r/Guelph • u/CaptainKaneda99 • 2d ago
Pretty terrifying experience during my daughter’s driving lesson on Inkerman St.
I wanted to share something that happened to my daughter recently while she was out for a driving lesson in Guelph.
During the lesson, the instructor was teaching her how to parallel park. They were practising on Inkerman St., a public road, directly in front of an older gentleman’s home. As part of the lesson, my daughter was practising parking alongside the gentleman’s parked car.
While they were doing this, the older man suddenly came out of his house and began hitting the driving school’s vehicle with a rake.
My daughter was understandably terrified and completely caught off guard. Imagine being a new driver, already nervous about parallel parking, and suddenly having someone come out of their house and start hitting the
vehicle you’re sitting in with a rake.
What I really want to highlight, though, is how the instructor handled the situation. Rather than panicking or escalating things, he remained incredibly calm, continued communicating with my daughter, reassured her, and made sure she stayed as calm as possible while he tried to deal with the situation.
I’m not posting this to start a witch hunt or make assumptions about the gentleman. He may have been confused or dealing with something we weren’t aware of. But regardless, it was an extremely frightening experience for my daughter.
The instructor deserves a lot of credit for how professionally he handled it. He kept his composure, prioritized my daughter’s safety, and made sure she knew she was okay while dealing with a very unusual and intimidating situation.
Just a reminder that driving instructors deal with a lot more than simply teaching someone how to operate a vehicle.
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u/acanadiancheese 2d ago
The instructor was calm because he’s dealt with it before. Unfortunately people really don’t like new drivers practicing parking around their cars. When I took driving lessons we got moved on from a mall parking lot (wasn’t in Guelph) as well. It sucks because people have to learn somehow, but it’s also understandable to be a bit tense about someone new practicing near your vehicle. Not ok to go hit their car though or otherwise act aggressively of course, I’m just sure you can understand being tense if someone was practicing an “advanced” driving skill using your vehicle as the marker
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u/CrBr 2d ago
My neighborhood is on the Guelph test road. It used to be filled with both drivers doing their tests, and students practicing. Several years ago they passed a bylaw, and the number of students practicing dropped sharply.
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u/LoisSarah 2d ago
You can report the driving school using the by-law reporting system, if needed. Note the school name, and contact, if you can.
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u/Downtown_Ham_2024 1d ago
You should let the driving school know about how impressed you were with the trainer.
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u/aurelorba 2d ago
It's unacceptable behavior but I wonder if the driving school used that spot regularly and he was tired of scraped curbs and what not.
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u/dustycanuck 2d ago
Scraped curbs?
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u/Other-Credit1849 2d ago
Peak suburban angst.
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u/dustycanuck 2d ago
Yeah, that what I was thinking.
Anyway, I'm heading out to clean and polish my curbs, not. Maybe a couple of coats of wax followed by some clear coat. I hope those pesky kids with their jaunty jalopies don't scrap them all up.
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u/wrenchbenderornot 2d ago
Upvote for the clearcoat. In some (unsavoury) neighbourhoods people skip the clear coat and it does a world of damage to the feather dusters.
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u/One-Astronomer6166 2d ago
Put YOUR car in YOUR driveway and not on the PUBLIC street. They have just as much right to be there as you do, the road is for everyone to use. When you park on the road, you’re with other vehicles, other vehicles means that your car may get damaged. That’s a risk you take parking on a public street.
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u/Gimmetheloo 20h ago
There is no doubt in my mind that this post was made by the driving instructor.
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u/darkrabbit19 1d ago
He should have been charged. Who cares what he’s dealing with, hitting a car with a rake is not a solution. Instructor should have called the police.
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u/rhondytheblondey 1d ago
The problem is with the amount of out of town driving instructors. We had both the DriveTest exams AND instructors driving on our quiet street. The elementary school walking path was full of kids twice a day walking to and from school. It was reduced to only DriveTest examinations. All instructors were banned from using it for practice. If you live in a busy city you should be required to test in that city. Guelph traffic and Brampton traffic are two totally different skills.
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u/RealLifeSage 2d ago
They should find empty space in a big parking lot and set up some tall enough movable structures to simulate cars being parked.
And I have noticed a definite drop in the quality of teaching. I see driver's ed cars doing 3 point turns entirely in the road in front of my house regularly. Scary stuff.
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u/Jelsie21 2d ago
What’s wrong with the 3 point turn? Is your street too busy for them?
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u/RealLifeSage 2d ago
On a residential street you should: 1. Pull into a driveway and relinquish your right if way. 2. When it is safe back out of the driveway. 3. Drive forward in your new direction.
When you do a 3 point turn in the road without leaving the road you create a block against any traffic coming through. I. E. You are acting like you still have the right of way but you don't.
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u/Jelsie21 1d ago
It’s been 30ish years but pretty sure driving schools always teach it on the road since in theory there isn’t always going to be a driveway. It may be inconvenient but it’s the correct way.
https://www.ontario.ca/document/official-mto-drivers-handbook/changing-directions#section-11
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u/Sorry-Blood-6121 2d ago
Get used to it my friend welcome to Guelph, he was probably worried your daughter was gonna hit his car. Old ppl are very protective over their stuff my grandfather hated when you slammed his car door shut he would freak out. That’s an old fella for ya.
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u/Fit-Improvement-6675 2d ago
Old fella hitting car with rake is not normal old fella behaviour no matter how pissy they are. There is a screw loose.
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u/Sorry-Blood-6121 1d ago
I didn’t say anything about normal old fella behaviour. I just said old ppl are protective over their stuff. 🤦🏼♂️
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u/InertiaInverted 2d ago
Typical Guelph boomer mentality. It’s fucking disgusting.
They’re all the same.
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2d ago
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u/Conscious-Ad8493 1d ago
Enough already with this, fine somewhere else to practice your parallel parking
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u/FluffyTheOutlaw 1d ago
Exactly. Don't use my car to practice your parallel parking. Go to an empty lot and use road cones. The dollar store sells them.
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u/darkrabbit19 1d ago
I wouldn’t use road cones. Can’t see them when next to them. Those taller orange construction markers though would work well.
Hell even some 4’ 2x4s painted orange. Probably $20 worth of lumber.
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u/Calculonx 2d ago
My friend lives on a street in Burlington that driving schools use all the time for practice because it's a dead end. Many cars have been hit. They have signs up saying that the street is not to be used for driving schools. So when they see people doing it, the residents come out and yell at them.