop may well help defuse the situation. In reality it is highly unlikely that you will ever be involved in a road rage incident.

Driving well can be very enjoyable and therapeutic and liberates you from the restrictions of public transport. You won't know if you can do it until you try. Don't let other people put you off.

I graduated from high school driver's ed but never got a license until 4 years later when I was almost 20. late bloomer. my social service agency paid a local driver ed teacher to re-teach me with much more up close and personal instruction, so I passed my license exam and driver's test at that point. many people have done likewise, you can join them when you feel ready. if you see an accident while you're driving, look away immediately, do NOT rubberneck unless you want to cause an accident. driving in itself is not expensive/hard/dangerous unless you fail to use your frontal lobes properly if road rage gets to you, you gotta hit RESET and remind yourself that it is not part of your mission to get from point A to B then back to A. bad drivers have an inner circle of hell waiting for them, you don't need to do anything in that regard. start small by getting your learner's permit and getting a real driver's ed person to teach you personally and not just in a class with a bunch of other students, one-on-one instruction is best. it is also best to shop for a good affordable AND comfortable car, you will spend a great deal of time in this car over the years and possibly decades [if it is a Honda or Toyota which are scarily reliable- my honda has been under my tuchas for 22 years now], so you might as well get one that feels nice and drives nice, smooth quiet ride that filters out the road bumps as those get tiring after a short while. make sure it has good supportive seats.

We are on the cusp of an age when robots will do the driving, and ride-sharing is already popular. You might find it cheaper to just not drive your own vehicle.
I learned to drive by riding a bicycle for traffic sense, and farm machinery for the mechanical versatility. For city use, a bicycle is still the best vehicle available, provided you use one to find your job, home, and shops. It is also a relatively safe and cheap way to find out if you can handle more driving chores. Get a helmet with a mirror, and learn to stay aware of all traffic.

I have a relative in Canada who owned a manual Outback that just died. I was wondering if they'd be able to replace it. I wonder if these are still available in Canada. It would be typical for them to be available in Canada but not here.

Canada still gets those. It gets a lot of points for being a very easy manual car to drive. Maintenance is somewhat tricky whether you want a new one or not but it's a pretty inexpensive car to go for.

Last edited by cberg on 03 Feb 2019, 6:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I just drove my friend's robotic Subaru XV Crosstrek to & from a long ski day. It's really safe but the software is more complicated than learning on my manual car. I'm a long time programmer & hacker, I work with computer vision software. The software & button layout took me over an hour to figure out.

This is known as "level 2 autonomy", there's a lot of clicking & settings involved but the driver's main task is to steer & signal.

I left it in the manual shifting mode & felt much safer until I learned to leave my foot on the brakes without pressing while I checked out the traffic following feature in a traffic jam of skiers.

I know that robots have great reflexes, but I still prefer taking my own risks. One day when posi-traction was pretty advanced, four lads from a University went up to Lake Tahoe to ski for the day. They had a great time, with fresh powder falling, but when it came time to go home, they found themselves in a long line headed for the freeway, where a Policeman was directing everyone elsewhere. He explained that the 10" of snow (25cm) had closed the highway. One of the back seat guys leaned forward to protest "But he's from Canada!" indicating the driver.
"Is that true?" the cop checked.
"Oui, messieur!"
He waved them on, summer tires and all, and they made it.

One big question for anyone to ask themselves before deciding to learn to drive: in life, do you often daydream, end up in very deep thought, "zone out" about things? I'm one of those people. Not nearly as much as when I was a kid. When I was a kid, I could be so focused on a thought that I wasn't aware of the environment around me. My Mom would call my name and I'd finally start to "come out of it" and hear her after maybe the 5th or 6th time.

Think of how disastrous a wandering mind could be while driving. Especially on longer highway/freeway driving, the drone can lull a person into not paying attention.

I'm very conscious of this and force myself to pay attention, but by doing this I find driving to be very mentally draining. City driving is fine with all the stop/starts, but long distance driving I like much less than I used to. I also do not like driving at night any longer. Thankfully my wife has no problem driving at night so we split the duties.

^ I am fairly lucky in that I have a pretty good autopilot. Sometimes I come back to reality and wonder how I got from A to B or wonder how I completed x,y or z task while on autopilot. One thing I learned the hard way early in life after having a motorcycle accident is just how focused you need to be to drive safely. With a motorcycle you must drive for everyone else on the road and drive defensively because people either don't see you or don't see you as a threat, so they tend to pull out in front of you or into your lane and you must avoid and be aware of the traffic around you at all times.

isn't that high level of vigilance extra-tiring?