Welcome back to our EDT Lesson series, as we’ve been helping Alanna get on the road. Last week Alanna completed EDT lesson 3 – Changing Direction 1, which worked on developing her observational skills in low-risk driving situations, like quiet streets.

She also finished EDT lesson 4 – Progression Management, which helped her to get confident with adjusting her speed in different situations on the road.

Now she’s ready to take it up a notch and put what she’s learned so far into practice with more challenging driving situations.

Lesson 5 – Correct Positioning 2 (More Complex Situations)

Being able to choose and maintain the correct road position is an essential part of becoming a good driver. Building on what she learned in EDT Lesson 2, today’s lesson was all about teaching Alanna how to correctly position her car on the road in more challenging situations.

In this lesson she focused on keeping the car in the correct position while driving straight, and negotiating challenging situations, like cornering, bends and junctions.

Keeping in the correct road position is vital for changing lanes, entering and exiting from slip roads and junctions, using roundabouts, reversing, turning, parking and stopping.

Lesson 6 – Anticipation and Reaction

It’s all very well driving in perfect conditions, but on the roads you always need to expect the unexpected! A pedestrian can walk out in front of you suddenly. Bad weather can cause hazardous conditions, like a slippery road surface or debris on the road.

This lesson was all about making Alanna aware of potential hazards and making sure she knows what to do when they happen.

Today she learned the importance of being able to “read the road”, scanning for potential dangers and watching out for vulnerable road users, like pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. While driving she needs to constantly monitor the behavior of other drivers around her and anticipate what they are likely to do so she can adjust her driving accordingly by choosing the correct speed and gear, keeping a safe distance and braking correctly.

We also pointed out her “blind spots”, the areas of the road she can’t see easily and stressed the importance of checking those blind spots regularly by looking over her shoulder. This is especially important when moving off, at junctions and roundabouts and before merging onto motorways.

End of lesson Q&A

At the end of the lesson, Rod and Alanna had a chat about her progress so far.

Here’s what Alanna had to say about her fifth and sixth days:

“My lessons went really well. During the lessons I drove around my local area and practiced the roundabouts for a bit, before pulling into a housing estate and focused on learning the reverse around the corner. Rod showed me exactly what to do and then we practiced it over and over again to get more comfortable. It’s a bit tricky but with a bit more practice I should master it.

Here’s how Rod feels Alanna is progressing:

Everything went well on the lessons this week. We did more work on Alanna’s left and right turns and using roundabouts and more independent driving. We also started working on manoeuvres with Alanna, we worked really hard on how to reverse around the corner and at the end of the lessons, I was really happy with Alanna’s knowledge on how to perform the manoeuvre without much help from me. Roll on next week when we will work on the turnabout.

Remember:

If you’re a driver between the age of 17-40 and you have an AXA car insurance policy, you can get your 12 EDT Lessons for €545 AND if you complete your within 12 months you could get up to €400 off your car insurance. Read more now on the AXA Website.