Driver’s Test

It is Alison’s birthday today, but I am the one who got the present; that being shelling out another $100ish/month in car insurance, because Ali got her driver’s license. I hope it was due to all the last minute skills practice we did over the last week or so. I will say that her test was nothing like Sarah’s.

Sarah’s test was performed by a young guy who looked like her was only about 10 years older than Sarah. Alison’s instructor was a crotchety old lady. All of our checking in and paperwork filling out was very smooth. Then as we were waiting the instructor came back in with the kid in front of Ali, took her and her father aside to go over the results of the test. She pointed out a few errors she made that I overheard so I made sure to tell Ali what NOT to do. One thing was stopping before the sidewalk as you pulled out of the parking lot, which was one thing we practiced over the weekend. Another was watching her speed.

She called Alison’s name and took her outside, telling me they would be back in 10-15 minutes. When she got back she took me aside to go over her test and pointed out a couple of things she did incorrectly. Alison actually thought she was going to fail. Luckily, the points that the instructor deducted didn’t total up to a failure. As we were waiting to pay and get her photo taken, Alison was telling me about how her test went.

The first thing the instructor did was to crank up the air conditioning. She also apparently moved the passenger seat all the way back. She was a short lady so she was sitting in the passenger seat with her feet dangling above the floor, like a 3 year old sitting in a dining room chair. Very bizarre! Then one of the things she deducted points for was not stopping in front of the sidewalk as she exited the parking lot. Something I specifically told her about before she went out. Alison swears that she did, and the old lad has no idea what she is talking about. I tend to believe Ali, just because I specifically pointed that out. Maybe she was just too short to see it. Another thing was not using her turn signal to change lanes. The point in the road that she got marked down for, was where the road split into two lanes, a right turn lane, and a straight lane, right before a stop light. They were driving in the right lane, so Alison just kept right, i.e. already in the right lane. The instructor said she should have used her turn signal to indicate that she was going right. BUT… She was already in the right lane!!!!! The final thing that got points deducted was because there were a couple of times that Ali wasn’t checking her mirror before changing lanes. Again, she swears she did, though one time she admits it was a little bit late.

At the end of the day, she gets her license. I told her not to worry too much about it because I think that the instructors that do the driver’s tests can deduct points for anything they want. If they happen to not be looking at you at the exact moment you check your mirror, or check a blind spot, they’ll mark it.

Now I’ll have to worry about Alison every time she takes the car, the same way I worry about Sarah driving. I was much better before Sarah got in her accident.