My name is Pete Stevens. I am a licensed driving instructor in Bedford Nova Scotia who grew up in Cole Harbour. I am married and literally all wifey and I do is drive. In fact, all I have ever done my whole life is fix, operate, ride, and drive machines such as forklifts, hydraulic power tongs, big trucks, motorcycles, and many different types of cars. With well over a million kilometres of driving experience I have learned that I will never be able to anticipate every scenario that I could possibly encounter while on the road and to constantly expect the unexpected. Driving is all about flow and thinking ahead. This blog will help to illustrate and demonstrate some of the various driving situations that a person could encounter in traffic and how to deal with them. The goal is to help drivers develop their eye while in traffic, and to see the road in a more comprehensive way.

 

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Experience is the best teacher and I hope that by sharing some of my experiences, I can assist other drivers in staying safe on the road. Every student that I teach makes the same observation about me, “you’re so laid back”. Being relaxed and confident is what helps keep you safe while driving and many times the key in critical situations is what you don’t do. This website is entirely free but if you feel like contributing a small amount of money, there is a link at the bottom of this page where you can buy me a coffee. Any funds received will be allocated to purchasing higher quality video and photography equipment to make this site and its content even better. Everyone should learn how to stay safe on the road no matter what their financial status is. The more people that are trained professionally on how to drive, the safer we all are.

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Do Your Homework When Choosing A Driving School - These types of stories are very common.

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I've had numerous licensed mechanics around Halifax service the brakes on my various driver's ed cars and so far I've only found one garage that knows how to service them properly so that they don't squeak. I've worked for a couple of different driving schools that tried to tell me that it's normal for brakes to squeak. One school had a car that's brakes were so worn out that the pedal would go to the floor when applied and a loud humming sound could be heard. The school assured me that it was normal for the car to do that. I left that school shortly after. I have to give Keizer's Tire in Eastern Passage a shoutout here because they did a professional job when servicing my brakes, and their shop was spotless.

 

 

 

Keizer's Tire

 

https://www.facebook.com/keizerstireservice/

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I recently took a student out for a lesson who told me that he had previously been at another local driving school. He was out on a lesson in which the instructor took him onto a road with black ice. The student crashed into a ditch after the instructor  panicked and hit the second brake pedal, due to a minor slip on the ice. Then the instructor began yelling at him, blaming the student for the crash. The student was traumatized and then the instructor made things worse by telling the student to get out of the car and push it out of the ditch while the instructor sat in the driver's seat mocking him until the tow truck arrived. The student was extremely timid when he got into my car but after about 20 minutes of our lesson you could see that he was at ease. After the lesson he was glowing with confidence.

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I take students out in all types of weather conditions but only if they're comfortable driving in them. This ensures that when they do finally begin driving on their own, they will be confident and comfortable in adverse conditions, which is critical when something goes wrong. When a driver is confident and comfortable they will always react better to sudden hazards or situations. Just because an instructor is licensed, does not mean that they are necessarily experienced with teaching or driving in certain types of situations. If your driving instructor is nervous, that's going to make you have a very difficult time learning to drive. Check out the video below of a lesson I did in February of 2023 in a major blizzard. This student's parents encouraged her to go out with me for this lesson and it was a lot of fun. I don't have words to express how proud it makes me to see a student perform like this in these types of weather conditions. (video below)