The AA yesterday completed its rollout of free driving lessons for members or their children in an effort to improve road safety in New Zealand. Morgan Tait got behind the wheel with instructor David Bishara to see how her skills compared to testing criteria.
Luckily I passed my driver's licence test eight years ago, because according to the driving instructor who ran me through a mock test last week, I would have failed. Four times.
Thrice for not slowing down to 30km/h by the time I passed a road-works speed sign and once for an incident to do with giving way to a large truck at a blindspot intersection in Orakei.
Apart from the four immediate fails, my tutor would also have marked me down for not checking my blindspots enough, not indicating when exiting a roundabout and for losing concentration during the hour-long ordeal.
He did admire my consideration for cyclists, parallel parking and hazard identification abilities.
The criteria he assessed me on were what drivers would be up against when sitting their full licence test and showed how much my guard has dropped in slightly less than a decade.
When I was tested as an 18-year-old in Nelson, I had received about 20 lessons from family members and three from a professional tutor.
I have driven most days since and have obviously slipped into some bad habits.
I can't help wondering if that would have been the case had it been compulsory for my training to have come solely from a professional.