Practice the road rules

Learning the road rules in a practical setting will not only help your learner make better sense of them, it’s also excellent preparation for the learner's licence/permit test.

If you’re not up to date with the latest road rules, don’t worry - few experienced drivers are. Keep the road rules book for your state or territory in the car, and show your learner you’re willing to learn too.

Activity: Practicing road rules from the passenger seat

• Let your learner choose a different section of the book each time you’re in the car and memorise a few rules that will match where you’re driving (e.g. they might study parking or traffic lights for inner city driving).
• Encourage your learner to notice what you and other drivers are doing. Are they obeying the rules? Ask your learner what they notice.
• Let your learner guide you to drive correctly. For example, they could say “At this intersection you will have to give way to…” or “You can park here but only until four o’clock'.

Activity: Playing police

Here are some of the road rules drivers often don’t get right – help your learner learn they rules and then see if they identify when other drivers break them:

• Speed limits and speed limit signs
• Following immediately behind another car
• Amber traffic lights
• Parking signs and lines (particularly No Parking and No Standing)
• Lanes for turning
• Signalling when pulling out from parked position, changing lanes, moving into and off roundabouts
• Merging
• Giving way to pedestrians
• Passing bicycle riders

Next activity: Learning to think like a driver