‘My nemesis’: The wonderful (and sometimes stressful) life of an Aussie P plater

Few things encapsulate the beauty of driving like the first time you go for that solo drive after getting your licence. I’ll never forget turning that first corner of my street where it felt like the road became wider on my way to a friend's house and the inevitable late-night Maccas run.

And while the first car rides either by yourself or with mates bookmark the chapter into adulthood, it can also be daunting once you realise – you’re on your own.

RELATED: The EVs p-platers are banned from driving

For Daksh Singh, a 21-year-old who recently graduated to his provisional licence, merging on the freeway for the first time exposed the harsh reality that most young drivers face when they're driving solo.

“My first solo freeway merge was pretty scary. I misjudged the gap, and the car behind me honked their horn [hard]. My heart was pounding so much that I had to pull over a few minutes later just to breathe for a bit. I felt shaky for the rest of the day but also kind of proud I’d handled it and kept going,” Singh told Drive.

When you’re a learner, navigating different scenarios is crucial in developing road skills.

According to a recent survey conducted by Youi Insurance – which polled more than 1000 Aussie drivers – learning different parking manoeuvres was the biggest pain point for novice motorists, with reverse parking (48 per cent) and parallel parking (41 per cent) cited as the hardest parking skills to learn.

Gen Z respondents showed the highest early confidence in driving at 81 per cent, and Singh was part of the majority. Until a close run-in with a gutter.

In his words, “If you’d asked me back then [when I was on my L’s], I would’ve said I was a solid 8 out of 10 driver. Then I tried squeezing the Honda Accord into a tight spot outside of a café and clipped the gutter with my back wheel trying to angle it in.”

“Turns out confidence and being good at judging space are two very different things.”

While the 21-year-old driver confessed that “parallel parking was his nemesis”, it was this advanced parking skill that gave him nightmares.

“Reverse parallel parking, no contest. On my L’s, I’d go out of my way to avoid a street if I could see one coming up. These days, I still don’t love it, but I’m not detouring three blocks to dodge it anymore,” he said.

For parents – my mum included – passing the control of a moving vehicle to your child is generally a top source of stress and anxiety accompanied by a white-knuckle grip on the door handle or pressing hard on the imaginary brake pedal.

Singh is no exception. According to the Melbourne driver, driving his parents around in his dad’s old Honda Accord was both sentimental and nerve-wracking.

“Driving dad for the first time in what used to be his own car felt like a full circle moment. He kept pointing out the little things about the Accord I didn’t even know, like he still felt a bit attached to it,” he recalled.

“My mum did the whole silent foot brake thing on her side even though there’s no pedal there, which honestly made me more nervous than having dad in the car.”

Despite the roadblocks the young motorist faced, the stress doesn’t come close to that first solo drive.

“First time I properly drove to hang out with mates was heading to the movies on my own, no lift needed for once. Me driving myself there to meet everyone honestly felt like a bigger deal than the movie itself,” he said.

“I remember double-checking I’d parked properly about three times before walking in, paranoid I’d come back to find I’d block someone in. It sounds like a small thing, but showing up under my own steam instead of getting dropped off felt like an actual milestone.”

The journey to getting a licence is filled with ups, downs and everything in between – but for Singh, it's “being able to leave whenever you want without negotiating on anyone else's schedule” that made it all worth it.

But there are some other aspects that are also eye-opening for the young motorist.

“Having the music on as loud as I want without getting a running commentary on my braking. It sounds small, but it's that bit of independence that actually changes how driving feels, especially in a car that used to be my dad's.”