How to Turn a Car

How to Turn a Car
My name is Kevin Woods on behalf of expertvillage.com; phone number (314) 584-0116. So what we are going to do here is we are going to practice our turns and what mostly do is teach children the push, pull and slide method of turning this way; almost really not a turn. You are really just pulling the wheel down and I tell the students that most turns are made mentally before you ever move the car and I really try to have a kid understand is driving is an internal thing. You have a vast thinking skills and you have decision making skills. You are born with those things and you use them every day. So what I am trying to get you to do is out-think the course. They are a step ahead of the vehicle. So now my first turn I make is a left turn, going to put my left signal on, remember our signals are important. We use those to ensure that we can communicate with other cars because if you don't use them, it can become quite dangerous, someone can hit you from the back or not understand what you are doing and people will run right into you. Our first turn is push, pull and slide and all you do is put your left up, you pull twice. Your turn, may hold the wheel and you let her go at the right time. Remember the car's been designed for the wheel to come back to you on its own so that is most important. Here we are again making a left turn. We come to a stop sign and we stop at the sign and that is what they want to see on the road test that you are discipline; that means you don't stop before the stop sign nor do you stop after the stop sign. You either stop at the white line or you stop directly at the sign. Now the first thing I asked the student to do is give the car gas and at the right time, pull down twice, hold and let the wheel go and you aim for your lane. I tell students that you don't want to turn too early or too late so everything is timing and most people who have accidents I heard is either because of their timing or they are unfocused. I would say 95 percent of even taking a road test is about being focused or listening. A lot of students fail the road test because they are either too nervous because when you are at that age most teenagers have not learned to manage their nerves yet and a lot of times even as adults you can be nervous but we don't let our nerves control us. We control our nerves. So the next thing I am going to do is make a right turn and I am going to go push, pull and slide. Once again, first thing you want to do is give a car a little gas and at the same time multi-tasking, you are pulling the wheel down twice. You hold the wheel and you have your hands right at 9:00/3:00 as a protector. The stronger that most students have on learning the push, pull and slide is learning to tell their right hand to be still. I am going to make a left turn, push, pull and slide and normally when I would pull down twice, a lot of students raise their hand up and then they try to get mixed up. What I ask them today is remind them that you tell your hands what to do and tell your right hand to open and close. So when you do a push, pull and slide, you go up to 12:00 o'clock pull, release and open your right hand, pull once, hold with your right hand, come back over with your left hand again, pull again. Your turn should be made. Most turns have already figured out before you ever move the car.