Moving Off and Stopping

You’re parked up on the left side of the road and now it’s time to set off. Switch the engine on and prepare the car. Clutch down, first gear, a little bit of gas and then slowly raise your left foot until you can feel the biting point. Once you’ve done this keep your feet still. Next it’s time to check around you to make sure it’s safe from any road users and pedestrians.

Start off by checking your left blind spot, left door mirror, interior mirror, right door mirror and finally your right blind spot, checking to see if there is any movement on the right and once you feel it’s safe to move off then you can give a right signal (if you feel it’ll benefit someone) then place the handbrake down.

Steer a quarter to the right and hold the wheel there. Allow the car to head towards the centre of the road then steer half a turn to the left to straighten the body of the vehicle. Once the body of the car is straight now you can straighten the wheels by steering a quarter to the right. Hold the wheel straight and let your hands follow your eyes.

You can remove the clutch at this point and start to gently accelerate. If you are accelerating over 10 mph it may be a good idea to change to second gear. In order to change to second gear come off the gas, put the clutch all the way down to the bottom, select second gear, slowly come off the clutch pedal and then return back on to the gas pedal. Start to accelerate slowly picking up speed as you go along.

When it’s time to pull over on the left, check your interior mirror to see the speed and the position of the vehicles behind you and then check the left door mirror to check for any cyclists. If it’s safe to pull in you can give a left signal to signal your intentions that you wish to pull over.

Steer a quarter to the left whilst delicately braking and allow the car to move towards the kerb. Once you’ve moved in enough then steer a half to the right to straighten the body of the vehicle and once the body is straight then steer a quarter to the right to straighten the wheels.

Finally secure the vehicle by raising the handbrake and selecting neutral.