Do you have trouble driving?

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Yes finding the right instructor is a must. I actually got paired to mine as he had a programming background and decided to get out of the industry so we had something to talk about.

If you are having lessons and they are making you feel uncomfortable they wont work properly. But what aspects are you struggling with? I know it was more other people on the road for me information overload at first took a bit to auto block out things going on I don't need to concern my self.

The other drivers freak me out, the instructors lose patience with my lack of hand eye coordination and I have a really hard time interpreting verbal instructions. They'll tell me to take the third left and I'm so busy trying to work out which one is left (I can't tell without doing the hand thing) that I forget to check my mirror at the required interval or I accidentally go over the speed limit. We have a log book system here in Australia where they can progressively assess small tasks but they never tick anything off for me. Lessons are expensive and I feel like they're taking advantage of me. I've been through so many instructors over the years - it's a nightmare! They're very hierarchical too - I've read great reviews on specific instructors but when I call them they say that only existing clients can book with these oh so special people so I get lumped with a junior who swears (yes, I'm serious) and yells at me

Sorry for ranting.

there must be more than one driver's ed outfit, and more than one place that has drivers ed outfits, it is just a matter of searching until one finds one that one can work with. do any of them advertise "we get better results" or words to that effect?

I'm way too anxious to get behind the wheel.

Used to get pretty anxious about driving, but now have been driving independently for two years, only a couple of collisions, and have driven my car all around the country, from rugged mountains to bustling cities. I love how much independence driving gives me!

as soon as mr. google or somebody starts selling used self-driving googlemobiles, i'll be first in line to get one.

^ i may miss the feeling of being in control of a big chunk 'o metal (or foil these days), but as soon as the ride is smooth enough that i can draw/paint and read in the car, i'll forget about it.

I would deck out the interior with extra noise suppressive materials and a high quality surround sound audio system, and turn it into a rolling concert hall

I love to drive. It calms me down and helps me focus and relax.

I've noticed a lot of people from my Aspies' groups either can't drive at all or hate driving. My best friend gets so anxious behind the wheel that I do all the driving when we go places.

Personally, I can't navigate public transport.

I was really anxious about learning to drive, didn't think I would have the concentration span.

I've learnt I focus more on the road than the NT's!! And driving calms me as well I can focus on something mundane and not the world around me so I calm down. And I have a box of metal to keep everyone away (well mainly plastic...) I can drive a bit aggressively though I find I am calculating velocities all the time and what I can get away with and not. Surprised the police haven't pulled me over yet. But then again doing 30mph in 5 meters from the lights isn't a crime! I am following my instructors instructions you should follow the road speed limit and get upto speed safely.

I also hate public transport it stresses me out. It never arrives when it's supposed to and people stink on it usually then you are forced to interact with someone when I don't always want to.

The only trouble i have with driving has to do with the headlights of other cars.
More and more new models have extra-bright beam lights and sharply colored daylight LEDs. These burn my eyes and make it hard to see what's in front of me when i have one of those things behind me.
This is why i wear special road-glasses which reduce the effects of such lights; which has the side effect of me being afraid to drive a car that isn't mine (since those glasses won't be in there)

Personally, I hate when sun is low and reflects on wet road or it's high and reflects on the dash. Unless it's cloudy, during the daytime I drive with polarized sunglasses. They make a huge difference.

More than daylight LEDs I hate LED brake lights and LED traffic lights. Those things are so bright during the night that every tiny drop of water on the windshield lights up. It's makes it so hard to see pedestrians on intersections.

When I was 17 my family decided I should buy a car (there was no other way to get to my new school).

It was decided I would buy a '52 Chevy from a lot on the West Side of Chicago (after about a total of 4 to 6 hours of practice).

We got the car and I was following my Mom and driving toward home east on Lake Street (with the elevated train overhead and steel pylons alongside your passenger window). It was late afternoon and getting dark.

As it got darker I found my headlights getting dimmer and dimmer (turned out to be a defective voltage regulator) and by the time we got to the Expressway it was almost totally dark with me depending on the oncoming headlights in my eyes to see where I was going. All this time I was sneaking past the adjoining pylons by inches.

I don't remember much about the ride home on the Expressway.

But I think what happened, from this incident, was I gained a new "from 1 to 10 how hard/terrifying was it" level of terror.

The upshot was I never came close to that level of terror, while driving cars, for many, many years and so found I could operate a vehicle more calmly than when I first was learning to drive.

A "lucky" incident but not one I'd recommend anyone try.

am very curious- outside of the defective regulator, what is it like to drive a '52 chevy compared, say, to a later model car? have always wanted to hop in an oldster and drive down the road to see what it was like, but never got the chance.

(Oops! I meant '53...sorry.)

What was it like???

It was like heaven. At least I thought so at the time. Imagine a lonely loner, finally free from high school and the bullying "that" entailed (can you imagine a "physical" bully, surviving, unchanged, right out of the '40s and '50s right up to and through his senior year of high school? It was "nuts.")

But I digress. It was still high school loneliness I escaped from, but into a softer, and much more enjoyable type of loneliness at college. But when I was in my car I was "King of the Road." My Chevy had a 6 cyl. engine and 2 speed "Powermatic" transmission so was slow and relatively) safe. And I could go anywhere...anywhere...and, when I drove I had the same rights, privilege, right-of-way as any other person. This was important to my growing-up as this was the first situation I actually felt "equal."

But as for driving it was a hoot ! It was slow, leaked (and burned) lots of oil; it got terrible gas mileage but gas was only about $.25 a gallon and it was like heaven on wheels. It had big soft tires and floated along. And the AM radio had lots of great '60s music to listen to (graduated in 1960).

And I met my wife (coming up on 54 years now ) while "showing off" my car to someone; and SHE, was there.

thank you for that description I hope your '53 chevy still exists somewhere. I miss cars that just "float along" - almost all cars made nowadays have uncomfortably stiff suspensions, for people who fancy themselves Mario Andretti, I guess