Flow

Flow assesses how well you combine the driving skills together.

When your driving flows it suggests that you are becoming a competent driver. It is a sign that you have learnt the individual driving skills and that you can put them together.

When your driving flows it means you do not have to think consciously about what to do. That is, you can do things ‘automatically’. If your driving flows, you can have a conversation with a passenger without it affecting your driving in any way.

Practise in many situations to develop ‘mental programs’.

To develop the flow quality of your driving, you need to get as much driving experience as possible. One or two ‘practice runs’ in a few situations will not be enough.

Flow also covers how well you deal with mistakes. Even competent drivers make mistakes but when they do, it is usually not a major problem for them. They can generally correct and adjust their driving without breaking their flow. This is similar to when a juggler drops a ball but manages to pick it up and continue juggling without pausing.

The diagram below represents what fluent performance might look like - one part flows into the next. As one part is finishing another part is starting, sometimes several parts happen at once. A competent driver will do all of these things automatically.

A competent driver combining the parts of a task

When a competent driver makes an error, such as stalling the car and immediately restarts the engine, it does not interrupt their flow. This is a sign of competence. You can make mistakes and still receive a ‘YES’ for flow.

When you are still learning,you might have some problems completing tasks in the correct order. Your driving might appear as separate parts with obvious breaks and pauses between actions as illustrated in the picture below.

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Your assessor will check the flow of your driving when you are performing either slow or road speed manoeuvres.

The assessor starts scoring flow immediately after giving you a direction.

The following examples of flow are indicative of the aspects of your driving that the assessor will be checking when assessing flow. You should read these examples in conjunction with "Drive Safe: A Handbook for Western Australian Drivers". In the following diagrams, you are driving the red car.

You start the manoeuvre promptly

At various times your assessor will ask you to follow directions or perform specific exercises. You should start the manoeuvres promptly.

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You proceed continuously through the parts of the manoeuvre

Most manoeuvres have many parts. When your driving flows, all those parts blend from one into the next. In basic manoeuvres you should not have to pause and think about what to do.

You perform your manoeuvres so that they fit in with other traffic

When you perform manoeuvres such as leaving the kerb, changing lanes or turning at intersections or roundabouts you must fit in with other traffic. You must be able to:

• look for gaps in the traffic;
• decide which gap allows you enough space to complete the manoeuvre safely; and
• drive smoothly into your chosen gap.

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You comply with rules for stopping and giving way

Flow also assesses your ability to apply certain road rules, particularly stopping and giving way.

STOP signs

You will fail the assessment if you do not come to a complete stop at stop lines.

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