S4E15: Riana Avis – Letting Friend Drive Unsafe VW Bug (Transcript)

(sneak peek)

RIANA: I had a friend, for some reason, her car
became impounded.

and, she had to go
and fetch Her children, from nursery school and she asked if she could borrow
one of our cars. I said, you can borrow my beetle, but here’s the rules. The petrol
gauge doesn’t work.

So you’d have no
idea how much petrol you have, the, the brakes itself. You have to pump them,
So you can’t brake hard cause there’s not going to be any breaks. . It was
definitely not a safe car to drive.

And I led my
friend drive it. 

(intro music)

BHAVNEET: Welcome back to another episode of drive
with us podcast. I’m Bhavneet.

TARANJIT: And I’m Taranjit and you guys, this is
our last episode for this season. We truly couldn’t have made it this far
without all your love and support. And we just wanted to say thank you for
choosing to drive with us each and every week.

BHAVNEET: To say up-to-date on the release of the
next season. You can follow us on our Instagram at drive with us podcast. We
are most active on there and that’s where we’ll be posting all of our
announcements

TARANJIT: And some real quick car keeping before
we introduce our last driver for this season, we wanted to hear your feedback
on some changes we are considering for our next season. We’re always working
hard to keep improving the shell for the better. So we’re possibly considering
changing up the types of guests we bring onto the show.

BHAVNEET: Don’t worry. We’ll be still bringing on
the everyday driver as guests, and you’ll still get to hear their crazy driving
stories. But we’re thinking about also starting to bring on some experts and
professional drivers like race, car drivers and mechanics,

let us know in the
comments below or on Instagram at this is something you would like to hear.

TARANJIT: And just a quick heads up about today’s
episode at some place in the conversation with today’s driver, you might
actually hear some noise in the background, and that’s actually some
fireworksthat were going off for an upcoming holiday that we’re celebrating in
the UK.

And now without
further ado, let’s meet today’s driver Riana Avis.. Riana is a business and
money coach who works online with therapists, healers, and helpers. She’s
originally from South Africa where she trained as a radiographer, but ended up
changing careers to IT before moving to the UK where she is living currently,
let’s meet today’s driver Riana.

(transition music) 

BHAVNEET: Welcome Brianna to drive with those
podcasts. Thank you so much for joining us today.

RIANA: Thank you. Lovely to be.

BHAVNEET: We’re super excited to talk to you. This
is actually really fun because we were talking about with the recent guests
that they were our first UK driver, and now we have two in one season. So , I’m
excited to hear your perspectives on driving as well. before we dive into your
crazy driving experiences, let’s give our listeners a better idea about your
driving.

So what are some
of the places that you’ve been and where are you currently?

RIANA: Currently I’m in the UK, I’m sort of 66
miles north of London in a little town called Buckingham, which has got nothing
to do with Buckingham palace. But I’m originally from South Africa. So I
actually got my driver’s license and all of that in South Africa. And I’ve been
in the UK, now for 22 years.

And the fortunate
thing about being in the UK is that they drive on the same side as South
Africa. So that was not a new thing that I had to learn, but I have driven on
the continent in Europe. My partner and I, we often share the driving. So I’m
on a trip to the Netherlands, for instance, we shared.

And when you’re
just driving down the strike motorways, it doesn’t matter whether it’s left or
right-hand drive. , other places I’ve driven has been France and I think
Switzerland, but I let him do the drive when we there.

BHAVNEET: You’re really lucky that moving to the
UK. I mean, there’s not a lot of countries that drive on the left, so you
definitely left out that it’s the same side and you didn’t have to like, do
that whole switch.

RIANA: yeah, I must say that, that the roads in
the UK are much more windy, and narrower than the roads in South Africa. That
was. quite tiring in the beginning actually, but you get used to it.

TARANJIT: Oh, I can imagine. Yeah. I know, here in
the U S too, in comparison to the UK, the roads are much more open and I can’t
imagine driving in such narrow spaces.

RIANA: I mean, sometimes you does drive down
the road and it is literally a new space for one car and then one comes from
the front and, , they have what they call passing spaces but you have to really
creep into the bushes to let the other car drive. So people are very
considerate that way I might say so it works, but you have to be careful.

TARANJIT: Yeah, I can imagine that.

BHAVNEET: Have you ever been in this situation
where you had to then reverse one person has to reverse to get to like a
passing point in order to actually let a car go around?

RIANA: Funny, you should say that. And this is
one of the crazy things that, that I haven’t even thought about that you just reminded
me of, of now. So last year we were in a, no, it wasn’t last year. It must’ve
been about two years ago. We were in what they called the lake district. So
it’s further north in the UK and it’s absolutely beautiful and lots of Hills
and they will call it mountain.

And so I think,
yeah, from a UK perspective and the roads are narrow and , we’re going to the
town where we were staying and we were going through one of the back roads.
Now, all the roads, there are back roads, quite frankly, because they just
between Hills and Dales and things like that.

And we get to a
point where there’s just a lot. String of cars, cars are not moving at all. And
we creeping forward and we creeping forward and we probably about 15 minutes
from where we was staying and we creeping forward and creeping forward, nothing
really much as happening. And what turns out was there was a big biggish truck,
like a bus or a pickup truck or something.

And it was just
too wide and other costs could not pass. And there was no way where it could
move to. So anything else that was biggish that had to pass it? Well, things
just started backing up and backing up how long it took to clear. I have no
idea. I think we eventually took some evade evasive action, how and where, and
I have no idea, but yeah, it does happen and you just have to be patient and
you can sit there for.

BHAVNEET: Wow. Luckily we don’t have that
situation here, but yeah, that’s all I could think about. Like, if you just
come head on head with another car and you’re like, well, one of you asked the
backup.

RIANA: Yeah. So one of the other things that
can happen in the UK and I, I, I experienced this with a friend of mine who was
here visiting from South Africa. In South Africa, if you driving you park on
the side that you drive down. So there’s no ways that you’ll park on the
opposite side of the road facing in the direction that the other cars would be
coming but here in the UK, if there’s parking boy, you grab it. Whether you
facing in the direction of the way that the traffic flows or in the opposite
direction. And the other thing is, they sold a little space to park cars on the
road that sometimes there’s only space for one car to go. Down the road.

So when these
traffic coming from the other side, you literally head on and I, one of you
have to, duck and I pull in behind another car and people normally do. And in
enough time so that you don’t, you don’t hate each other off, and then there’s
no place to move. But now I have my friend in the car and I know this is, uh,
this is a F a family friendly show, but he’s one who could really use these
expenditures.

I think he makes
you as a driver, nervous. I know what I’m doing. I know what that guy’s going
to do, but he made me so nervous. He’ll talk it. Oh, there’s another call
coming. Just be quiet, please. Just be quiet. Yes.

BHAVNEET: crazy.

RIANA: That is crazy.

TARANJIT: Yeah. I understand. Like, especially for
me, it’s with deer because I’ve been into deer accidents I don’t want anyone to
save a word deer, because I will freeze because I’ve had those encounters. And
so it’s just like, just don’t acknowledge it’s there, unless it’s coming at our
car, just don’t even say it’s on the side of the road.

 So I understand how if someone is freaking out
and then they affects your driving.

RIANA: Yeah, because suddenly you react, you
might break suddenly when you shouldn’t be breaking suddenly or, you take your
attention off the road, , and you miss something and, you know, it’s, if you
don’t do the right actions at the right time, you can have an accident and you
don’t want that, Anyway, we survived. We’re still friends.

TARANJIT: So going into a little bit of you as a
driver, is this something that you prefer, do you prefer driving? Would you
rather be the passenger is like a love relationship, hate relationship. What’s
your relationship with driving?

RIANA: I really liked driving. And, I prefer
stick driving. So I learned to drive with gears. And I still prefer that. So
obviously I have driven, automatic cars and so on, but, , but I’ve still prefer
driving with, with the stick driving. And I just love it.

I enjoy driving. I
taught both of my children to drive before I sent them all for driving lessons,
where they had to unlearn everything. I taught him. , and so I, , I think I’m a
good passenger most of the time when I trust the person’s driving. , but I
could be a nervous passenger if I don’t trust the person’s driving.

, so I would call
myself an assertive driver actually, but , I enjoy driving at the moment I
called because I’m still recovering from a Frederick fracture dressed up. It’ll
probably be about another month or so before I can drive.

BHAVNEET: Speaking of you mentioning that you are
sometimes a nervous passenger. Have you ever been in a car where you’re like,
oh my gosh, I want to get out right now.

RIANA: Not really. No, no. I think maybe I pick
my drivers can actually actually coming back to that. , if there might’ve been
one, one incident where I was not happy to be in the car and that was shortly
after I came to the UK and this is a bit of a. Story. , I wanted to buy a
specific, vacuum cleaner.

It’s called a
Henry hu vacuum cleaner and I’ve, I’ve found one that could advertise in a
newspaper. and we went there, my son and I went there by train and I thought it
would be about an hour. It took us two hours to get there by train. Well, by
the time we got to the place, the guy was obviously angry, annoyed, frustrated.

He picked us up
from the station, drove us to his house very fast. Didn’t put the headlights
on, probably forgot to put the headlights on. This is now dark, it’s like 10
o’clock at night. I did not enjoy that, I mean, it’s a stranger, ideally I
wouldn’t have gotten the car anyway, but I understand why he might’ve been a
bit upset with us.

BHAVNEET: Well, you’re very lucky that you haven’t
had that experience of being in the car with crazy drivers. I feel like, I
don’t know. Maybe America just has a lot more crazy drivers. I don’t know,

RIANA: Yeah. Maybe. , no, I can’t think of
anybody. My grandfather went, but this was when I was a child. I didn’t enjoy
his driving. he was an erratic driver. But I couldn’t do anything about it
then., I’m not saying there’s not crazy drivers around here. I’ve seen crazy
drivers for sure.

BHAVNEET: That’s very good. I’m glad that you have

RIANA: yeah,

BHAVNEET: decent drivers around you. Well, I know
that you alluded to some crazy stuff that you’ve seen, but what would you say
is one of your most craziest driving experiences?

RIANA: What I’ve seen the most? Actually the
worst it was, , it doesn’t often snow while I say it doesn’t often snow in the
UK, but normally they snow once, at least once during the winter times. And,
it’s not very deep snow, but I would say on the whole, we probably not very
experienced drivers when it comes to this.

So the one time it
was, , it was before we moved away. I know actually, , this driver, it wasn’t
friends of ours. It was neighbors and it was thick snow. When I say that
probably about 15 centimeters or something like that, , and cars would
typically not get a grip. It, it was hard for cars to really get a grip.

You’d have to
really go slowly. If you had a four wheel drive, you’d be better off. And after
awhile, the snow would be pack in and become ice. Especially if it’s been down
for a couple of days. And, , I can’t remember whether we’d been out for a walk
but we were outside for some reason. And there was a, quite a few cars outside
in those.

Well, it was, it
was like a T junction. so there was a little bit of space for costs to like
turn around and sun and so forth. But a BMW came up the road and he really
couldn’t make headway. And he just started revving his engine and spinning his
wheels. And, you know, if it could, if it got a grip on the ice or something
like that, he could have so spun out of control, hit four or five cars.

Us, . It was just
absolutely a crazy way to behave. Why behave like that? Because you saw out of
control when you’re driving on snow and you don’t know what you’re doing, and
you don’t have the equipment, you don’t have snow chains or whatever.

That was really
crazy.

TARANJIT: That actually reminds me of, you were
saying it was just a, everyday driver, I’ve seen a police officer do that and
he started to. I hit the gas. So much was stuck in the snow and then slid and
then did it three more times and I’m like, okay, didn’t you understand the
first time?

RIANA: Yeah. Yeah. The, the other very crazy
thing that’s happened to me and an hours. Oh. Up my heart sinks. When I think
about this is, there, I love Volkswagen Beatles, and I had a friend, she had
one, I had one and, we had some experiences in those Beatles. So the one time
she, she, for some reason, her car became impounded.

and, and she, she
had to go and fetch Her children, from nursery school and places like that.
Anyway, long story short, she asked if she could borrow one of our cars. We
were a two car family at that time. So I said, you can borrow my beetle, but
here’s the rules. The petrol gauge doesn’t work.

So you’d have no
idea how much petrol you have, the, the brakes itself. You have to pump them,
So you can’t brake hard cause there’s not going to be any breaks. You have to
be dirt. it had this whole, and that would just go off for no reason whatsoever
in honk honk honk.

And sometimes he
would stop when you pressed it. And sometimes it wouldn’t. and so I’m driving
her along after having picked her up and explaining to her, yes, you can borrow
this car, but th these rules , and I’m thinking we’re about to run out of
petrol. And as we running out of petrol, I’m cooking, there’s filling station
coming up.

fortunately it was
a bit downhill, so I could, I could cruise into it, but there was absolutely no
gas. if we’d stopped anywhere else, we would have had to wait for people to
arrive, to bring us gas. my children must do things like. Nowadays that
happened, obviously in South Africa, that’s not likely to happen here in the
UK. They’ve got very strict what they called mot rules. And every year your car
has to go for MOT checks and paws it’s mot, but it was definitely not a safe
car to drive.

And I led my
friend drive it. And it was a horrible thing to have done to your best friend.

BHAVNEET: Yeah. How do you even know that? Like,
oh my God, I’m going to run out of gas. Like you just trained yourself, like,
okay, this is how far I can go. I need.

RIANA: Absolutely. Yes. Yes. So you get to know
your car, how far you can go and things like that.

BHAVNEET: And the fact that your horn just always
went off. Have you ever had any instances where you’re like, oh my God, shut
up.

RIANA: Absolutely. There was a time. , I was
selling cosmetics not over the counter cosmetics, , like a black multi-level
marketing thing. So they have, they have a training day and everybody dressed.
It’s mostly females, obviously everybody dressed up in their posh frocks, and I
have this red and black posh frock..

It’s a Nina Richie
label, you know, and I’m so proud of it. And it’s in one of the Northern suburb
of Johannesburg called Sandton. And this is where the rich people. The, if you
see, so you go there and, , there’s, Audi’s, there’s BMWs. There’s, there’s all
these smart cars. And I rock up with my little VW beetle, which is from 1972.

And it honks once
too anyway, go to this event, come out of it. And it’s five o’clock everybody’s
coming home from leaving work, wanting to go home that, that the roads are
blocked. So I’m, I’m at the traffic light. , can’t move anywhere when suddenly
it starts honking. It just goes off. And everybody’s looking whose car is
honking.

So I’m looking as
well, car is honking.

BHAVNEET: That’s funny, just look around like, oh
yeah. Whose car

RIANA: What else are you doing?

TARANJIT: and just slowly sinking your chair and
just be like, not me..

RIANA: yeah, absolutely. Yeah,

yeah,

TARANJIT: That’s hilarious.

RIANA: yeah.

BHAVNEET: So you did mention that you’ve been to
quite a few different places. How would you describe the different types of
drivers in those areas? Have you noticed any differences, like whether it was
South Africa or UK or Europe.

RIANA: I think on the whole Europe was, was
okay. I can’t say I noticed, too many crazy drivers. We don’t go that
frequently. I let my partner drive most, most of the time, and the roads are
probably not that dissimilar to the UK. Some, some of them, in between towns or
in towns can be quite narrow.

and the motorways
are wider. So I would say this probably on the whole, I would consider that
most drivers to be relatively disciplined. Not all but most. You can get people
that go too far that cut you up and things like that. But it’s far and few
between rather than all the time.

Back in South
Africa when I was there, drivers definitely were not as disciplined. I’m
talking long time ago as well. Although when we go to South Africa, now I do
drive we lived in Johannesburg for a while and I grew up in the Cape area in
the Western Cape areas, two hours flight between, and definitely in
Johannesburg drivers that drive faster, they more aggressive.

 And I remember my sister-in-law saying to me,
she would never drive in Johannesburg because these drivers are just too fast
to rude to inconsiderate. , I got used to it. I probably drove like that when I
was there . And maybe that’s what, I don’t always notice, when drivers are too
rude or too inconsiderate.

 I’ve not been to America, so I can’t say how
people drive there. , but I know the roads, you know, when the roads are wide
and open and, and they space, you just want to put your foot down, don’t you?
Well, I do. Okay. That’s because the road allows it. , but yeah, cutting,
cutting people up, and coming from, this is another thing that I find confusing
even to after 22 years in the UK.

So you want to
turn off in that lane over there, but there’s four or five traffic lanes. Yeah.
And they just come to go like that, you know, and the space of maybe half a
mile. Or less. That’s crazy. That’s absolutely crazy. No consideration for
anyone else.

BHAVNEET: Yeah. . I’ve seen that a lot here too.
It was like very last minute. I need to take my exist now.

RIANA: Yes, yes. And I understand why sometimes
that might be, where you have to do that.

Because if you
miss it, you have to go like 50 miles around or like one time, we were in Italy,
I’m not the driver, , but we’re, , we’re in Italy. And we went as a group of
friends. There’s three other people are in a car and they off cause we’re going
home now.

And we have to
take the flight from Peter, I think is pizza. And we had about an hour, an hour
and a half drive to get to the airport. Now my partner and I, and another
friend were in the second car and we’re not kind of following each other, but
not really.

We have our own
instructions of where to go and how to go, and suddenly we find ourselves in
this. So these, these tall, tall booths, and there’s like this car Plaza, if
you like, I don’t know how else to describe it. and we’ve missed the turning to
pizza, and if we continue the way we go, we’re going to end up in Rome, which
is totally, totally 180 degrees the wrong way.

So are made him do
a U-turn Fortunately, there weren’t too many cars in this huge area, but I made
him take a U-turn to go back where we came from. That was a bit scary. And it
was probably crazy, and in the UK, you’d probably won’t get away with that, but
I’ve not seen such huge interchanges, where carscould cross over, between toll,
toll booths, , in the UK either.

He was not happy
with me. It’s not the sort of thing he does, but it’s the sort of thing.

BHAVNEET: Well, desperate times, right?

RIANA: Yeah, yeah,

BHAVNEET: So can you just, you just really didn’t
want to leave. So you’re like, okay, let’s go to Rome.

RIANA: We did make our flight in the end, but
there was a few scary moments.

TARANJIT: So now that we’veheard some of your
crazy driving experiences. Let’s dive into a little bit more of you as a
driver. I know you touched on this a little bit earlier when we were chatting,
but how would you describe yourself as a driver and would your friends and
families agree with that?

RIANA: Yeah, so I said early, I, I think of
myself as an assertive driver, not necessarily an aggressive driver and I
chatted with my partner about this and I said, how would you describe me?
Because two things he doesn’t want to do. And, and he was sort of, well, you’re
not, you’re not a timid driver I did drive tend to drive fast. And he says
you’re not an aggressive driver, so I said to about assertive. So he did agree
with that. I think my friends would agree with that as well. There’s probably
some things, especially when I was younger where I did things that, that, oh my
gosh, you know, they, they got them a little bit scared and where they were a
bit frightened, like, oh, there’s a parking I’ll just nip in there.

And I do. And they
would, we would never be able to get in there, you know, that kind of thing.
So, so yeah, I would say I was confident driver , and an assertive driver, and
I could, can be a bit heavy on the foot.

BHAVNEET: So you say you’re assertive, but not aggressive.
And I know that your, your VW beetle like to honk, what’d you, someone who
honks when your car is not doing it for you,

RIANA: no, I don’t. I’m I’m, I’m actually, in
that regard, I’m quite a patient driver. , my partner, for instance, get upset with
other drivers on the road long before I do. And I think, well, you know, they
just decile that to the other people vaunted me though. And , sometimes I don’t
know why they would, I would honk if that.

Suddenly cut in
front of me. So I’m just remembering a time when this was before I had my
driver’s license, I was with my mom in the car, my stepmom. And we stopped
there. There was , uh, track across the road. What do you call those?

BHAVNEET: For the train.

RIANA: yeah.

BHAVNEET: Yeah.

RIANA: And, um, there was a big truck in front
of us. We had funny love. We had a folk swag and at that stage, and she was
driving and he started reversing and she didn’t have a clue what to do. And I
was the one who hit the horn and honked and then he stopped. I got, that’s not
something I’ve written thought about for ages.

So, so when he’s
really, really necessary, but for no reason whatsoever or just cause somebody’s
annoyed me not, not rating really a Hong Kong. No.

TARANJIT: yeah, that’s interesting. The other UK
driver that we had on the season earlier. He mentioned that honking is more
like cursing at someone there in the UK. Like people look at you, like, why did
you do that? Is that what you’ve noticed?

RIANA: yeah, And you know, when people honk,
there’s lots of roundabouts in the UK and if you don’t negotiate that
roundabout properly, especially if it’s got multiple lanes, you can easily get
in the wrong lane and then people will honk, but you know, that can happen. And
you just allow people this space, , you just consider it, allow people to
space, but sometimes people would come very fast.

 It’s reckless really. And then as you go into
the lane, you, you need to be in, they would honk because what do you suddenly
doing in their lane? Well, it’s not like that at all, you know? And it is like
cursing actually, because you being inconsiderate quite frankly, in my view.

TARANJIT: So thinking of all of the other drivers
that are on the road, what would you say is your biggest driving pet peeve?

RIANA: definitely those that they just cut in
front of you suddenly, you don’t see it coming, they’re just too close, so it’s
not even that they cutting in front of you, but they’re cutting you so close
that you could have hit them. And the other thing is, , you’ve got like two or
three lines and, , you’ve got these two trucks that’s going slowly.

And the one is
trying to overtake the other one and nobody’s going anywhere in a hurry because
nothing is moving.

BHAVNEET: I find that really interesting that,
that, that is your pet peeve

because Chris, who
was our other UK drivers said the exact same thing too. So I trucks, or Lori’s
like trying to overtake one another at almost exactly the same speed.

RIANA: Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know, those
very articulated trucks I think they’d top speeds up 50 miles an hour. And in,
in the UK is 70 miles an hour. But, it’s still, it makes a huge difference, you
know, or now you just have to wait. And the other thing that, that teases me
off, but I’m guilty of this as well.

You might want to
cut this, but you know, they they’ll tell you for, , a mile or two miles, ahead
of time. Like one of the lanes are closed. So most cars would start moving into
the lanes that are still moving. now the naughty drivers, they all go up the
lane, that’s going to be closed upright to the point where they can’t go any
further, they have to move over.

And everybody
squeezes in. So if you’ve been a good person waiting back, you justwaiting
waiting waiting, waiting because everybody else is squeezing in. I don’t think
that’s fair. Yeah, that, that cheeses me off as well. Actually. That’s another
pet peeve

BHAVNEET: that’s definitely one of the things
we’ve noticed here. in between states, so like where and Maryland, and then
right north of us, this Pennsylvania. What we’ve noticed is that Pennsylvania
drivers will do that. Like, if Elaine’s going to close, they’ll move in ahead
of time. And then they’ll just wait.

Whereas I I’m
guilty of this too. Maryland drivers, we will take the empty land cause it’s
there. And then like, and you have to move over, you move over.

RIANA: Yeah. I’ve done that.

BHAVNEET: Have you ever experienced road rage?
Whether it was you yourself has had road rage or anyone that’s had it towards.

RIANA: I don’t think I’ve ever experienced road,
rage myself. Obviously you get the angry at these drivers and sometimes, you
roll your eyes and things like that. But certainly people have shaken their
festered me and honk their horns at me. And, nobody’s stopped to, confront me
and say, you know, you’ve done this or you’ve done that.

And you’re a
stupid driver, but you can, sometimes I know how I just walked. Was that about.
? And I think, oh, well, you know your issue, not mine carry on, but if they’re
a bit, sometimes drivers are so erratic, you actually want to not drive too
closely to them.

So you just hang
back a little bit, slow down a little bit, let them get on and, get on with
their life and they’re driving. You don’t want to be in their road, rage ,
fallout.

BHAVNEET: Yeah.

RIANA: I want to be in that. , just hang back
until, until they’ve gone and then you can move on again.

I’m not saying
don’t move on. Just take it more slowly.

BHAVNEET: Yeah, definitely. When I see crazy
people, I always like please be in front of me rather than behind me. Cause I
feel more scared if you’re behind me, like, what are you going to do? I can’t
watch you as well.

RIANA: Yeah. And sometimes you see drivers for
some reason they, they weave across or they wheel across lanes or they simply
within the lane where they in and you’re not quite sure what’s going on. Well,
again, you know, just sort of hang back a little bit, but again, you’d rather
them be in front of you than behind you.

You’re absolutely
right. You have to be alert when you’re driving for sure.

TARANJIT: Yes for sure.

Well, now that we
heard a little bit about you as a driver, let’s dive into your driving first,
how would you describe year, first time driving experience?

RIANA: I probably stalled the car.. I probably
didn’t get it quite in the right gear or whatever my dad taught me to drive on,
on the back roads on, , dirt roads. I don’t know what you call them in the U S
,

, as I was
learning, my dad could be quite, he could be quite impatient, , asking IB. So
you would have shot it at me at the time, I think, but that was fine. I learned
to drive and then, , when I got my license, Oh my gosh, the day I got my
license.

So the story is
that, I got my license. You could get your drivers, not your drivers, your
learner’s license, , when you were 18 in South Africa. , and, my birthday’s in
October, so I got it as soon as I, because I wanted to drive, I just wanted to
drive. I wanted to have my license, so I got it.

And then, , this
was my last year at school as well. And then I applied to be a radiographer to
train as a radiographer. And I had to go to another place. I was, I was posted
to a place called , which was about, Was it two hours drive? I can’t remember
how far it was from where we lived, but it was. a couple of hours drive from
where I grew up.

 And I had to start there in April and your,
your learner’s license in South Africa at that time was only valid for six
months. So you would pass your test or the theory you’d get your learner’s
license. Now you can drive with a proper driver next to you. So I had to learn
to drive and , get my driver’s license before I went to outsour.

, no, hang on. I
talk nonsense. , my course was going to start on the 1st of April. Nia home
actually. But the three months before the course, that’s what, when I was going
to go be away. And so I actually had three months in which to get my, my
driver’s license.

 My dad had been teaching me and then our had
driver’s lessons and . I could get my driver’s license and then we managed to
get it booked for the 31st of December, which is new year’s Eve and it’s,, in a
biggish town.

And so the guy.
Took me out , to test my driving. He made me drive down what they would call in
the UK, the high street, the main street. So the main you’ve got shops, I’ve
done either side. You’ve got lots of pedestrians, lots of cars. I mean, it’s
crazy time of year.

, this guy had me
driving down this main street and whenever he saw a parking spot, he would say
park it. now I’m nervous and , I’m a brand new driver and sometimes I would get
in properly and sometimes it wouldn’t and then he would get out of the car and go
and do his shopping and come back. Then it must’ve happened about. Two or three
times. And one of the times he got me , to park. I had to reverse park and I
could reverse park between two cars. But in this particular instance, there was
like an island. , the pavement kind of went like that in a curve and there was
the parking space and the car behind me.

Well, I hit the
curb a couple of times and I thought, this is it. I’m never going to get my, ,
my driver’s license, but I did actually get it, which was a relief. And then I
went to old Swan and I didn’t drive for three months.

BHAVNEET: the fact that they made you like, okay,
you’re going to be my chauffeur. Basically. Let me get your way shopping.

RIANA: I don’t know what made him, maybe I was charming
to him. No, nothing untoward. Right.

TARANJIT: he’s right. Like, let me just knock two
things out. I want to test this, the students driving and then also get my
shopping done.

RIANA: Yeah, I know. He got, he got what he
wanted.

BHAVNEET: When you moved to the UK, did you have
to retake your driving test or were you able to transfer your life?

RIANA: I was able to transfer the license
because we, on this, w we drive on the same side of the road, the rules of the
road are still the same and they have that exchange. So I did come worth what
they call an international driver’s license. And you could drive on that, that
for a country, remember off the top of my head, , a year, two years, I can’t
remember.

But then you, then
you had to exchange any that’s all that you did. You exchanged your south
African driver’s license for your UK driver’s license. And I think it might
still be like that.

TARANJIT: How was it teaching your kids to drive?
Was there any crazy experiences with them? Are they all very easy to teach?

RIANA: , one crazy experience was they were in
the early teens really, and, and we been out, we want holiday and it was, far
from civilization. So I allow things to drive and they were kind of, okay,
there were no other cars on the road, . And this was my son more so than my
daughter at the time.

And that was
before he was 18. It was quite easy. And I remembered what my dad taught me. So
I taught them that as well. , he got his license in South Africa. My daughter
got her license here. So finding places where she could learn to drive was a
little bit tricky.

But behind the
village where we lived was, , a very quiet residential area, not many cars
about. And, , and I could get her to stop start. I mean, that’s the first
thing. Stop, start, stop, start, stop start. Especially because they, I taught
them to drive with a gears stick as well. So you have to learn clutch control
and that’s the hardest thing , to learn really.

But the one time,
, she had a learner’s license or ready. So she had a Contra member. What their
quality in the UK now, provisional license, I think. And you can have it for
two years before you actually get your driver’s license. She was legal on the
road.

 But he came out of this. one road, which was
very, very quiet. We were going to turn left into another quiet road and
suddenly there were cars behind her and this road was quite windy and it was
quite steep and it was quite a long way before she could escape. And there
wasn’t an escape to the left, but it must’ve been about a mile and a half on.

, and she handled
it very well, but that was a bit scary because, you know, she was suddenly in a
situation where, , I didn’t expect it to be, but she handled it very well. I’m
sorry about the noise.

That is. .
Fireworks going off. Didn’t expect.

TARANJIT: Okay. Yeah, I was like, is there a
banging? Okay. It’s fireworks. Okay. That makes sense.

RIANA: Yeah. So they both good drivers. , I’m
quite happy to be in the vehicle with them.

 and, , she got her license the first time
round.

TARANJIT: an age limit also 18 in the UK. I know
you’re mentioning a South Africa. It’s 18. So is it the same in the UK?

RIANA: Yeah. Believe so.

TARANJIT: So it sounds like driver’s lessons or
like a driver education course is required. There, is that just something that
you take by choice?

RIANA: , if you want to have your driver’s
license, if you want to learn, yes. You have to get the old provisional license
and in the UK, you, you do that by learning. Oh gosh. I can’t even remember
what they call it nowadays. But it’s like the highway code that’s right. The
highway code. , so that has all the rules of the road.

Every, from time
to time it gets updated. So you ha you know, you have to know what all the
signs mean, what, what all the, speed limits are in the various areas, because
there may not be speed limit signs are showing, but you, you know, if there’s a
residential area, you need to recognize it’s a residential area.

I have to slow
down. This is what the speed is and then, the other thing that they’re doing in
the UK is if you get a speeding ticket, so you’ve exceeded the speed limit and
there’s some other rules behind it. , you can choose to pay the fine and glues
points on your driver’s license.

And I, you think
you can lose up to 12 points on your driver’s license before. Okay. It’s not,
when I say null and void, , you can’t drive for maybe a year. I don’t, I don’t
know the rules, , but you can choose to go for driving. It’s not lessons, but
education driver education on speeding.

BHAVNEET: You mentioned they may not always post
the speed limit and they just assume that you should know. That’s like one of
the things, when I go to a new area, I really hate when there aren’t the speed
limit signs. Cause you’re like, what am I supposed to be doing?

RIANA: If I have to make a little confession, I
drive as fast as the roads will allow me. , so, I use common sense that it’s
not always right, but it’s like common sense. These are narrow roads. I think
50 miles is probably the top limit. And sometimes on those narrow roads,
country roads in the UK, it’s too fast for me.

I will drive
slower, in the UK itself, it’s fine. , when we’ve gone to other places like in
Europe, for instance, , when you enter another country, it’ll say what the
speed limits are.

 Normally, there’s a sign here. It’s a big
white sign with thick black lines through it. And for you, I didn’t know what
it meant. And all it means is, you can go back to the,, speed that’s allowed on
this road.

TARANJIT: So switching gears a little bit, let’s
talk little bit about the future of driving. What are thoughts on self-driving
cars? And is this something that you would get in.

RIANA: Yeah. So I think it’ll probably happen
later rather than while I say later on and see know, I think it definitely
happened at this point. I’m not really interested in self-driving cars. I enjoy
driving. I’m wondering, especially because I am an enjoy driving stick, , stickers

 And that’s all part of the fun that you can
manually manipulate a vehicle. You in-charge , When it’s a self-driving
vehicle, who’s driving this vehicle. It’s not you, you just said, I might as
well take the train or , get a taxi or something like that. Personally, I
probably wouldn’t go for it other than I’ll have a go just for the fun event,
but I, I prefer to be in charge of a vehicle.

And I th I guess
there’s gonna come a point where you don’t have to learn to drive because cars
are gonna be self-drive , and driving is going to become a sport to actually
sit behind a car and be in charge is going to become a sport. Like horse riding
has become maybe a sport

 Because, a couple of hundred years ago we
would all have been riding horses to get places. And now we done.

BHAVNEET: That’s an interesting way to think of
it. I would’ve never thought like, yeah, I could see that it becomes more of
like a sport because. You don’t have to learn how to do it anymore,

but I agree with
you. , I enjoy driving a lot and I don’t know how it would feel if you’re like,
oh, you don’t have to do that anymore.

You don’t need to
learn. It’s okay.

RIANA: I can see that for, older people, , when
they can’t drive anymore, they don’t want to drive anymore. It would be useful.
I can see that w executives that have chauffeurs these days, that that would be
useful. I would be very nervous if there were self-driving cars on the road.

Very nervous. I
might take myself off the road, go and drive on the roads where there’s no self
driving cars. We’ll see what happens,

BHAVNEET: Yeah, definitely.

RIANA: Yeah. But you know, pilots, for
instance, I mean, you, you can put it right on autopilot, but th th the pilot
still has to be trained enough to override autopilot. , I don’t know that as
drivers you’re going to stay alert while looks, cause going, Wade wants to go
and you’re not going to sit and watch the monitors.

And they said that
in the other, , if you don’t have to,

BHAVNEET: yeah. Yeah. That’s definitely
interesting point. It’ll become a lot more passive,

like you said,
like riding a train or a taxi.

RIANA: Yeah,

BHAVNEET: Boone is question time. Are you ready?
If you could make one new driving law, what would it be?

RIANA: I think that they should make a driving
law away every now and again, like once or twice a year, they block off
something like the 25 and they use it as a racing track.

BHAVNEET: That’s interesting.

RIANA: I’m not saying it is be in 25, but ,
they can just give people an opportunity to get the driving aggression if you
want after them.

So just every now
and again, give people the opportunity. This is the day we’re going to be
crazy. And

BHAVNEET: Don’t do it again.

RIANA: going to yeah, or maybe it needs to
become compulsory to do advanced driving lessons. , that could be another law.

BHAVNEET: I think that would definitely useful to
know those skills at least of like how to save yourself and protect yourself in
all different types of

RIANA: Yeah. My first idea is a bit off the
wall. I think you could see lots of accidents and unforeseen it’s going to be a
reckless. I won’t be past definitely not, but I think when it comes to advanced
driving skills, you could probably, , take, basic advanced, intermediate
advanced, advanced, advanced, and then, let people do those encouraging.

I put them in
situations where they can actually practice them, because I think sometimes, if
you’ve not experienced something for a while,

your reflexes
you’re trained reflexes. May be a little bit slow to respond.

TARANJIT: That’s a great point. Cause especially
like driving in different weather conditions, if you haven’t experienced say
driving in snow before I share first time. Practice that breaking, , what
happens to your car and how do you control yourself in a situation that
actually be really great to learn?

Cause I feel

like driving in
different weather scenarios, people, some people don’t know what to do when

know, they slide
or something

happens.

 Do you have any final thoughts or any advice
that you would like to give other drivers?

RIANA: The road is there for all of us to use.
And I think if we consider it to each other as drivers and we, not that it’s my
bit of route get out of in front of me. , and we have that aggression in us if
we cause more, upsets for ourselves and for others. So I think the more
considerate we can be, the more, I’m not saying you, we have to go slow, slow,
slower.

She just being concentrate,
, let others go first. , don’t cut others up, just be polite, be kind. And I
think driving would be even more pleasant

TARANJIT: I agree with that. Everyone has
somewhere to go. Everyone’s going through something. So we were a little bit
more understanding, I feel like it wouldn’t be as stressful on the road
sometimes. And there will be less road rage.

RIANA: absolutely. Because road rage is not a
nice way or not for the person who will give it. They might feel good in the
moment, but certainly not afterwards. And certainly not for the people on the
receiving side or those who, who observe it around them.

TARANJIT: before we let you go, we want to give
you a chance to plug anything and also let our listeners know where they can
find you.

RIANA: when I’m not driving, I I’m a business
coach and I work with therapists and particularly with occupational therapists
and, my favorite ones are the ones who work with kitties. Pediatric
occupational therapists.

 And you can find me on my website, which is www.RianaAvis.com,

BHAVNEET: well, thank you so much for joining us
today. It was a blast talking to you about your driving and the differences
between South Africa and Europe and the UK.

RIANA: I had a lot of fun. Thank you. Thank you
for the opportunity. It was great.

 (transition music)

TARANJIT: Riana was such a great guest to end the season with. I don’t know what I would have done if my car had a mind of its own, like hers did, and the horn just went off whenever it wanted to. I’m thinking about my commute to work. It’s about an hour and a half-ish to work it back. And I’m just thinking, like, if my car just started to act up on the drive, like how awkward would that be?

Especially as it’s I drive by. I drove by so many police, like so many police officers drive by during my drive to work. So I’m just like, imagine if it went off, when a cop was driving by, would they be like, are

BHAVNEET: you trying to. What is it like, you know, like you flash your lights to warn someone, the cops come and he was like, honk at them, there’s a cop right there, Like you’re trying to instigate that result thing. Yeah, that would be so embarrassing. I would not be able to

TARANJIT: so I was thinking of this in terms of self-driving cars. And what if those cars , started to have a mind of their own. And they’re just like,

BHAVNEET: that’s like a horror sci-fi movie, like

TARANJIT: rebelling and being like, no, the human doesn’t control me. I feel like. I feel like taking this turn, like what would happen?

BHAVNEET: Why would

you say like that? Like I thought you were going to say it like and a positive way where like self-driving cars, it can detect things on the road if it needs like, oh my God, that person’s going crazy. So then it honks , but you’re like, no, it’s going to take over. And it’s like, I rebelling you went full on Sci-fy

TARANJIT: because her car was just like, no, I’m going to honk.

So I was just thinking in terms of when self-driving cars are driving themselves and they’re like, well, I want a honk now.

BHAVNEET: I feel like honking today. And then there’s going to be a mood honk. I know having a good day like Chris.

TARANJIT: From earlier in the season. Yeah. Is celebratory honks.

Yeah. They might be like, okay, I’m in a good mood

BHAVNEET: today. Today’s not such a good naked.

TARANJIT: I’m mad at every single person right now.

BHAVNEET: Like every car.

Well, that was Riana our last guest for season four. We hope you enjoyed hearing her driving stories. And be sure to follow us on our Instagram at drive with us podcast to stay up to date on the next season.

TARANJIT: Again, as we mentioned, we are considering changing up the show a little bit and changing up the variety of guests we bring on.

So we will be still sticking to the everyday driver and hearing their crazy experiences. But we wanted to get your feedback on whether you would be interested in having some more professional drivers on or experts

BHAVNEET: And hearing their crazy stories as well.

Let us know your thoughts on whether you would be interested in these types of guests and thank you for all your support this season. And as always, if you enjoyed this podcast, you can help support the show by sharing it with your friends or leaving us a review. It truly does help us get discovered.

TARANJIT: Thank you for choosing to drive with us and we’ll see you soon.

(outro music)