Top 10 Tuesday – Things To Remember Tomorrow

December 20, 2005 by paul
Filed under: Uncategorized

I’m finally going to convert my UK driving license to an Ontario one tomorrow, so here’s my Top 10 list of things I need to remember for the road test:

An emergency stop isn’t the same as in Britain – here it means to pull over and park in a hurry (e.g. if your car has a problem) and put your four-way flashing lights; in the UK an emergency stop is much more urgent – stop as quickly as possible but keeping your car under control. (My instructor today called it an emergency stop but the official handbook calls this a roadside stop.)
Merging onto the freeway (today we used the DVP) is also different to the UK – here the law is the way many people seem to think it is in Britain, that the traffic merging has a right to join – in fact in the UK there is a Give Way line at the end of the “on ramp”, which means you may have to stop if no-one lets you join.
Merging, therefore, is done at a much higher speed here – my instructor said I should be at the (freeway’s) speed limit (90kph)before I join.
Remember to change one lane and “rest” before moving to the next one – don’t move across multiple lanes, no matter how smooth it is or that there’s no-one else around.
At a Stop sign, make it obvious that I’m checking left & right before moving off; I do it but he didn’t notice me do it.
The urban speed limit is 50kph unless otherwise posted – my instructor said I was dropping my speed to 40-45 at times; I maintain that it was snowing and I had absolutely no idea where I was.
At a Stop sign, make the stationary step obvious – give it 3 seconds before moving off again.
Use my indicators even when there’s no-one else around, even on a 3-point turn – the tester will deduct points if I forget.
Remember it’s a test of how to pass the test, not of how to drive in the real world!
Be seen to be observant! (I had this comment on my UK driving test too!) I usually have my mirrors set so I don’t need to move my head much to see them all, but the tester is watching to see if I move, so I have to make the mirror check more obvious. (Of course they could ask me what’s behind me to check, but there you go.) If I set the mirrors wrong (i.e. not how I’d usually have them) then I’ll have to move my head.