DAY 69: Stage 2 Practical Lesson 2.10 Overtaking and Being Overtaken

I managed to get another try-sell night lesson. Today’s lesson was on overtaking (and assist other vehicles to overtake me). The instructor commented that overtaking lesson should not be put too late at night as there would not be many cars to overtake. I told my instructor that my next lesson would also be at the same time tomorrow. So if we couldn’t find any car to overtake tonight, it would be the same situation tomorrow and subsequent night lesson of the week. So he tried hard to look for a slower cars. (Appreciate it a lot!) We drove to many places, from Teck Whye until Jurong East Ave 1. Finally, we managed to find 2 slow L plate cars (one at Bukit Batok Road and the other at Bukit Batok West Ave 3)  which I hastily proceed to overtake in gear 4. The instructor commented that I drove as if I was racing with someone. Yeah, racing to overtake so as not to repeat the same lesson tomorrow.

I had one near-hit incident happened while driving along Bukit Batok Road when a cyclist suddenly appeared out of the merging lane. He was quite close to my car. Luckily I noticed him (from his bike’s headlight) and shifted my car to the right (need 1.5m distance). Now it began to sink into me the importance of checking my blind spots.


Things to take note:

• Overtaking lesson should not be put too late at night as there would not be many cars for you to overtake
• Do not be hasty - I was a bit anxious not being able to overtake, so I kept changing up gears rapidly. I was also hasty in moving off. I also stopped twice over the Stop line. In previous lesson I was too slow, today I was too fast. Sigh...
• While overtaking from right lane, if you ended up too near to traffic light, maintain at right lane until you pass the traffic light before changing back to left lane. If traffic light turns red, just stop at right lane.
• Need to pull handbrake on any slope, steep or gentle. The instructor said that if I roll back even slightly, points would be deducted.
• Some slopes which are candidate for handbrake stop apart from the ones at Teck Whye test routes::
• All traffic lights along Bukit Batok Central road (Bukit Batok Community Centre and Bukit Batok Polyclinic)
• T traffic junction at the end of Bukit Batok Ave 1 (in front of Bukit Batok MRT)
• When stopping on slope, the instructor preferred that I step on foot brake even if handbrake was pulled.
• Need more practice on moving off slope - there was once at the horrendous Teck Whye up slope traffic junction, I thought my clutch was at biting point but in reality it was not. The car ended up rolling backward, not matter how hard I stepped on the accelerator. Immediate failure if roll back more than 1m.
• I was late to react to some obstacles because I kept trying to adjust car position to the centre of the lane. The instructor said not to keep focusing on the dash line to adjust car position as it remove my focus from the actual driving (and would become slow to reach in case of obstacles)
• Check blindspot 2s before turning or lane change

Expenditure

Practical                 $68.48
Total cost so far:     $1460.87