Feste Trafikkskole moves into its own building

"You have to make a balloon arch."

"Yes, if I must!"

Øyvind Feste, general manager of Feste Trafikkskole, and Beathe Andersen, who works in the office, are talking about the new premises the driving school is moving into. And how they want to celebrate it.

Three or four years ago, they bought a building in Knarvik by the centre, with the idea of being based there. Alver optikk rents the ground floor, and Stussn Hårstudio has operated on the second floor.

"The hairdresser called when we bought it and asked if we had any premises available right then. So we rented it out."

No rush

Feste says they've been so happy in the old kindergarten in Knarvik, which is owned by the Norwegian Mission Society. So they've been in no rush to move. This summer, however, the hairdresser closed up and the premises became available.

"What do we do now? We move into our own premises. We want to be in our own house. To 'come home.'"

They're in full swing with the renovation and hopefully they can have an opening party in early January. They'll then have premises twice the size.

Feste Trafikkskole has six driving instructors. They're mostly on the move, and take the cars home when the day is over.

After a driving lesson, the instructors write reports, so that the student and parents know what's been covered and what's coming next time. This makes practice at home more effective. They also have many training videos you can watch together at home.

Practice is important for being able to drive, but Feste has seen several examples where people don't practise as well as they think.

"I've heard: 'I practise on roundabouts. I drive the new road on Radøy.' But then you're just driving back and forth there and through two roundabouts. Yes, you've driven in a roundabout, but you need varied practice."

Feste says that when he took his test in 1985, it was almost as if, as long as he stayed on the tarmac, it was fine. Today the traffic picture is something completely different.

"You have to make it smooth for one another and work well together in traffic. It doesn't matter how correctly you drive if the person next to you makes a mistake. You have to allow for others making mistakes. That's hugely important!"

Most people who come through Feste's doors are teenagers and young adults who want to get their licence. But they also do quite a bit with those who've had their licence for many years.

For example, driving assessments where the health service asks him to assess how a person drives. He sees many older people in traffic, and some of them are unsure of the traffic around them. That creates dangerous situations.

"I believe that with fairly simple measures, you can make it a bit safer in traffic for everyone," he says.

"We want to take the fear out of coming in and asking for tips and tricks. Roundabouts can be scary. Some people just look straight ahead, drive in and hope for the best," Andersen adds.

She says some people may be afraid that the driving school will take their licence away, but the school has no authority to do that.

A woman of around 80 recently dropped by the driving school. She had won a gift card for a driving lesson at a bazaar.

"She thought it was a good idea to use it herself, but didn't want to drive. She'd been on the Norwegian Public Roads Administration's '65 plus' course with theory, but didn't catch everything. She wanted to use the time to ask about the roundabouts here in the area," he says.

"It was absolutely touching. As she left, she said, 'Now I've understood it!'"

Feste plans for the driving school to do more for older people, because he knows this woman isn't unique. Some are left with questions after a course like that, where there's so much information and so many questions that they struggle to take it all in. The driving school is therefore working on a supplementary offering for older people who are unsure of the traffic around them.

"Here we don't just train drivers, but the whole person," says Feste, pointing to a picture hanging on the wall in the old kindergarten.

"It did something to me when I saw it. The person in 3rd place has maybe never been on the podium before and is the happiest of all. It gave me so much."

He first saw the image on the wall of a house at Nordnes in Bergen. A driving route he often took with students. Every time, he glanced at the picture.

A few weeks after he discovered it, a woman called and said her partner wanted to get his licence. He was an adult, but didn't have it.

"We drove out to Nordnes and I said, 'You have to see this drawing.' Then he said, 'I'm the one who made it.' I just felt the hairs on my arms stand up. And two days later it was painted over."

Feste asked if he could have one of these pictures, signed "Leffe," when he passed.

"We have the only copy. It means a lot to me. I hope it can do something for the young people too. It will really get a nice and visible place in the new premises."