A licence to drive

I still can't believe it. I laugh to myself and sometimes aloud, out of sheer happiness that I passed my driving test and got my driving licence here. Let me tell you the story.

With a US (or any foreign) driving licence, you can drive in UK for upto a year. If you have a licence from a EU country, you can simply exchange it for a UK one, without needing to take the test. Since we moved here in the end of May 2010, wife and I should get our licenses before end of May. Since we both drive to work and my wife needs to drop off our son to the nursery, not getting it in time will just complicate our lives.

So we started our quest to obtain driving privileges in earnest last July. The first step is to apply for a provisional licence. The next step is to pass the written test, which was a cakewalk. The last step is to take the driving test. We took our time and started with driving lessons in January. After an initial assessment, my driving instructor told me to take 10 1-hour classes before I can take the test. Wife was given the same number from her instructor. That may seem like a lot of lessons for someone who has driven more than ten years in US. Believe me, it is not. To understand that, you need to understand the driving test here and some road rules peculiar to UK.

I vaguely remember my driving test in California in 2000. I didn't have any car driving experience before, but still passed it in my first attempt after taking a few driving lessons. I found the UK one much much tougher. The test is for about 40 minutes and consists of one of four manoeuvres (parallel parking, reversing into a parking spot, three point turn and reverse around a corner), possibly an emergency stop and 10 minutes of independent driving (where you have to follow a series of directions given in advance). 40 minutes itself is a long time for a test, considering you will be just driving around the town and no motorway (highway) driving. One serious mistake or three minor mistakes of the same kind will result in a fail. It is just a long and tough test, that feels like it was designed to make people fail. No wonder the pass rate for the test is just 44%.

Just take one of the manoeuvres - parallel parking. In the US, if you manage to park your car behind another one without hitting a curb, you are fine. Even hitting the curb may not mean you failed. Here, you have to do all these:

• Carefully pull over next to the other car.
• Check your blind spots, your rear and side mirrors and sidewalks around you. If you miss any spot, you fail.
• If you see any car or pedestrian anywhere near you, just wait. If you move, you fail
• Reverse slowly straight back.
• Before you turn into the curb, stop and check your right blindspot. if you don't do this, you fail.
• Now turn into the curb and straighten, without hitting the curb.
• You don't need to park directly behind the other car. You could leave one or two car lengths, but the examiner may not like this.
• At any point during this, if a car or pedestrian shows up on the road, stop and allow them to pass before continuing. If you don't stop, it's a fail.

This just feels a lot, but wife and I mastered all these after few lessons. But we could be plain unlucky and end up on a busy road during the test and fail to stop for someone. For a new driver, this is going to be much harder. Mind you, we haven't even gotten to roundabouts, the cornerstone of UK driving pleasure. For regular turns, you have to follow a MSM (check your Mirrors, Signal, Manoeuvre) routine. For roundabouts, you have to follow a MSPSL (check your Mirrors, Signal, Position the car on the correct lane, adjust Speed, Look for traffic on the roundabout). You should neither be too fast nor should you be too slow and hesitant in the roundabouts. I have to admit that till I started taking the driving lessons, I happily drove for six months without knowing the roundabout rules and getting honked one too many times.

Coming back to my driving test, I failed the first time. I drove confidently, made only a few minor mistakes. But I turned into a road which felt wide and was not sure whether it was the normal 30 mph zone or 40. I drove hesitantly and saw a 40 signboard at some distance and started accelerating to 40. Apparently it was 30 zone and the 40 zone started only after the signboard. So, I failed. Wife took the test a week after. I wasn't sure what to wish for - if she passes, I am going to hear it for the rest of my life. She wasn't very confident before the test, but somehow got her confidence as soon as the test started and passed it making very few minor mistakes. I have been getting valuable driving advice since then and don't think it's going to stop anytime soon.

I had to wait for a month to get another appointment. This time it was on a Saturday at 8.40AM, which is good since the traffic is light. I wasn't very confident, made more minor mistakes. It did not help that the examiner kept leaning and staring at my dash more than five times and then marked something on his sheet. When he had me drive into the test centre in about 32 minutes, which is less than the usual test time, I thought I was done for. Fortunately, I had not done a major mistake and he announced that I passed. Much to my relief.

To round off the story, we hear our insurance premiums are going up BECAUSE we have gotten UK licence. Insurance companies conveniently forget our long foreign driving history once we get a UK licence. We are treated just like any new UK driver. So much for being a better driver.