Those skills from driving school can still be useful
Remember when you first learned to drive and had to learn how to do low-speed skills? Skills like a parallel park or a 3-point turn to be specific. During those days you may have spent a little more time practicing those skills because you didn’t want to fail your driving test for lack of those skills, or so you thought. So, the question now comes up…how often do you do those skills now that you’re a regular driver?
Like many things you don’t do very often, these low-speed skills can get a little rusty. It can become tough to remember the steps to succeed or maybe it comes up as a complete blank in your mind. Having a refresher can help to keep those skills sharp. Sometimes using those skills once or twice a month can help you retain those skills for a longer period of time. You never know when you may need them.
As an example, I like to volunteer my time within my community. As I was looking for a place to park while volunteering, I found what was really the last place to park within close proximity to where I was going. There was a driver attempting a parallel park in that space. I waited well back so as not to create any pressure for the driver.
The driver made three attempts to get into the space but after no success, they pulled away. I decided to take the opportunity to park there and all was fine. Considering that I still parallel park regularly and have taught it for many years, I had no problems with it. But I wondered how many times that driver had attempted a parallel park since their driving test, if at all.
What about having to turn around without the help of using a driveway? When was the last time you were able to do that? Some drivers may take the long route by driving around the block in order to go in the opposite direction and that’s ok, but it’s not always necessary. Sometimes they attempt the 3-point turn but they end up doing a 5-point turn or a 7-point turn. All because they haven’t practiced this skill since before their driving test.
During the first season of Canada’s Worst Driver when I was a judge, many of the participants had 
forgotten how to do this simple skill, even though it was part of their driving test. They tried to do it during a challenge but lost the basic skills that would allow them success.
Maybe it’s time to have a refresher for your driving school days. We get so caught up with our everyday driving skills without having the need for these skills that we forget the little things we needed to know in order to pass that original driving test. Go ahead and practice those skills every now and then. It should only take you a minute or less to complete each of them.