A Hard-Driving Lesson

Early this morning I had to drive my sister in to the airport. The drive itself was fairly uneventful - it was the usual mix of drivers changing lanes without looking because they were too busy talking on their phones and people deciding that the space you were leaving between you and the car ahead of you in the name of safety was actually just being reserved for them to fill in as soon as they had an inch of clearance in every direction. You know, typical. At least, that was the case up to the point where we got off the expressway and started on the ramps toward the airport. That was when I noticed the car ahead of us was a student driver's car.

Now, I remember learning to drive very vividly. Usually I had the back-up driving instructor and he was cool. One time I had to be in the car with the guy who owned the driving school and all I remember about that afternoon was him slamming on the passenger side's brake because I was about to cut across spaces in an empty parking lot. I wasn't close to hitting anything, but he didn't want me to get into the habit of doing that. (Joke's on him, as I still do it all the time.) For the most part my driving lessons consisted of simply driving up and down the side streets of Dedham and keeping my hands at 10 and 2. (As with most things, I have since learned that what we were taught back in the day is now considered the incorrect method. Now people are taught their hands should be at 9 and 3. Considering my hands are usually at noon and the radio dial, this is of little consequence to me.) Wherever my hands were supposed to be, I was rarely on the highway and I certainly wouldn't have been there at 7 in the morning.

At first, I wasn't sure if this driving instructor should be admired or chastised. Because while it might seem like having someone who is inexperienced behind the wheel out on the Boston roads at rush hour is the equivalent of throwing a lamb to the wolves, there is something to be said for the 'sink or swim' learning curve. I mean, if you can handle the northbound expressway when everyone is trying to get to work and people are switching lanes on a whim without a hint of a turn signal, then you can handle just about anything the Massachusetts roads can throw at you. Maybe if we all learned this way there wouldn't be so many tentative drivers out there. Of course, if the student couldn't handle it then that could end up pretty messy for everyone involved. Either way, it's gutsy. I thought this guy could be on to something.

My admiration for the man's teaching style aside, I still thought I was behind a student driver and a student driver who wasn't going fast enough for my tastes. Thus, I went for the pass. That was when I noticed there was only one person in the car. (Looking back now that makes some sense, because who exactly starts taking driving lessons at 6:30 in the morning and what driving instructor would have his students drive to the airport?) So, not only was this guy not teaching his students with a trial by fire, but he was going so slow that he was causing traffic to bunch up behind him. Instantly, I was much less impressed with this driving school. They went from being the people who were going to save us all from slow drivers to being the root cause for them. I was like Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz", learning that sometimes you just shouldn't pull back the curtain. But, at least now I have an idea if I ever decide to open a driving school.