Driving Experiences and Getting Your Ls

[Joseph41]

Year 10 for many is the time to at least start thinking about driving. 🚗 Exciting times! The start of greater independence, and in some ways a notch toward adulthood.

In this thread, you can chat about your driving experiences, tips for going for your licence, and so on. I'll start us off with some thoughts based on my own experience. For context, I got my Ls and then put off driving for years and years lol - you can read about it in greater detail here if you're interested.

How important is driving?
Naturally, there's no right answer here - the importance you place on it will change based on a whole number of personal factors. For some people, driving is almost a necessity for day-to-day activities, and it, therefore, makes sense to get going as soon as you can. For others, there's not so much of a rush - and that's completely fine, too.

No matter how you're feeling about it, it's nobody's decision but yours. When you feel comfortable and as though the time is right, you can start getting the wheels in motion (so to speak). Even if everybody else is driving, it doesn't mean you have to, too.

But in saying that...
I recommend you don't put it off for too long (as I did). The longer I put it off, the more antsy about it I became, and I ended building up driving to be something that it's really not. I always knew this would be the case, but now that I have started getting my hours up (a little bit), I definitely wish I'd started early.

If nothing else, having your Ls is a great form of identification, and can be very handy for certifying documents etc.

Preparation for the test
So, first of all, you need to be 16 to sit the test. But after that, you can simply book an appointment to sit the learner permit test here. I'm going to quote directly from the VicRoads website here:

To apply you’ll need to:

1. Study for the learner permit knowledge test
2. Book and pay for the learner permit knowledge test
3. Fill out a learner permit application form
4. Take the knowledge test and an eyesight test
5. Pay for your learner permit card.

The car learner permit knowledge test has 32 questions which you’ll answer on a computer at a VicRoads Customer Service Centre. You’ll need to get at least 25 questions right (78%) to pass. A pass result is valid for 12 months.

The test is available in the following 14 languages (screen test and audio):

Albanian, Arabic, Cambodian, Chinese (Mandarin), English, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhalese, Somali, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese.

When they say you should study for the test, they mean it! There's no point making your way into VicRoads only to fail the test. Like, it's no huge deal, but it's just not time-efficient. Getting 25 questions out of 32 correct isn't hugely burdensome, and a little bit of preparation can go a long way.

To practise, you should consult this driving handbook (essentially the textbook on which you'll be tested), and try out this online test. It's definitely, definitely worth doing!

Actually driving!
Let's say you pass the test - awesome!

The next stage (once you've filled out all the forms, received your licence etc.) is to actually start driving. Initially, this can be a little weird or even daunting - trust me, I can empathise with that haha. But some experience is better than no experience, and it's a good idea to gradually build up your body of work bit by bit. I feel a bit disingenuous here because at time of writing, I've only driven about 20 hours (so, still very inexperienced), but gradually, things will become a lot more familiar to you.

Some initial tips:

* Take time to work out how the car you're driving actually works. Don't feel like you need to know anything - there are no silly questions.
* With that in mind, sit in the car initially and ask where the indicators are, where the pedals are, so on so forth.
* I'd suggest for your first couple of times going around in areas with few other cars just to get the hang of how your car drives.
* Listen to whomever's instructing you.

So, what are you driving experiences so far?

[tomatosauce]

So, what are you driving experiences so far?

1.5 months.... 35hrs is that good or bad?

[Joseph41]

1.5 months.... 35hrs is that good or bad?

I think that's a really fantastic start. For context, I have about the same number of hours as you, and I've had my Ls for 65 times as long hahaha.

How have you found driving so far? What are the biggest things you've learnt?

[Bri MT]

1.5 months.... 35hrs is that good or bad?

I'm sitting on a solid zero hours,  so 35 sounds good to me

[S200]

1.5 months.... 35hrs is that good or bad?

Neat job Lav. Got another 20-odd months to get the rest... Well on track!

[PhoenixxFire]

I was super keen and got my L's 2 days after my 16th birthday. I turn 18 in a month and I currently have 4.5 hours lol. That didn't turn out as planned. Totally recommend you get your L's as early as you can and start driving straight away - it just gets harder to find time to do it as you go into year 12.

The first time I went driving was in an empty car park - Definitely recommend it if there's one near you. It's way less stressful to not have to worry about parked cars/bikes/road rules when trying to figure out the basics.

[Yertle the Turtle]

I was super keen and got my L's 2 days after my 16th birthday.

The first time I went driving was in an empty car park - Definitely recommend it if there's one near you. It's way less stressful to not have to worry about parked cars/bikes/road rules when trying to figure out the basics.

My 16th was on a Sunday, and I got my L's on the Monday morning, and within 12 hours I had 1 hour up already, in a car park, which was an awesome way to start as PhoenixxFire says. After 1 year, I had 105h up, but then my family car broke, and in the 8 months since then I've only got 5-10 hours up. Still, I've got a few months left, so really enjoying having L's, looking forward to getting on the P's. Definitely encourage people to get out there on their L's, have some good experiences and have fun!

[hums_student]

I got my Ls on the day I turned 16 and for the first couple of months literally drove everywhere. Managed to get 120 hours in 6 months, and I haven't driven more than 5 minutes consecutively since Honestly, won't be surprised if I forgot how to drive already hahaha... But I've still got a whole year before I turn 18, so I'll hopefully start driving again soon.

I remember the first time I drove it was in a deserted road so it wasn't that scary - until I accidentally made a run turn and drove onto the main road, at which point I thoroughly freaked out and drove onto someone's driveway and absolutely refused to back out until my dad swapped seats with me 

[S200]

Lol. I got my L's on my 16th.
My first drive was just around the town, through town up, and freeway back. MacDonald's drive-through and three roundabouts.
I think if you are challenged by something, do more of it!
But I hardly drive record less than 30 minutes at a time, so I hope that Vicroads doesn't wipe off any of my hours!
I heard that they removed all the drives that are more than 2 hours long...

[hums_student]

But I hardly drive record less than 30 minutes at a time, so I hope that Vicroads doesn't wipe off any of my hours!
I heard that they removed all the drives that are more than 2 hours long...

smh... I've got four drives of over 5+ hours in my logbook from driving to and from Sydney... so looks like I'm only on 100 hours?

I wonder what's the point of removing 2+ hour drives?

[S200]

I wonder what's the point of removing 2+ hour drives?

Well, apparently it's not safe to drive longer than 2 hours straight, so they don't accept them.
This may not actually happen. It's just what I've heard.

[PhoenixxFire]

Well, apparently it's not safe to drive longer than 2 hours straight, so they don't accept them.
This may not actually happen. It's just what I've heard.

If this is the case then you'll probably be fine if it's split into multiple drives (ie you took breaks)

[Joseph41]

I was super keen and got my L's 2 days after my 16th birthday. I turn 18 in a month and I currently have 4.5 hours lol. That didn't turn out as planned. Totally recommend you get your L's as early as you can and start driving straight away - it just gets harder to find time to do it as you go into year 12.

The first time I went driving was in an empty car park - Definitely recommend it if there's one near you. It's way less stressful to not have to worry about parked cars/bikes/road rules when trying to figure out the basics.

Agree with this carpark advice - a good place to start! Although not a really busy carpark; I find them more stressful than regular driving haha.

[pip1704]

I got my licence two days after my 16th bithday. My first lesson was on a gravel road. I am in year 12 now and highly recommend getting as many hours as soon as possible. Try to get city experience if your a country driver like me before you undertake your year 12 and visa versa for you city foulk. It is really hard to combine dirving with your last year if schooling. Try to become the family driver as much as you can. It can really help rack up those hours up quickly, basically try to take every opportunity when you get in a car.

[Aaron]

I went for my L's pretty much a day or two after my birthday. I started driving in low-risk environments - such as La Trobe Uni during weekends. Lots of speed humps, roundabouts, lots of empty car parks for parking and navigation practice.

I used to go driving on the weekends with family supervising from Melbourne to Albury and back a few times. Driving straight on the Hume doing 110 is actually quite challenging when you're staring into space - you have to be ready to react quickly given the speed. Also knocks off 3-4 hours one way.

Another of my driving experiences involved this really bendy road up a cliff to Kinglake. If you've driven for a while and want to test whether you can actually drive or not, highly recommend.

Parking is something you'll take ages to get right. I still have to reverse back and straighten my car up multiple times and i've been driving for 8 years (including L and P1/P2 periods). From my experiences to-date, i'd have to say the most frustrating part of driving is peak hour traffic and dumb decisions of other drivers. The Monash Freeway and Eastlink/Eastern Freeway are good spots in  moderate traffic to test yourself out once you've had some experience on roads. They are quite dangerous to drive on (esp. during peak).

I'd also recommend enrolling into a  defensive driving course or something like that, particularly towards the end of your L driving.

Honestly, get as much practice in as you can and definitely try as many different conditions as possible. IDefinitely would recommend a uni carpark or another carpark you can think of that has bumps, humps, roundabouts etc.

You're going to stuff up / do something wrong but imo every fault is a major learning experience - makes you aware for the future.

I went nearly 7 years without an accident - and the one I did have was extremely minor / not my fault.