As a driver... What is your best and worst skill?

[Steel]

What is your best and worst skill?

e.g.
Maintaining speed at the corresponding legal limit/for road conditions.
General observation.
Appropriate breaking.
Reversing around a corner.
Taking directions.
Emergency stopping.
Checking your blind spot.
Indicating.
Oversteering.
Parking.
Returning the car for your partner to use with the tank refuelled; I think it is a skill anyway!
Keeping a tidy car; outside & inside.
Car maintenance.
Changing a tyre.
Using your mirrors.
Avoiding a stationary hazard on the road; pothole, debris on the road etc.

 

[Tuckins1]

What is your best and worst skill?

I am actually an excellent driver. I drive a stick, which requires a little bit more attention than an automatic. I am fairly good at all things listed, but I would say my weakest and strongest points are:
e.g.
Maintaining speed at the corresponding legal limit/for road conditions.
General observation. Probably one of my stronger points. I was taught from a young age to always be aware of what's going on next to/behind/in front of you, and have a plan of action if you have to suddenly change direction...
Appropriate breaking.
Reversing around a corner.
Taking directions.
Emergency stopping.
Checking your blind spot.
Indicating.
Oversteering.
Parking.
Returning the car for your partner to use with the tank refuelled; I think it is a skill anyway! I don't have to do this. DH and I have our own cars and he can't drive a stick!
Keeping a tidy car; outside & inside.
Car maintenance.
Changing a tyre. weakest. I can't do much more than just check my oil or fill my own gas tank.
Using your mirrors.
Avoiding a stationary hazard on the road; pothole, debris on the road etc.

 

[elrohwen]

I would say my best skill is my spacial sense of where other drivers are and what they're doing. I typically know if I can change lanes, without even looking over my shoulder, because I've been keeping an eye on the other drivers through my rear view mirror (though I do check over my shoulder right before changing lanes, of course). I can also predict when other drives are going to change lanes or something right in front of me.

My worst skill is baking up. I've gotten better recently, but I still won't even try to pack into a parking space (though parallel parking I can do). I remember a time when I had to back down a friend's steep driveway and I ended up on the bank on one side. Ugh.

 

[bagelboy]

I guess I do everything pretty well. You mean appropriate braking? What is "reversing around a corner"? Must be a Brit thing. I am kinda curious now. Should add to your list using your headlights in fog,rain and when dark.

 

[marcy]

My worst driving skills are backing up, parallel parking and blind spot.

Best is checking to make sure other drives see me, I stay off my phone, I like to drive a little over the speed limit but only when there are no other cars around.

 

[Winks_Elf]

I hate parallel parking! The van has a lot of blind spots, and I'm always afraid I'm going to side swipe the car next to me. I love backing into parking spaces though. Makes it easy to get out.

 

[kenny]

I believe reversing around a corner is illegal here in California.

I've mentioned before that my extraordinary driving skill is hypermiling, squeezing maximum MPG out of gas.
EPA rates my car, 2010 Honda Insight Hybrid, 40 MPG but I average mid 50s.
My best entire tank ever was just 70 MPG in one of my two previous Honda Civic hybrids.

Hypermiling means I have to stay super aware of cars and road and traffic signal conditions around me, and not just break early but avoid braking altogether, since that wastes the gas that I already used to get up to that unnecessary speed.
Braking is the enemy of hypermiling.

I even had one lady, who met me on a hybrid forum, come over and test drive her car (same car as mine).
She was getting MPG in the 30s and the dealers all told her the car was fine.
I drove her car 50 miles and got 62 MPG even with both of us in it, and she weighed twice what I weighed.
She was astonished.

I'm not all good; I'm terrible at keeping drivers behind me happy. (At least I always drive in the right lane).
I truly believe we are in Iraq for oil and our sons and daughters are dying so we can drive huge V-8 SUVs solo, as fast as possible.

I'm superb at parallel parking, usually nailing it the first try with no back and forth.

My car used to be spotless, lately it's kind of dirty.

I do all the maintenance religiously at the dealer; whoever buys a used car of mine gets the best-maintained, and most gently-driven car in the world.

 

[luckynumber]

yeah, i cant reverse park for love nor money

 

[Steel]

I guess I do everything pretty well. You mean appropriate braking? What is "reversing around a corner"? Must be a Brit thing. I am kinda curious now. Should add to your list using your headlights in fog,rain and when dark.

I found a link with the particulars of an Irish driving test http://www.irishmotoring.ie/cms/publish/thedrivingtest/driving_test_structure.php plus a demonstration of reversing around a corner http://www.irishmotoring.ie/cms/publish/drivingyourcar/reversing_around_a_corner.php. Kenny mentioned it is illegal in CA; do you spot any other differences between your testing and ours?

btw: I totally agree, it bugs the hell outa me when drivers refuse to be visible in poor driving conditions by turning on appropriate lights, I should have put that on the list!

 

[Steel]

I too think that my observation is my best driving skill. As I said (other threads) I used to ride a motorcycle and you have to be hyper aware of your driving skill, other drivers and road/pedestrian hazards to survive on a bike. IMHO more so than any other driver who has never been a biker.

Worst is parking . Really, I am ashamed of my parking.

 

[zoebartlett]

I'm pretty good at observing general rules of the road and taking care of regular maintenance of my car, but I can't check/fix anything on my own. That's what a mechanic is for!

Steal, you mentioned parking. One thing I'm pretty horrible at is parallel parking. I avoid it at all costs.

 

[Jennifer W]

I learned to drive in the Army, so doing it well was pretty much beaten into me. By Sgt Major Smith. A nice enough man, but ooooh, he got angry fast.


Reversing round a corner is not only legal in the UK, it's part of the actual driving test (at least it was when I sat it).

I also have an HGV license (heavy goods vehicle ie truck with fixed axel up to 8 tonnes, I think) but I failed my test first time - I used the steering wheel to help me haul myself up into the truck cab and that is an automatic failure. I did not know that.

My worst driving occurs when I'm looking for an address and getting lost. I have zero sense of direction and get angry quickly when I get lost.

Jen

 

[portia]

I think I'm good at most driving skills. I race a car as a hobby and that has taught me a lot about car control (especially rain racing). I feel it has given me excellent skills that I can apply to every day driving like being hyper aware of things going on around me, making quick decisions, quick reflexes, understanding appropriate levels of inputs for various situations, handling the car in various weather conditions and of course I'm very good at accelerating. I've become fairly good at parallel parking since I moved to the city 10 yrs ago. However, the one thing I'm terrible at is backing up. Yes, I know that is part of parallel parking, but any other backing up I just can't do well. My DH always backs his car into his parking spot. Me... uh... not happening!

 

[mayerling]

I would say my best skill is my spacial sense of where other drivers are and what they're doing. I typically know if I can change lanes, without even looking over my shoulder, because I've been keeping an eye on the other drivers through my rear view mirror (though I do check over my shoulder right before changing lanes, of course). I can also predict when other drives are going to change lanes or something right in front of me.

My worst skill is baking up. I've gotten better recently, but I still won't even try to pack into a parking space (though parallel parking I can do). I remember a time when I had to back down a friend's steep driveway and I ended up on the bank on one side. Ugh.

I'd actually never seen/heard of this before going to the US. UK and Irish PSers, do you ever do this? I just use my mirrors to switch lanes (after having kept an eye on traffic around me).

 

[Jennifer W]

I was taught to look over my shoulder before changing lanes. I'm in the UK.

I do it as a sort of ingrained habit now and there have been a couple of times where I'd have hit someone if I hadn't done it - obviously my observation isn't as exceptional as I thought.

 

[Puppmom]

My best skill is parallel parking and my worst is driving defensively. If I have to swerve to avoid something, I have a hard time regaining control or at least that's how it feels.

 

[Steel]

I was taught to look over my shoulder before changing lanes. I'm in the UK.

I do it as a sort of ingrained habit now and there have been a couple of times where I'd have hit someone if I hadn't done it - obviously my observation isn't as exceptional as I thought.

Yup. I always check my blind spot. It is from my biking days and holds true still. It is annoying that I can't do it in a van though, I have to lean forwards and peek behind from the drivers window. Tres trucker chic, non?

Portia & Jen W: I'm impressed

Jen W: How did you get out of the army?

 

[AprilBaby]

I excel at parallel parking but I am very bad with speeding.

 

[oddoneout]

I'd say I'm an average driver all round except I cannot parallel park to save my life.

 

[yssie]

I'm very good at parallel parking - having ten minutes to find a spot on the road, park, and get to class does hone the skill!

Fine with speeding. Have a plan of action should something go wrong - always looking out for things, planning an escape route.

My biggest issue is switching between styles of driving in different cars - I've found that when I take my mountaineer or the tahoe, when I want to switch lanes for example I indicate and other drivers just make space for me. When I drive the mustang I need to be a lot more 'aggressive' - noone moves out of the way when I signal, I need to actively find the space instead of just having it made for me..

 

[bagelboy]

Thanks Steal for the links. I still have no idea as to why you would ever need to do that or why is it neccessary to be tested on your driving test. Just makes no sense to me, plus here you would just get rear ended and the police would give you a ticket for being an idiot. I think you are still required to know the hand signals, but I have never seen anyone use them. HIll starts? Not a problem for everyone with an automatic transmission, so few cars have them anymore. It is a necessary skill for the maual crowd. Here you are supposed to learn how to parallel park,but the driving instructor don't always ask you do that. My wife can't park period! She does park on the far end of lots at my insistance, I would rather walk than watch her swap mirrors!!!

 

[Steel]

Thanks Steal for the links. I still have no idea as to why you would ever need to do that or why is it neccessary to be tested on your driving test. Just makes no sense to me, plus here you would just get rear ended and the police would give you a ticket for being an idiot. I think you are still required to know the hand signals, but I have never seen anyone use them. HIll starts? Not a problem for everyone with an automatic transmission, so few cars have them anymore. It is a necessary skill for the maual crowd. Here you are supposed to learn how to parallel park,but the driving instructor don't always ask you do that. My wife can't park period! She does park on the far end of lots at my insistance, I would rather walk than watch her swap mirrors!!!

You are so right and you don't even know it. We have to reverse around a corner because only an idiot would do it. Yup. That is beaurocracy for you! I suppose it is all about controlling the car but really, a corner; is that the safest obstacle they could think of.

Pretty much everybody here drives manual; hence hill starts.

I think they should lose the reverse around a corner and substitute for parking & parallel parking. But nobody is asking me.

I tend to park at the end of the car park too. So your wife has company in that one. But I do it to avoid the other cars dinging my door. I HATE that. Look before you open your door people.

The motorcycle test is ever sillier (or it was when I tested) the instructor told me what to do and I went off and did it. I lost him at the second round-a-bout and met him back at the test centre. Now I could have done it with my eyes closed, but still...

Edit: It appears that I can't spell centre

 

[Amethyste]

I am really really really really good at cursing ( and in french mind you ) at other dumb@$$es on the road... and I am really really really bad at using my blinkers when I change lanes... ooops, my bad!

 

[pinkstars]

Seriously, I would have to say that what I do worst is that I tend to drive under the speed limit. It isn't exactly intentional, but like Kenny I love improving my mpg's. Plus, why do you need to head full speed to a yellow or red light, when it isn't going to change for a little bit. You might as well coast there and not slam on your brakes.
My best skill while driving, I'm super attentive to my surroundings to the point of usually winning while finding slug-bugs and noticing what seems to be animals that are just waiting to pounce at my car.

 

[kenny]

Plus, why do you need to head full speed to a yellow or red light, when it isn't going to change for a little bit. You might as well coast there and not slam on your brakes.

Will you marry me?

 

[Amethyste]

OoOoO.. I forgot to say, I am SUPER GOOD at Hypermiling.
I am getting 44mpg with my car. It's like a little game lol.

 

[hawaiianorangetree]

Not to blow my own trumpet or anything but i think i am a pretty awesome driver. (For a girl!)

I can parallel park first time in under 30 seconds.
I could back a horsefloat into the shed when i was 17.
I drive a manual (stick).
I also drive a huge ford transit van for work that i have had off road training (gravel travel) in as well as driver safety courses.

I do however have a very bad habit of turning my windscreen wipers on instead of the indicator whenever I stop driving the van and get back into my normal car. It's very embarrasing.