B. Ellis - Caring New York Road Test Instructor

Power truly tests a person’s character. Many people flip when they get a little bit of power. Power is so easy to abuse and so difficult to exercise wisely.  The driving test is one of those times when the tester has complete power - holding the fate of the driver in his or her hands. I had to take the road test a few times and each time I was subjected to another sadistic tester - kind of what you might expect at a military bootcamp. Needless to say, being failed on the roadtest means having no social life in school, and I was the subject of taunts and jokes for months (scheduling another test involves a waiting period of a month or more).

Finally I took the road test and got B. Ellis. Rather than glaring at me and breathing hard and yelling to start the car, he just sat down, smiled and indicated I should start whenever I’m ready. I didn’t realize the car was on and in park because my father drove there and I had just gotten in the driver’s seat. So I turned the key and the engine screamed. B. Ellis just laughed about how engines are so quiet nowadays. It broke the ice instantly and made me feel so much more at ease.

We then proceeded through the test. When we got to parallel parking I bumped the curb. I drive a huge truck and it’s hard to park. No matter, road testers always fail people for this. But B. Ellis was just like, “I’m not going to fail you for imperfectly parking a truck of this size. Just show me what you do during practice with your parents.” I parked the best I could and he looked and was like, “I couldn’t have done much better myself! Just drive back to the testing area.”

When I passed the road test, I thanked him profusely. He just said, “No thank you is appropriate. You passed it on your ability and anybody would have passed you for driving like you did today.” Well B. Ellis, I couldn’t have driven that way for other people because they made me too nervous.

I’ve been driving for 10 years now and I have never had an accident, a moving violation, or even a parking ticket. I think history bears out his decision to pass me quite well.

So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you B. Ellis.