Our oldest went through this class, and after a couple months of additional practice with me, was scheduled for his final test to pass the class this morning. The test was scheduled with instructor Carol Howie.
We arrived about 7 minutes early. A few minutes after the appointment time, we finally found her. But she said she was booked with another student. I'm pretty sure I spoke with that student briefly when I was looking everywhere for Carol.
I assumed that the home office must have double-booked Carol, and only told her of the other student's appointment. But Carol was quite sure *I* must have made a mistake, definitely not the home office.
So we went home and called the home office. They said no, Carol was scheduled for our son at that time, and that the other student was scheduled for an hour later, and that Carol must have misread her schedule.
As for the other student arriving early, perhaps she was confused about when to change her clocks for daylight savings time? The clock change would be the following morning (Sunday) at 2am. But her phone must change automatically at the right time, so I don't know.
If you do take lessons here, I'd suggest avoiding Carol Howie. When we rescheduled, we made sure to schedule it with another instructor. From my brief and rather unpleasant interaction with Carol, I'm not sure she's well suited to a job where she interacts with customers, especially kids. People who leap to the conclusion that the customer is wrong, especially when another likely explanation is so readily available, shouldn't be in customer-facing jobs.
But you came here to read about the class in general, not just that incident.
They seem very thorough. But somehow my son got through all their classes and tests very successfully with some surprising gaps in his knowledge about right-of-way. Some things I had to teach him after he'd learned all their material and passed all their tests before the final driving test:
-- When you're turning left at a green ball (no arrow), you have to wait for anyone else coming straight through from the opposite side.
-- When you stop behind someone else at a 4-way stop, that doesn't count as your stop at that intersection; you have to stop again when you get to the front of the line.
-- Driveways don't count as uncontrolled intersections; the fact that you "got there" before someone on the road doesn't mean you can drive out in front of them and expect them to stop. This happened at a strip mall, so I can understand the confusion, but still it was a driveway with no traffic controls at that driveway for the cars on the road, therefore no right-of-way for the person entering the road from the driveway.
-- Just because you have a stop sign doesn't mean everyone else does. If you have a stop sign and the cross street doesn't, then "getting there first" doesn't mean you can drive out in front of them and expect them to stop. You have to wait for all of the cars on the cross street that doesn't have a stop sign.
I had to teach him so much about right-of-way that I don't understand how he could have passed a test on it before I started working with him on it. But he passed all their tests and did very well on them.
I rode along with all my son's driving tests. Both instructors (Jim and German) were very engaged with the student and seemed passionate about teaching good driving skills. I thought some of the things they said were a little odd, but it's been a long time since I learned. At times the two contradicted each other, but not over anything very important.
When it comes time for our next kid to take driving lessons, I wouldn't rule this company out, but I also wouldn't rule out considering another one.
I learned one interesting thing long the way. 39 years ago I was taught, both in my high school driving class and by my parents, that when turning left at a busy intersection, we should proceed to almost the middle of the intersection, then go when the way was clear. Which might mean just after the light turns red, if oncoming cars don't stop until then. But now I learned that in Washington State, if you're still in the intersection when it goes red, you're breaking the law.
For some intersections, that can mean waiting a long, long time. For myself, I still proceed to the middle, as I've been doing it for 39 years with no problem, and I think most people do it.
But my son follows the law and what he was taught in class -- he waits outside the intersection until the way is clear. We came across an intersection in downtown Bellevue which just cycles between green, yellow, and red balls, with never an arrow. Lots of cars came through from the other side. We sat through three full cycles of lights before the way was clear. read more
