The inevitable happened this morning.

[OlgaH]

Here are Russian Road signs.

[Ooooops]

Don't get me wrong; my fiancée is a natural and she picked things up extremely quickly but there was such a lack of knowledge to begin with, far less than the average westerner I'd say.

I don't consider it as a lack of knowledge  - I see it as broadening your horizon      Smart person should be very happy to learn something new all the time.   Driving a car is included   

[Ooooops]

If I'm not mistaken a commercial driver's liscense is not required for an RV. I don't know of many RV's that excede 26,000 lbs.

http://www.unicat.net/ 

 

[GoodOlBoy]

Here are Russian Road signs.

Thanks Olga.

I recognize some of those signs from years back when I drove around in Omsk in my FIL's car.

The thing I remember most about driving in Omsk was that NOBODY seemed to pay any attention to them (road signs)!


GOB

[Ooooops]

I hope my wife will drive one day but I just don't see it happening.

My Grandmother-in-Law never drove a car in her lifetime.  I don't thing she even had a driving license either.   First it was her husband who drove her around, then her son.   Your wife can be like that as well, nothing wrong with it. 

[Blues Fairy]

So don't underestimate your wives - they are smart adult human beings and driving ain't a brain surgery.   

Indeed.
What's this nonsense with "not being exposed to road culture". Russians have roads too you know. But even suppose she's never seen a stop sign in her life: how hard can it be to remember that a red rhombus means stop?

I think running through red lights has more to do with being distracted than with not knowing what red lights mean.

[UTRO]

Well, I grew up in a pretty large city, Montreal and I never had a License until I was 20. Firstly, like most FSU cities and fair sized towns, the transit system was superb. Buses and Metro came often, the network was vast and the system reliable. So, there was no pressing need for a car. Secondly, my Dad didn't want me pick up any bad driving habits from him and therefore he refused to teach me.
Maybe in Canada and the USA we live in a car society... but this does not necessarily hold 100% true for those members here from Europe and Asia. Especially those who are from cities.
I would highly recommend that anyone who wants to teach their wife to learn how to drive, not to. Leave it to the professionals. She and you don't need the stress involved. Let her take advice and orders from someone who is neutral. Someone she isn't so nervous around and trying to please because that person is her husband. The husband who won't let her forget her driving mistakes! The husband who is genuinely trying to help, might unknowingly be passing on bad driving advice!!
I'm 46 and I've never had an accident or even a speeding ticket. I've owned some pretty fast cars including a 500hp Mustang Shelby. Svetlana's primary teaching will be done by someone who is a teacher. Not me who isn't.
p.s. Even being a pedestrian in the FSU, it is still pretty important knowing various traffic signs and signals.... or else you become a casualty.

[Ooooops]

Russians have roads too you know.

Duh!   

No, seriously, sometimes I think that men adopt children instead of marring adult women...   

[KenC]

Thanks Olga.

I recognize some of those signs from years back when I drove around in Omsk in my FIL's car.

The thing I remember most about driving in Omsk was that NOBODY seemed to pay any attention to them (road signs)!


GOB

I think there are 3 reasons for the typical difficulty in RW learning to drive well.

1. The lack of exposure to a driving/car culture as explained above.
2. The difficulty (frustration) in teaching someone that is your equal instead of for instance your child, where your instructions are not questioned.
3. The overall reluctance to follow the rules (laws) of the road.  I think Americans are conditioned to follow the rules, often blindly without question.  Where as a lot of Russians look at the rules or road signs as "suggestions" as GOB indicates above.

Lena has become a very good driver.  I am not a great passanger and am usually uncomfortable with anyone else driving.  I have to say that I am very comfortable with her driving.  But this level did not come without some pain.  There was a time when her confidence exceeded her experience and abilities.  It takes time and experience to develop one's instincts.  The times she did have accidents was when she didn't have time to "think" about what to do and needed to act "instinctively."  The lack of developed instincts coupled with pushing the envelope (not following the rules of the road to the letter) is a dangerous combination.  It just takes time.
KenC

[KenC]

Indeed.
What's this nonsense with "not being exposed to road culture". Russians have roads too you know. But even suppose she's never seen a stop sign in her life: how hard can it be to remember that a red rhombus means stop?

I think running through red lights has more to do with being distracted than with not knowing what red lights mean.

BF,
It is not that Russians have never been exposed to driving, but the amount of exposure is much more limited than Americans.  Americans drive everywhere.  Lena once said "to not be able to drive in America is like not having legs in Russia."  Like I said above, road instincts need to developed over time.
KenC

[Ooooops]

  Like I said above, road instincts need to developed over time.

And that time ain't that long.       

[Blues Fairy]

I think there are 3 reasons for the typical difficulty in RW learning to drive well.
1.
2.
3.

4. The level of general stress a new immigrant experiences in her first year here, coincidentally learning to drive. Stress makes you distracted and oblivious of the road signs.  All the occasions when I, an experienced driver, almost ran through a red light here were connected with some major mental preoccupation I was going through at the moment.  

[groovlstk]

I would highly recommend that anyone who wants to teach their wife to learn how to drive, not to. Leave it to the professionals. She and you don't need the stress involved. Let her take advice and orders from someone who is neutral. Someone she isn't so nervous around and trying to please because that person is her husband.

I'd second this with a wee bit of caution. We used two driving instructors to help my wife get up to speed. Perhaps we were unlucky or didn't do enough homework but the instructors my wife had were interested only in helping her pass her road test - nothing else. Years ago I took a high-performance driving course that took place over a weekend at a track in PA. I'm planning to enroll my wife over the Summer as it teaches how to avoid accidents and control your car in skids and other emergency situations. (It's one helluva lot of fun, too )

[GoodOlBoy]

.........almost ran through a red light here were connected with some major mental preoccupation I was going through at the moment. 

Shopping spree at Macy's or Bloomingdale's? 


GOB

[UTRO]

Years ago I took a high-performance driving course that took place over a weekend at a track in PA. I'm planning to enroll my wife over the Summer as it teaches how to avoid accidents and control your car in skids and other emergency situations. (It's one helluva lot of fun, too )

I've done this and I would agree! Defensive Driving, Skid School and High Speed Avoidance Courses, A1 

[Ooooops]

Blues Fairy, I guess we are the only two Russian Women in the world who can pass the driving test without the close supervision of our husbands.    And are able to drive without crushing cars to the total all the times.   And being able to park without whiping out the side mirrors...  And ...   Help me here, please!    

[Blues Fairy]

Shopping spree at Macy's or Bloomingdale's? 

Finding out I was pregnant, one fine morning.  Does that count? 

[Ade]

I don't consider it as a lack of knowledge  - I see it as broadening your horizon      Smart person should be very happy to learn something new all the time.   Driving a car is included   

Maybe I'm not making myself clear. She was of course very enthusiastic to learn something new but the fundamentals were missing, basic things that usually in the West even a child picks up by being in a car next to their parents. She'd hardly ever sat next to someone in a car before and had absolutely no concept of what a gear stick or brake was and had never bothered to notice the signs meant for directing traffic - why should she, she had no plan ever to learn to drive. Sure, you get people here like that too but these days it's rare.

[Ooooops]

She'd hardly ever sat next to someone in a car before ...

Ouch!      Ok, I can't relate to that, sorry....

[sudz]

Here are Russian Road signs.

What do 2.1 and 2.2 mean?

- Sudz

[SANDRO43]

Russians have roads too you know.

Excerpt from the RWD E-book .

[SANDRO43]

What do 2.1 and 2.2 mean?

IINM:

2.1 = this road has right-of-way
2.2. = end of right-of-way

3.29, 3.30, 3.32 and 3.33 are fairly obscure to me, though.

[ECOCKS]

HT and KenC are calling this right. It's simple experience, lack of awareness and culture. . My wife has spent a week driving in a half-populated subdivision with stop signs but no lights and is chafing at not getting out on busy roads.  Yesterday she made it about a block on a larger road (4 lane with a turn lane) before the driver behind her honked due to her slow speed whereupon she turned into the next parking lot to swap seats. We were up early (6:30 am on Saturday and Sunday) to go downtown in Boise where she could practice closer buildings, lights, turn lanes and the pedestrian crossing lines.  She's fighting the newbie tactic of going SLOW everywhere. Argues that on a turn she must go slow to maintain control and doesn't undersand the concept of obstructing traffic making the people behind her irate. She has the driving skill of a city permit driver in their first week or so.

[GQBlues]

The experience of having to transition to an automobile society is not meant to solely isolate Russians (w). The sampling was simply borne relative to the root of this forum. That could very well apply to an immigrating Ethiopian or Latvian for that matter.

However, and on a different slant, I'm certain many of you are aware which countries top the list as having the higher number of car accidents per year relative to it's driving population.

KenC explained the point I was trying to convey even more closely when he said...

It takes time and experience to develop one's instincts.  The times she did have accidents was when she didn't;t have time to "think" about what to do and needed to act "instinctively."

I agree with that. There are road awareness that became second nature to a lot of us simply because we had greater exposure to this over the years back when we were still required to ride on special car seats. There are a great many things we observed and noted in the past that eventually became vital components in our driving skills and habit today, none of which we learned from driver's ed or lessons.

Citing just a few of them...

a) It's automatic for me when driving on the freeway to glance my rear view mirror, side mirrors almost in a quick glance so at almost any given time I'm driving I am aware not only what car is around me and how close ~ but also what color and the approx. speed they're travelling. b) I automatically remove myself, either by speeding up or slowing down, from the other driver's blind spot, c) I pay close attention to the relationship of the front wheels of the cars driving alongside me to the lane dividers.

We do a lot of these with frequency. Instinctively or habitually (however you want to classify it). I know that it's built in in us that we don't even notice we're doing them anymore (haha, how do you know you're doing it then? there I spared yah!). This all automatically get stored and processed constantly so when something do happen, your rate of reaction is so much quicker, almost instinctively. For many of you, you can almost glance at an intersection you're fast approacing and almost instantly embed that picture in your head ~ two pedestrian in the corner waiting for a green light, an idling car in the intersection waiting to make a left turn, 7 seconds left before 'yellow', 3 stopped vehicle on the eastside, two on the west side, multiple cars coming from the opposite direction, etc...

Institutions do in fact attempt to teach us this very subject. They term it IPDE. Identify, Predict, Decide, Execute. But unless you have years of actual exposure and visualization to a lot of road conditions, the likelihood of you not being able to react quickly is fairly high - and higher likelihood of being involved in an accident, and it doesn't matter what your nationality is.

[OlgaH]

What do 2.1 and 2.2 mean?

- Sudz

Just a picture's number  

___________________________

Sudz, Sorry for my misunderstanding. I should guess that you have asked about meaning of the signs.

Sandro already gave the answer. 2.1 is Priority road  2.2 is end of Priority road.