Have you been driving for a number of years and noticing that you’ve become a bit complacent or too comfortable when driving? Even though you maybe an experienced driver and no longer planning for a road test, it doesn’t mean you can’t work on improving your driving skills and observations. Browse through this week’s list of ways experience drivers can improve their skills and be honest about where there’s some wiggle room for improvement…
1. Observations
Over time, some experienced drivers can get so comfortable driving and possibly their scanning or shoulder checking. If we relax too much when behind the wheel, it can be easy to get caught up in our thoughts, frustrations, or excitements of the day. Our eyes may be open and pointed towards the road when in reality we may be far, far away lost somewhere in our inner worlds.
Avoid this at all costs. When you stop paying conscious attention while you’re driving, you put yourself and others at risk by potentially responding too late to a hazard or changing lanes before checking your blind spot. Ensure you are scanning the surroundings and intersections at regular intervals and completing shoulder checks every time you plan to change direction or road position to ensure the blind spot on that side is clear.
2. Light It Up
Headlights aren’t just useful at night, any time there are extreme conditions such as fog, rain, and snowfall where visibility is affected, switch those babies on! No one ever complained of ‘too much visibility’. Remember by turning on your headlights, you will also illuminate your tail lights, helping other see you, especially in less-than-ideal conditions.
3. Following Distance
Another bad habit that can plague some experienced drivers is following others too closely or tailgating. Always leave a safe following distance between your vehicle and those ahead of you. You need at least two seconds of space in front, in ideal conditions. Three seconds following distance is recommended on high-speed roads and four seconds following distance is suggested in poor weather conditions or on uneven or slippery roads. In addition to your following distance, leaving yourself an escape route is a good choice. That way if something happens in front of you or if you see the vehicle behind you may not be able to stop in time, you can still pull into the available space to avoid the trouble.
4. Avoid Distractions
You had to have seen this one coming. Another by-product of the comfort experienced drivers develop is the belief that they are able to multitask effectively without compromising safety. We wish that were true but statistics have shown that experienced drivers are not only more likely to engage in distracted driving, but they’re more likely to end up in a collision from it as a result as well. (Source: The New England Journal of Medicine)
Whether it’s your phone, your dog Fluffy, or eating breakfast in the car, you should strive to minimize and avoid distractions as much as possible.
5. Planning
You’ve likely heard of the 216th interchange that’s causing a bit of raucous. Since roads are constantly changing to suit the needs of rising populations, it’s important to stay on top of the changes in your area and plan for any new routes to avoid getting stressed or lost.
Doing everything you can to prepare, whether it’s looking at road reports and weather conditions, or browsing traffic cams, can help you navigate driving in new areas with ease.
For example, you can review drone footage of the 216th interchange prior to driving it the first time. By checking out this new interchange before you feel overwhelmed and/or confused driving it, knowing what to expect may give you the extra confidence you need to safely navigate through it.
6. The Same Rules Still Apply
It doesn’t matter how many years of driving you have under your belt or how good of a handle you feel you have on your vehicle - speeding, failing to come to a complete stop, and any other ticketable offences are all still off limits.
It’s important to stay vigilant about following the rules not only for safety reasons, but because it could mean the difference of being found at-fault for a collision or not. Often when one of these rules are broken you could be given a ticket for the traffic violation and be held liable in the insurance claim to top it off.
7. Parking
You’re in a rush and there’s a double wide parking stall available so you pull in straight ahead, directly in the middle, and don’t bother to readjust. You’re just going to be quick, right? Wrong.
This is both frustrating to other drivers (end up on Fraser Valley Learns 2 Drive Facebook page? No thanks!) and unsafe. Best practice for parking is always to reverse into a single stall or find a pull through stall. This allows you to clearly see everything in front of you when leaving your spot and allows other drivers to park next to you…and avoid seeing your bad parking job on social media for everyone to see!
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If you identified with any of these tips, we hope this serves as motivation to take a look at your own driving habits, and if necessary, get your skills back on track. There’s no shame in recognizing where we may have let our habits slide so long as we do something to correct them!