Just a few pointers to help you get started.
1. Where to look:
- Look high and far, not down at the road. The further ahead you look the more notice you are likely to get of an upcoming problem and can therefore react sooner and smoother rather than a last minute emergency brake.
- Watch every car around you, looking for indicators and brakes. This will give you the ability to plan ahead because you'll start to be able to predict what's coming.
- Watch the traffic lights, if they’re red take your foot off the accelerator, this slows you down gently and will save your brakes. You'll also find you actually have to stop less often.
- Look past the car in front of you to see what other traffic is doing. You can also look through the windows of the car in front to see what's going on further ahead.
- Keep an eye on your mirror and the traffic behind. You'll be able to see dangerous drivers before they are in your space and can move to protect yourself.
- Don’t forget to check the side streets. A quick look to see if there are any cars that don't look like they are going to stop, you should do this at level crossings and round-a-bouts as well.
The more you know what is going on around you the less likely you are to be involved in an accident when it happens. Think about it; accidents that involve 2 cars don't need both drivers to be at fault. So always watch for that other driver and you're less likely to be involved.
2. How fast to go:
- Unless sign posted otherwise the speed limit is 50. Speed limits are a not just a guide, they save lives.
- Do not drive faster than the car in front. It sounds like common sense driving but you'd be surprised how often the other driver will do this.
- In wet or poor visibility conditions you must drive slower. Your brakes do not work as well when it is wet and neither does the grip on your wheels, slow down, brake earlier and gentler.
- Drive according to what you can see, if you can’t see round the corner slow down a little. If you struggle to see much in front due to fog slow down a lot and consider using your head lights fog lights are better if available).
- It's helpful to know that in foggy conditions your head lights will reflect off the fog back at you making the fog brighter rather than illuminating the road ahead, though not helpful to you it is useful for other drivers to see you earlier.
- Fog lights are usually lower on the vehicle and so overcome the reflection issue and are somewhat more helpful at lighting up the road ahead.
3. Road Position:
- Ideally the car should be in the middle of your lane. If you want to look around the vehicle in front then move over to the right, but do not cross the line, don't forget to come back to the middle though.
- Too far to the left will have the wheel going in the dips where the drains are.
- Close to the dividing line put's you too close to traffic coming the other way and prevents the car behind from looking around your car.
- REMEMBER you are now in the driving seat; you are used to seeing things from the passengers point of view. It is normal (though not health for your passenger who is probably used to the driving seat) when first getting in the driving seat to drive too far to the left, try to be aware of this and adjust your position appropriately.
4. Positioning the seat and mirrors.
- First sit in the car and move the seat so you can fully push the clutch without fully extending your leg (keeping your leg bent a little will help reduce muscle fatigue).
- Stretch your arms out and rest them on the steering wheel, ideally you should have your wrist resting on the wheel, you can use the seat tilt to adjust this or you can move the seat back and forward, but remember this changes your legs on the peddles position.
- Now look into the rear view mirror, the one on the windscreen. Adjust this so you can see straight out the back window, you should be able to frame the window just inside the mirror.
- Check out the little switch underneath the rear view mirror, flick it and have another look out the back window through it. At first you may think you can't see now, but if you have a closer look you'll notice that you kinda can see. At night time this will stop the following cars headlights shining in your face, yet dark vs light, you'll be able to see quite clearly.
- The side mirrors are bit harder; you need to be able to just see the side of your car, but not much. The less of your car you can see the smaller the blind spot, but it is good to see your car to better judge what you are seeing. As for the vertical positioning you need to be able to see the road behind you in the bottom 25-30% of the mirror and see clearly into the distance behind you in the rest.
- REMEMBER to adjust your mirrors after you have positioned the seat, if you move the seat afterwards the mirrors will be out of place. You also need to make sure you are adjusting the mirrors with your head in a natural driving position, I have seen many students move closer to the mirror when adjusting it, to see better, and when asked to check it again they realize it's in the wrong spot.
- No matter how much of the blind spot you've eliminated it will still be there, you MUST always look over your shoulder when changing lanes, merging with traffic or are pulling out from the side of the road!
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