Driving Lessons
On Monday, I had my first driving lesson. My instructor, DL, is a young looking 50ish man with a pony tail who has lots of experience teaching people with vision problems to drive. He kept up a running patter throughout our 90 minute lesson, repeating over and over, "Look far!"
It felt very strange to be driving through familiar neighborhoods and streets behind the wheel instead of in the passenger seat. It took me a while to relax into it. I think the hardest thing so far is in fact looking far. Looking far and letting your eyes steer for you rather than your hands. Look at the point on the horizon where you want to go and your hands will do the rest.
I seem to have a pretty good instinct for spacing and speed. I think this comes from my experience cycling though downtown city traffic for so many years.
While my main vision problem is an inability to discern details at a distance, it seems I can see well enough to navigate through traffic. That's certainly reassuring. But clearly still a concern. At one point we passed a couple of pedestrians standing at the side of the road. I remarked that I'd seen the person closes to me; she was obvious in a purple blouse. However I hadn't noticed the second person until we passed them as she was standing behind the first. DL had known there were two people because he could see the back of her head poking out from behind the first person. Those are the sorts of details I just can't pick up.
One of the great fears I have about driving is that I'm going to kill someone. I just won't see them in time and bam! Dead body on the road, and on my conscience for the rest of my life. On a couple of occasions, DL made comments about pedestrians or other drivers like "This fellow hasn't reached adulthood by walking diving under oncoming cars." Or "That guy knows he has to stay on his side of the yellow line, so don't you worry about him." These off-hand remarks gave me some relief from that fear by helping mea realize that I don't bear the entire responsibility for everyone else's safety. Everyone shares responsibility for their own safety and for abiding by the rules of the road.
12:10:00 AM
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