Stopping
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Finding a safe place to stop:
For this lesson your mentor will probably have decided where you are going to stop before you move away. However, you need to understand how to find a safe stopping place as you will need to need to know for any future lessons.
The Highway Code gives good instances of safe and unsafe places. As a general rule, you are looking for a place where you will be easily seen by other road users and which is safe for them to pass. Also, you must not cause an obstruction such as stopping across or opposite a driveway or junction.
Precautions before stopping:
Having picked your place to stop, you must check it is safe to move in. Before slowing down or moving the car in towards the curb, we must check behind that it is safe to do so. Check your interior mirror to see if there is any traffic close behind and check your external left mirror to see if there are any road users likely to be affected by moving in. (For more information on use of mirrors, click here).
(As you will be practicing this lesson somewhere quiet, you may not see the necessity for all these observations of mirrors etc.. But it is a very important habit to get in to, so that, when you are on busy roads, you automatically do the right thing.)
Having checked your mirrors, decide if you need to signal left. Remember, you will need to signal if to do so will help another road user - that may apply just as much to vehicles or pedestrians in front of you as behind. If the road is completely clear, you needn’t signal.
Take your foot off the gas and gently steer towards the kerb to allow the car to drift in. Try to keep parallel to the curb. You are aiming to stop without scraping the wheels on the kerb and just an inch or two out. Gently press the brake pedal and, just before the car stops, make sure you press the clutch pedal right to the floor.
Stopping
Securing the car:
When the car has stopped, keep your foot on the brake and keep the clutch down. Pull on the handbrake and move the gear lever to the neutral position. (You must pull the handbrake on before neutral to make sure the car is secure before taking it out of gear). Now you may release the clutch and brake pedals. Switch the engine off if you wish.
