Almost all Learners and many fully licensed people get confused with their direction when reversing their vehicle. Which is understanding, if you think about it, we spend most of our lives driving “forwards”, of course our minds are always referencing where we want the front of the vehicle to go… ie. The front passenger side of the car moves to the left when we turn left and then the drivers front side moves to the right when we turn right – this of course sounds quite simple to most people.
Kerala Police Car into Reverse on a Busy Road for KSRTC Bus Entry
In the below mentioned video, we can see a Police car forcefully turned reverse for passing a KSRTC Bus.
Therefore if you are reversing straight along the side of a road, in a straight line, as you would be required to do in the practical driving test, once you are moving backwards, just remember if you want to get closer to the kerb, move the steering wheel to the left and if you want to get ‘away’ from the kerb steer the wheel to the right.
Make sure you get out and practice this a number of times, even remember to point your left side mirror down so that you can see the kerb and the back wheel to watch what is happening as you steer in each direction.
Until you understand the direction that you are taking the car, then bring it back up to normal position before you drive off. As with all manoevres practice does make perfect! If you need a little more help, give the Team at Streetwise a call to book in a driving lesson.
Some other important tips:
1. Always keep your left indicator on when you are reversing in a straight line, this means when a car behind approaches you they will see both your reverse lights and the indicator on and know that you are doing this on purpose.
2. By the time you are test ready, you should spend 80% of your attention looking through the back window (between the chairs) and 20% of your attention on your left/side mirror to keep yourself aligned to the side of the road.
3. You should always travel slow, to allow more time to look between the window and your mirror.
