Category: Blog

Be Mindful While Driving

Optimize on your Mirror Surface

The importance of your vehicle’s exterior rearview mirror can never be overemphasized. When improperly positioned, the passenger-side and driver-side mirrors are of little use. You should always ensure that your vehicle’s rearview mirrors are positioned in such a manner that you can barely see the edge of the vehicle. In such a situation, the rearview mirrors will provide the optimal point of view as long as you are sitting in the correct position. This allows you to avoid blind spots. Although blind spot detection systems exist, they are more of a tool for compensating for errors that may result from poorly adjusted rearview mirrors. Rather than using it as the first line of defense, it is better to use your vehicle’s blind spot detection system as a supplement.

Modulate Stability and Speed Using Your Accelerator

When you are driving on a wet road, any sudden change of direction and speed may cause your automobile’s tires to lose their grip. If you drive into a rain-soaked car too quickly and use the steering wheel and brakes to maneuver, you may put yourself at risk. One of the best ways to deal with such a situation is by feathering the gas pedal and lifting off slightly. This slows down your speed without the use of brakes as you make your way to the curve. Then, at the curve’s apex with one fluid motion power out of the curve using throttle pressure. In most situations, including where you have to deal with wet surfaces, it is crucial to optimize stability through smooth inputs.

Anticipation is Key

Anybody who has ever experienced sudden and unanticipated drift into their lane, causing a second of maneuvering to avoid a collision, knows what terrifying means. One of the best ways to avoid such a scenario is to maintain a safe and smart distance from your fellow drivers whenever possible. Admittedly, this is not always possible when there’s heavy traffic on the road. It would help if you tried to anticipate what other drivers might do by steering clear of their lane position in such a scenario. Smart and safe drivers can always anticipate what the vehicle in front is about to make a lane change by observing its movements (failure to do so might eventually cause your collection bill to increase due to an accident).

Stand on It

Before the advent of anti-lock brakes, one way to avoid steering wheel lock-up during emergencies was by pumping the brakes. Fortunately, those days are gone. The great thing about anti-lock brakes is the predictive electronics pulsing the disc calipers for hundred times per second when hard braking. This simultaneously allows full control and wheel spin and allows you to turn and steer your automobile as much as possible. It also controls electronic brake force distribution, which provides an advantage over the physics seeking to conspire against you. So make the best use of your automobile’s anti-lock brakes.…

Additonal Pointers for Safe and Smart Driving

Remember that Not All Lanes Were Created Equal

In many US states, traffic police assume a dim perspective of freeway drivers squatting in the far left lane, and not without reason. The few number of drivers who actually seem to recognize that the lane is for passing is astonishing. Consequently, this results in an avoidable traffic scenario. It is always courteous to your fellow drivers if you drive in the non-passing lanes. This usually prevents bottlenecks that occur when slower cars are spread out across the road in a hazardous manner. Also, it allows you to avoid the possibility of having to explain to the traffic police why you are ignoring the law.

Bluetooth is your Friend

For a long time, talking and texting while driving has been a significant cause of accidents in America and worldwide. Despite this well-known fact, you will always spot one or two drivers holding the phone to their ear while driving (and until you find a bank to give you a good auto loan for that new self-driving tesla, it’s not safe!) What’s more astonishing is that most of the contemporary automobiles manufactured in the last ten years come with Bluetooth functionality. Smart driving doesn’t get any more “smart” than through the use of Bluetooth. Proper Bluetooth use significantly reduces the risk of an accident and allows you to grab the wheel using two hands, which is the right way to drive. The beauty of using your vehicle’s Bluetooth functionality is that it allows you to keep your eyes on the road while using voice commands. In a world where you could be any driver, be a smart driver, and embrace your automobile’s smart features.

Pay Attention to the Sitting Distance

Many drivers usually sit with their arms positioned against the steering wheel in a very awkward manner, and their faces very close to the steering wheel. On the other hand, smart and safe drivers always ensure that their seat is positioned as far back as efficiently possible. Maintaining such a distance between your face and the steering wheel comes in handy if your airbag gets deployed. Maintaining ample space between you and the steering wheel also allows your arms to be slightly bent at the elbows and extended fully. This gives you a better driving experience with enhanced feel and control.

Vertically-challenged drivers may find it challenging to maintain a proper distance from the wheel while reaching the pedals, and may have to do with a bit of compromise. One great way to deal with such a situation is to slightly recline the seat backward. Most of the contemporary vehicles manufactured today have adjustable pedal clusters, making it easier to access your optimal driving position. In case your automobile is not equipped with this feature, adjustable pedal clusters should be one of the top considerations when you buy your next car.…

Tips for Driving Safe and Smart

It is usually a very frustrating experience for people who love driving to have to deal with the unsafe, clueless, and distracted drivers that fill the streets, expressways, and highways in America. They are everywhere–oblivious drifters, cell phone talkers, passing lane squatters, tailgaters–and they sort of make you curious about why a driver’s license is offered as a right instead of being a well-earned privilege. More often than not, the best way to deal with drivers who are incompetent on the road is to improve your safe and smart driving skills. This article will discuss the top ten tips–from simple highway etiquette to safety-minded maneuvers–that all safe and smart drivers ought to know. You will find this article very helpful in navigating the streets more safely and smartly and avoiding hazardous encounters with inexperienced drivers.

Avoid Tailgating

Hear some simple math. Let’s say you were traveling at 60 miles per hour (which is about 88 feet per second), and you are maneuvering about 2 vehicle-lengths behind the car in front, and modern midsize automobiles lengths average at approximately 31 feet (or about 190 inches). All of a sudden, the driver in front of you reacts to a hazard. In such a situation, assuming that you are not fiddling with your mobile phone and are focused directly on what’s happening on the road, you will probably respond to the driver’s brake lights in about 0.5 seconds. Although this is not lousy response time, it is not the most efficient. As a rule of thumb, safe and smart driving requires that you maintain a minimum of 3 vehicle lengths separating your vehicle and other vehicles and maintain a greater length if you are traveling at higher speeds.

Steer Away from Danger

It is a well-known fact that most of the accidents happen when drivers lock in on the objects they are about to hit and freeze in panic. Usually, in such situations, the direction that your eyes are focusing on is where your body’s motor reflex will steer the vehicle. After all, that is how someone is able to stay on the lane in the first place, by locking one’s vision on the road in front. Therefore, when danger is about to strike, you should ignore whatever objects that’s in your path and focus on the right direction to use so that you don’t collide with the object or anything else on the road. Once you focus on your escape route, your hands will automatically steer in that direction and avoid a collision.

Forget the 10 and 2 Rule

Quite a number of notions about smart and safe driving are outdated. One of the most ubiquitous of these notions is the 10 & 2 rule. In modern vehicles, the 10 & 2 rule has no place. If you are holding your vehicle’s steering wheel at the 10 & 2 positions, your arms and wrist will lie directly in front of your vehicle’s airbag, which usually deploys with great force.

Currently, the National Highway Safety Administration recommends the 9 & 3 positions as an alternative to the 10 & 2 positions. When you correctly position your hands a bit lower on the steering wheel, you will be able to minimize the risk of getting injured since you will have created a larger opening between your limbs. If you have ever seen professional race drivers on the road, you have probably noticed that they usually grab the steering wheel on the 9 & 3 rather than 10 & 2 positions. This insight should offer some food for thought.…