550 km driven since I got my car a month ago

I have hit the 550+ km mark since I got my Nissan Micra at the beginning of November, almost a month has passed. I started commuting solo on Monday 12.11, that was two weeks ago. I have not driven every day for one reason or another but I have used my car rather often. The period I have loaded to my public transport card expires within two days. So this is it, my transportation will be my car, and I hope we will get along well.

The route to work is getting familiar, and I feel comfortable driving my car, I have chosen well without a doubt. I do not feel as nervous as with the first time I drove solo, but not cool either. I am rather anxious at the beginning and calm while driving, I listen to the radio and to my navigator because I like someone talking to me and reminds me to keep myself in the correct lane. Still if you ask me to tell you what do I prefer, I will rather let my husband drive me to work and I will take the bus back home, if only public transport was reliable and one could have more choices.

I missed my days when we were living in the city center and I could take my latte in the mornings and read my beloved Economist magazine, sit comfortably in the metro, then the bus, and arrive relaxed to work. I did not even have to look at any timetables, there was always something to take and especially in the winters I loved I did not have to get my car out of the snow. The situation is rather different now, we live outside of the city center, we have a garage for two cars, and a big house, but I think I am a city girl by heart.

I guess the big winner with this arrangement is my husband so far. He does not have to bring and pick up our son from kinder garden most of the times as he was doing previously, nowadays I bring my son to kinder garden and he picks him up. I do have breakfast with my son calmly at home in the mornings, it takes a bit longer to get to work (about 50 minutes) but only 20-25 minutes to go back, (kinder garden is a big d-tour). I get to spend more time with my family as I am arriving earlier to home for sure, it used to take about 1 h and 15 minutes if I missed the right bus back.

Good stuff, I am not sure how long it will take until driving is not an issue anymore, I guess now parking is the issue, but I am working on it. 

A day as a taxi driver

The plan for the day was to drive alone for the first time to my work place, but, my husband needed a ride to a place near my office, so he came along. We however decided that he and my son were to be siting on the back seat, and no instructions were allowed.  So we went for a taxi driver setup.

I have driven many times the same route (about 20 km long), but always accompanied by my husband as a copilot. His company is quite reassuring because besides telling me where to go, he also lets me know when something can be improved on my driving.  Lately he has not been telling that many things so I am assuming I am ready to venture on my own.

Day. Saturday morning
Traffic conditions. No traffic jams. It was relatively calm, but not deserted
Speed limits. 40km/h, 80 km/h and a short trip of 100 km/h
Weather. Already on the plus side +3C or so, still, it has been colder before so it could  be icy on areas not exposed to the sun.
How did the trip go. Quite good!, my concentration and eyes were on the road, making sure I was keeping the car on a speed I could control and based on the weather conditions. I changed the lanes when I have to, observed speed limits, and arrived safely to my destination. The gear changing techniques could be better, e.g. switching early to higher gears.
Highlight of the route. There is a part of the route on which one of the three lanes is ending, so it is becoming a two lanes road for a short period. On a previous journey I missed the sign and I was taking my time to merge into the left lane, I noticed too late but the driver on the left lane anticipated that I will have to merge at the last minute, scary stuff..
This time, a big truck and I will expect a professional driver missed the sign too, and I was the driver on the left lane, I did not overtake him and gave him plenty of space to merge because I thought he will do the same as I did. He did, he even signaled shortly.

I decided to record my heart rate on the way there and back. You can still see driving is a big deal for me. Probably I can compare my Heart rate graphs later as my driving skills improve and I feel more confident.

After reaching my work place, my husband gave me instructions (from the back seat) where he needed to go, I was a bit nervous because it was a new place, but we went there. On the way back he then sit next to me. This time I remembered to start my gps device to record track, speed and distance and see the correlations to my heart rate. See the graphs below

Heart rate graph. On my way to my work place, then to drop my husband to his destination

Heart rate on the way back home. Lower, maybe because my husband was in the passenger seat

Speed clearly on legal limits :)

My Nissan Micra and my son getting into the car

The logs above can be seen from movescount.com

• Journey home to work place. http://www.movescount.com/moves/move8563410
• Journey back home: http://www.movescount.com/moves/move8563411

Driving assignment of the day

Assignment of the day: Going to pick up my son from daycare. 

Distance: 4 km to destination from home. (8 km back and forth)

Road conditions: slippery 0 Celsius and congested (commuter rush hours). Dark, but good visibility considering everything is lid 

Speed limits along the route: 30, 40 and 50 km/h

How did it go. I was a bit tense during my driving, happy and relieve when I arrived home. I had the radio on but I cannot remember what was in there, probably because they were talking in Finnish :D

My son's evaluation of my driving. Antonio, today I am taking you by car to home. Mama, where is papa? Are you capable of driving alone :D?, yes Antonio. Ok he said. Then, once at home. Antonio did you like the trip?, yes mama but you drive slower than papa. I assume I did good

What was I thinking while driving and why was I so tense:

First at traffic light waiting for green to turn to right, the car behind me is a bit too close for my liking, let’s move a bit to the front. Well the driver behind me close the gap again, sigh!, but turning went ok.

Second. Road speed limits is 40 km/h, I am sticking to it on my meter and slowing down when approaching pedestrian crossing to see all those people without reflectors, and be prepare to break softly, it is slippery you know. So that keep me busy.

Third. A left turn approaching with traffic light, nothing challenging, made sure to take the right lane for the turn, signaled my turn, took the turn at the right speed to be able to react to pedestrians crossing.. ok

Forth. Move to the right lane, to turn right in the next intersection. Arrow lights easy.

Fifth. A left turn approaching without traffic light. Had to give way to almost everyone except for the guy on my left, hey the guy on my left is going already, ok wait longer, luckily nobody was behind me, but now someone is and now I can go.. went ok

Sixth. The slowest part, 30 km/h speed limit, two way road with bumpers and lots of things obstructing the road, had to be aware of cars coming from the opposite direction and check well in advance if the two of us could fit in the road or if I have to wait for them to pass first. Went ok.

Seven. Arriving at destination, plenty of room to park the car. Happy still managed to put the car a bit too far from the edge for my liking, but I am not obstructing the traffic. So it is ok.

Sigh! I have to do this again to go back home.. let’s get Antonio and go back.

On my way back, I was reluctant to do a 180 degree turn on a two way street (everybody does it) but not me, I rather went to a swimming hall parking lot and used it for turning around. Safer.

Pretty much the same things on the route back, but I was happy when a taxi driver was waiting for me to pass in that full of obstructions road. I was waiving at him and other drivers to let them know my appreciation, but keeping my eyes on the front of course .

Then, almost when arriving home there is another left turn. I signaled and waited while cars from the opposite direction where crossing, went a bit to the front making sure I was not blocking any lanes. Great the last car is gone, traffic turned to yellow, lets cross.. I managed and nobody complained, probably the guy waiting to turn left behind me, was happy I went already on yellow.