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[Frumple]

Don't forget mechanical failure :3

If it helps any, it does get better with time. Mostly. If you do have serious fear/anxiety problems, though, I would personally recommend pretty strongly meditation techniques, particularly those focused on breath and muscle control. Despite shaking for probably six or seven hours after my first solo drive (which was a three hour, ~180 mile interstate trip. Also about the third time I had driven period), that was what let that be after the drive instead of during it.

In personal terror news, momentarily was under impression the sound the crickets are making outside was coming from my computer.  That... was a shot of adrenaline I really kinda' don't need at eleven at night.

[TheBiggerFish]

I just got my license and now realise that I'm expected to drive a several ton projectile at high speeds while in close proximity to other quickly moving several ton projectiles.

Agreed, except I'm still in training.

[Frumple]

Ha! At least you're getting training. All I got was video games, watching other people drive, and one short drive with someone in the passenger seat that didn't tell me much of anything I didn't already know. Know that you're going out there with more preparation than I had, and I've gone nearly a decade without a single collision. Pay attention to what you're learning, for the love of the nonexistent gods watch the goddamn road,* don't be afraid to slow down, and you'll probably be pretty alright.

*If it doesn't have 2-4+ wheels and is road legal and moving, or doesn't have two legs, it doesn't matter stop looking at it. Is pretty close to the best advice I can offer. Nothing takes people towards the wrong side of the road faster than rubbernecking to watch the roadside, as near as I've been able to tell. I've seen people bloody hydroplane or have their car catch fire and still manage to stay in their lane (until they reached an appropriate spot to stop, obviously enough) better than people that look away from the road. Also every single person I've rode with that claimed they could manage to drive straight while looking to the side were indulging in self-delusion (or outright lies), and there's been dozens. Keep your eyes on the road and appropriate other objects (things entering the road, pedestrians, and that's pretty much it), and nothing else. And you will probably do well, or at least substantially better than you would otherwise.

[Emma]

I just got my license and now realise that I'm expected to drive a several ton projectile at high speeds while in close proximity to other quickly moving several ton projectiles.

Agreed, except I'm still in training.

I've only got a Learner's license but it still terrifies me that I've got to drive on the open road.

[Orange Wizard]

Driving's only terrifying when you realise that the people around you are all idiots.

[Frumple]

Eehh... depends on the person. Chance of being hit and whathaveyou's never really bothered me (unless I've got passengers, anyway), ferex, so other drivers making a poor showing of it is... not that scary, really. Definitely makes things more worrying, because it makes your decision making that much more vital, but not exactly high on the terror scale.

It's the thought of a moment's inattention, or just plain bad luck/poor maintenance/poor situation, being enough to kill or maim someone that's always got to me the worst. Actually had a pretty close call a week or two ago... did pretty much everything right, on my end, and still nearly sideswiped a motorcyclist riding double, just due to the vagrancies of positioning. They'd managed to get on the road and in my blind spot in the space between me checking the first time before changing lanes and checking again. Couldn't hear 'em, couldn't see 'em, hadn't been in a position where I could have seen them. But they were there, and I came pretty close to probably killing or crippling 'em (at least partially because neither the driver or the person riding behind them were wearing the helmet orthe protective gear -- jacket, riding pants, at the least -- they should have been, but still). It's shit like that that drives most of the still continuing dislike/fear of driving, for me.

... but yeah, don't really have a choice about letting those sorts of concerns stop you. Do the best you can and hope. Most people make it without hurting anyone (themselves or otherwise) particularly seriously, so probably you will, too.

[Sirus]

I just got my license and now realise that I'm expected to drive a several ton projectile at high speeds while in close proximity to other quickly moving several ton projectiles.

Don't worry, before long it will become second nature. Just keep in mind that 70% of the drivers around you are idiots who will do the dumbest things possible, and prepare yourself accordingly. And always keep those eyes moving.

[hops]

Instruction unclear, can't catch my eyes.

[Eric Blank]

Okay, so yeah, its terrifying most of the time. But so long as you're paying attention you'll more often than not have ample time to react. You can always go slower than the speed limit. Just remember, don't panic.

[scriver]

There's three rules of driving:
1, Keep your eyes on the road, far ahead of your car (beginner drivers often default to staring down at the ground right in front of the vehicle - learn to not do this as soon as possible. Keeping your watch far ahead gives you a lot mote time to react and plan and read signs).
2. Keep your hands on the wheel (90% of all the times I fuck up I to so because I was just going to do some little thing for two seconds and my focus moved with my hand instead of being on the road)
3. Remember that driving is not something you do by yourself but something you together with all the other drivers on the road. It's not a tug-of-war or a competition, it's a cooperative endeavor.

Ha! At least you're getting training. All I got was video games, watching other people drive, and one short drive with someone in the passenger seat that didn't tell me much of anything I didn't already know. Know that you're going out there with more preparation than I had, and I've gone nearly a decade without a single collision.

How in the world did you pass the driver's test?

Driving's only terrifying when you realise that the people around you are all idiots.

This brings to my memory a Bellman joke about when Bellman was visiting the UK, his radio show being interrupted by an emergency broadcast about how there's a vehicle driving on the wrong side of the motorway. "One!", muttered Bellman, "There's several hundreds!"

And that's all I've got to say about comments like that.

[Frumple]

How in the world did you pass the driver's test?

Like everyone else that takes it

... more seriously, the mechanics of driving a vehicle are, like. Broadly speaking, not complicated. Kinda' at all? There's any dozen video games out there with a more complicated control scheme and greater mechanical complexity (at least so long as everything is functioning normally), insofar as the at-the-wheel stuff goes. And if you're paying even the most remote of attention when other people drive, a fair amount of best/good practices can sink in more or less by osmosis. The stuff the test checked was never a problem for me, even the very first time I got behind the wheel. If it'd been a manual transmission I might not have managed passing the test on the first attempt, heh, but it wasn't so I didn't.

[Orange Wizard]

Which is why driving tests should test safe practice and not mechanical skill

[Harry Baldman]

Which is why driving tests should test safe practice and not mechanical skill

What, you don't like your driving test being a racetrack time trial?

[Frumple]

Which is why driving tests should test safe practice and not mechanical skill

Well... the written part did. In part, at least. It was multiple choice. I've expressed elsewhere I'd give myself good odds of passing a multiple choice test that was in a language I couldn't read, possibly blindfolded. The practical was mostly, "Can you park. Can you stay on the right side of the road. Can you do a three point turn. Can you manage to not be mind bogglingly stupid for 10 or so minutes."  Wasn't exactly some great trial.

Probably would have been in line, more or less, in conjunction with driving lessons. S'just, y'know. They're not mandatory, and I didn't have them.

[scriver]

How in the world did you pass the driver's test?

Like everyone else that takes it

... more seriously, the mechanics of driving a vehicle are, like. Broadly speaking, not complicated. Kinda' at all? There's any dozen video games out there with a more complicated control scheme and greater mechanical complexity (at least so long as everything is functioning normally), insofar as the at-the-wheel stuff goes. And if you're paying even the most remote of attention when other people drive, a fair amount of best/good practices can sink in more or less by osmosis. The stuff the test checked was never a problem for me, even the very first time I got behind the wheel. If it'd been a manual transmission I might not have managed passing the test on the first attempt, heh, but it wasn't so I didn't.

Over here, a driving test consists of roughly ~45 minutes of driving around town/motorways/different kinds of road environs in actual traffic to see how good a driver you are, as well as checking on the engine and your knowledge on taking care of it. Is that not how it's done over at yours?