Reverse Manoeuvres

By now you will have cover most of the main routines used whilst driving forwards such as POM, MSM & Peep & Creep.

All of these are the basis for reversing. You will need to learn how to do the:

Parallel Park and Bay Parking both forwards into a parking space, reversing into a space, pull up on the right hand side of the road and reverse 2 Car lengths before rejoining the traffic again.  Although now removed from the driving test for real life driving being able to turn around in the road and reverse around a corner will help. You will only have to complete one reversing manoeuvre on your Driving Test but it could be any from the list above, you will have to demonstrate 3 key areas to the examiner:

Control, Observation and Accuracy.

To help see out of the back window you can higher your seat, twist in your seating position and move the seat forward if necessary to access the pedal.

You are also allowed to dip the door mirrors so you can clearly see the kerb.

All of these adjustments are allowed on a driving test!

Dry Steering should be avoided.

This is turning the steering wheel when the car is not moving. It causes damage to the tyres, suspension and steering operation.

Street furniture should be avoided when selecting a location to perform a manoeuvre. Hazards at the side of the such as Lampposts, telegraph poles, trees, telephone boxes etc.

Camber. This is the shape of the road from the kerb on the left to right. Most roads are cambered to allow rain water to drain towards the kerb. The centre of most roads is higher than the road joining the kerb, gravity can affect you speed driving over it and should be accounted for.

Let’s deal with the misconception that women can’t reverse as they certainly can and we have many female Driving Instructors whom have passed rigorous advanced driving tests in which 5 different reversing manoeuvres are involved.

Women have one major advantage over men that is they can multi task. This actually means that they are able to use both sides of their Brain at once so they can concentrate on two things at once.

This can work against you when it comes to reversing as your Brains are not just working both sides at once but they are actually separate and have very few direct connections from side to side. Where as men have 2 sides to their brain but they are not separated and can work together but they can’t multi task.

What does all this mean for reversing?

For women special awareness (how much room you have) is set by one side of your brain but physical control is in the other side. As they have no direct connection you are fooled into steering the wrong way.

Ladies try this experiment:

Whilst sitting in a car turn around and point to the right hand side of the vehicle.

You have probably pointed at the wrong side.

The point being made is if you have pointed the wrong way when steering whilst reversing always steer to opposite way to which you think.

On your driving lessons your Homer’s Driving Instructor has been trained to help make you aware of this and show you a few very simple techniques to very quickly eliminate and problems.

I.e. You will be instructed how to reverse in a straight line, if whilst going straight you want to get closer to the kerb then steer towards the kerb, if you want to move out from the kerb steer away.

Having said all of this nearly all of you ladies will have no problem at all.

Don’t let reversing bring fear to your mind we will make it easy for you.