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| The Basics | You may be a bad driver and not know it
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A clean driving record means nothing if you consistently court danger with habits you might not even consider risky.
By Christopher Solomon
According to surveys by auto insurers, virtually everybody thinks theyre above-average behind the wheel. Call it the Lake Wobegon effect.
Sure, you buckle up, dont apply mascara in traffic or watch X-rated movies on the in-car DVD player (like the Albany, N.Y., driver who was cited in 2004). But it takes a lot more to be a good driver. After all, somebody is causing all those accidents.
Maybe it's you. Ever gone digging for a CD? Hassled a slower driver out of the fast lane? Kept another car from merging or changing lanes? Does your driving change once you spot a cop?
Perhaps we're not all as above average as we think. Take this short quiz to see how you fare.
Question: Which would the good driver use: a hand-held cell phone or a hands-free setup?
Answer: Neither. A 2003 study by Great Britains Transport Research Laboratory found that talking on either device creates a driver about as attentive as one who's at the legal limit of alcohol consumption, said Eddie Wren, a former traffic patrol officer and advanced driving instructor in the United Kingdom and now executive director of New York-based Drive and Stay Alive.
Cell phones are just part of the much larger problem of driver inattention, which contributes to at least 25% of police-reported crashes in the United States, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Trying to catch a dropped french fry or arguing with a spouse distracts, if only for a moment.
Solution: The secret of good driving, says Wren, is four boring words, because no one wants to do it: self-discipline and concentration. In other words, hold all calls -- and that lovers spat -- until you get home.
Question: When driving in fast-moving traffic, where should you focus your eyes?
a. On the preceding cars bumper
b. 150 feet ahead
c. 300 feet ahead
d. None of the above
Answer: d. One of the biggest mistakes drivers make is that they dont use their eyes correctly and dont take in the entire scene, says Jim Smith, vice president of training for Arlington, Texas,-based Smith System Driver Improvement Institute, which trains the fleet drivers of large corporations.
Solution: Experts suggest several strategies.- Aim higher. People naturally look only about 100 feet ahead of themselves, says Smith. We teach people to aim higher, he explains. When you aim low, you cant see high -- but when you aim high you can see low. (Try it right now.) Especially when traveling at high speeds, drivers should raise their gaze to see whats happening a few hundred yards down the road, or farther, say experts. At 60 mph, that spot will be here before you know it.
- Look through things. At the Bob Bondurant School of High-Performance Driving in Phoenix, instructors teach clients to look through the back window of the vehicle in front of them, says Tim Maddux, an instructor and former race-car driver. Dont drive behind a car you cant see through or cant see around. At Danny McKeevers Fast Lane Racing School in Southern California, which teaches a highway survival course for both teens and adults, instructors teach students to look as far around corners as possible. You cant react to something you cant see, says Allison Altzman, a former instructor who is now vice president of business development.
- Keep those peepers moving. At Smith System, the company also teaches drivers to keep their eyes moving. The average humans central vision -- whats in focus when you look at, say, that picture on the wall -- spans just 3 degrees, while most humans peripheral vision is about 180 degrees, says Smith. To truly see everything thats happening around you, constantly shift your eyes slightly instead of simply staring forward.
- Check those mirrors. We teach people to check their mirrors every five to eight seconds -- and to check their mirrors every time they brake, says Smith.
Question: Youre driving 45 mph in rush-hour traffic. How many car lengths should you leave between you and the car ahead, in traffic?
Answer: None. OK, this is a bit of a trick question. Not leaving a large enough cushion is a major factor in auto crashes. When it comes to so-called following distances, People used to talk about so many car lengths for so many miles per hour, says Wren. Well, its rubbish. Why? Because its too hard to figure distances when driving.
Solution: Use the simpler two second, four second, 10 second rule for dry roads, wet roads and icy, snowy or muddy roads, Wren advises. As the car ahead passes something thats not moving (a lamp post, a road sign), count slowly how long it takes you to reach that same spot. If its rainy out and you reach that spot before you count four-Mississippi, back off. Four seconds sound like too much? Wren has no sympathy. Youve got to ask yourself, do I want to be impatient, or do I want to be alive?
True or false: Youve now made a nice following distance between you and the Mack truck ahead. Youre set, right?
Answer: False. A buffer isnt a cure-all. Driving instructors say that few Joe Four-Strokes out on the road think about how theyll get out of a bad situation when it strikes. And even the driver who leaves room ahead can get hit from behind when a pileup occurs.
Solution: Always have an escape route, a backup plan for when things go south. Yours could be as simple as pulling onto the adjacent road shoulder, or knowing that theres no car in the next lane, if you need to swerve. Dont let yourself stay boxed in among other automobiles or get trapped in the blind spot of an 18-wheeler.
Dont have an escape route? Move until youve got one. While experts dont advocate speeding, they acknowledge that sometimes, staying safe means pressing on the gas briefly, to get out of potentially bad spots. And since the road is always changing, you constantly need to update your escape route.
The same general strategy applies to other unexpected situations, says instructor Maddux. When someone gets in a slide, or they get in a bad situation, they look at what they dont want to hit. Bad move, he says. Where your eyes go, your body will follow. Instead, he says, look at your escape route.
Question: Where on the steering wheel should your hands be when youre driving?
Answer: Not at 4 oclock and 8 oclock. The rationale behind 4-and-8 that many driver's-education classes advocate is that it keeps a drivers hands out of the way of the steering columns airbag, preventing injuries to hands and arms, and to the face. Thats stupid, says Wren. With hands low and elbows on their thighs, he says, drivers have little ability to control the car.
Solution: Better to raise your chances of avoiding an incident altogether by having your hands in the tried-and-true 10-and-2 positioning, says Wren. Or, experts suggest dropping the hands slightly, to a 9-and-3 position, to keep them out of an airbags path.
Youre also probably turning wrong. In this age of airbag-equipped cars, experts no longer recommend the hand-over-hand method of turning the steering wheel. Instead, use the shuffle method, which feeds the wheel through your hands and keeps them from crossing in front of the airbag.
Question: Youre on a mountain road and begin to skid on a patch of ice, with a drop on one side and an oncoming truck on the other. What action should you take?
a. Pop the car into neutral
b. Pump the brakes
c. Keep a close eye on the danger ahead
d. All of the above
e. None of the above
Answer: e. Heres why: While some people believe its best to put a car in neutral in the event of a slide, taking away any power from the wheels, Wren says youre better off never taking your hands off the wheel. If youre in a manual-transmission car, of course, you can simply depress the clutch.
In modern cars equipped with anti-lock brakes, pumping the pedal is the worst thing you can do, says Maddux. ABS already "pumps" the brakes thousands of times per second; adding your own efforts only reduces its effectiveness by reducing the amount of time the brakes are applied. For maximum stopping power, apply the brake until the threshold when the ABS system almost kicks in, says Maddux. It's a learned skill; practice it in an empty parking lot.
Lastly, like a skier in the trees, a driver should look toward where he wants to go, not at the obstacle in his path.
They're not just statistics
Get all those right? Great.
If you didn't, consider some changes, not just for safety's sake, but for your wallet's, too. It's not just about higher insurance premiums and body-shop bills. Increasingly stringent laws around the country are cracking down on persistently careless or aggressive driving.
New Jersey has raised about $300 million in the last two years by fining drivers who get three speeding tickets or other tickets in a three-year period. Virginia is considering similar legislation. And under more stringent legislation passed last year in Michigan, drivers who repeatedly break traffic laws could have to undergo therapy as well as pay fines and take driving classes to keep their licenses.
For other tests that gauge different aspects of your driving, visit Drive for Life, The Driving Challenge Quiz and the AARP.
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