Weekend Driving Test Open Comments

I was going over some old files, and came across something I used when I was teaching Lovely Daughter how to drive. It was a driving test, designed to test her ability to read maps, plan trips, and handle potentially dangerous driving conditions. Keep in mind that Lovely was hoping to attend Texas A&M at the time this test was administered. I was not taught about the freeways and major streets when I was taught how to drive, and I remembered my panic when caught in a situation for which I was unprepared. I was bound and determined that my kids wouldn’t panic, and that they’d be able to read maps and plan their trips.

Describe the following requested trips, giving turn directions (right, left, straight) and street names.
1) You find out that a really killer blouse is on sale at JC Penney at Almeda Mall. You pick up your friend K— and begin driving. How do you intend to reach the mall?
2) Before you leave your neighborhood, you hear on the radio that there’s a wreck on the freeway where you plan to enter. What is your trip plan now?
3) Go back to question 1. You get on the freeway, and then hear about a wreck further down the freeway, before you exit for the mall. How do you plan on getting to the mall now? (You REALLY want this blouse!)
4) You are visiting colleges, and plan to see Texas A&M at College Station, Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, and Texas A&I in Kingsville. How do you plan to exit Houston to visit these colleges?
Texas A&M: __________________________________________
S.F. Austin: ____________________________________________
Texas A&I: ____________________________________________
6) You are all grown up and have moved into your own apartment. In the middle of the night, you get a hysterical phone call from your kind, loving, sweet, nurturing mother who misses you more than words can tell. She cannot rest until you see her. How do you get from your apartment in Bryan, Texas to your childhood home?
7) You are a teenager looking for a job. Your job interview is at the intersection of Fairmont Parkway and Red Bluff. How do you get from your school to your interview?
8.) You are alone in your car at a stoplight. You feel a bump and look in the rear view mirror to see a man getting out of his car and coming towards your window. There are no other cars around. What do you do?
a) Get out your license and insurance information, a pencil and a piece of paper so that you can exchange information.
b) Lock your doors and hold your insurance information up to the window.
c) Wave and smile and leave the scene.
d) Get on your cell phone and call your parents or some other adult for help.
9) You and your friends are in the car. Sally refuses to wear her seat belt, saying it’s “too confining and uncomfortable”. Your other friends tell you to just go ahead and stop arguing with her. What do you say?
a) “Okay, we’ll go. Just stay in the back and act like you’ve had it on if we get pulled over.”
b) “Sally, you twit, you are just too cute for words. Of course I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. Just hang on tight if we get in an accident!”
c) “Sally, it’s my car and my rules. Make a choice: buckle up or get out, before we’re late.”
d) “Let’s go in Sally’s car!”
10) You are meeting a friend at her house, and you’ve never been there before. You find you are lost, and now you’re scared. What do you do?
a) Pull out the tissues so you can wipe your face while you cry.
b) Get your cell phone and call her while you continue to try to find your next turn.
c) Keep driving until you find a street name you recognize.
d) Find a safe, public place to pull into. Pull out your trusty key map and cell phone, and find out where you need to go.
11) You are on a freeway, and need to exit. No matter how hard you try, the cars in the next lane will not let you move over. What do you do?
a) Go to the next exit, the next exit, the next exit, until you can safely move over. Then double back.
b) Nose your car into the next lane, forcing the oncoming traffic to slow down enough to let you in.
c) Cuss. Loudly. Long. Feel free to indulge in a few hand gestures until someone lets you in.
d) Turn on your hazard lights and slow down until you find a break in the traffic.
12) You are coming home from a nighttime basketball game on the far side of town. You notice a car that seems to follow you in speed and lane changes. You get nervous, and start to panic. What do you do now?
a) Slow down and put on your hazard lights until the car stops following you.
b) Go directly home, and then run into your house as fast as you can.
c) Try to exit the freeway and lose the jerk in a neighborhood.
d) Drive to a brightly lit parking lot or police station and honk your horn if he’s still around.
13) The unbelievable happens. You get pulled over by the police. What is the FIRST thing you do?
a) Reach over to get your insurance information out of the glove box and your license out of your purse so you can have it ready for the officer.
b) Call your parents or boyfriend to let them/him know you’re going to be late.
c) Roll down your window and put your hands high up on the steering wheel.
d) Unbuckle your seat belt and step slowly out of the car.

FWIW – Number 12 actually happened to me one night on my way home. Scared me to death. During his pursuit of me, he turned on his interior light so I could see him. I’ll never forget the tan interior and his Middle Eastern features. I managed to ditch the guy by crossing two lanes at the last minute to catch an off-ramp. Fortunately for me, there were no cars in those two lanes for at least a half mile, so I had time to formulate my plan and execute it. The perv, his light still on, was craning his neck as he watched me exit.