The basics of defensive driving

My father was a professor. When I was driving up to London with him when I was a teenager, his comment to me about driving was to "assume that everyone on the road is an idiot, and nine times out of ten you are right". Like all professorial postulations, the fundamental hypothesis may be correct, but its application needed more research. It is more like 99 out of 100.

I was taught to drive by a friend of mine in Northern Manitoba, when I return home to Ontario I was re-taught (properly this time), but a driving instructor who was a police officer, where I learned about defensive driving. If we all knew the basics and practiced them, then there would be a lot less accidents on the road and we would be a lot safer. As the holiday season is upcoming, I thought that I would share with you the five basic rules to observe that will hopefully help you avoid any unwanted altercations.

Get the big picture. Don't focus on the licence plate or the bumper in front of you, instead look as far ahead as you can so that you can anticipate traffic slow-downs before they happen, bad weather ahead, bridges that may be slippery and everything else that is going on. You are better prepared to react to traffic conditions if you already knew what was about to happen.

Keep your eyes moving. You should be constantly checking your rear view and side mirrors. Be conscious of who is in the lane beside you on either side, and behind and ahead as well. For a training exercise have a passenger cover your rear view and ask you who is behind you. A good way to pass the time on long drives and stay awake.

Leave yourself an out. Make sure that you have ample room both to the left and right of you to change lanes in case something happens in front of you. This is my personal pet peeve as it seems that whenever you are on a highway with about three other cars between the horizons, why does one of them have to drive at exactly the same speed beside you? When in this situation, either accelerate if you can, or better then that slow down and let the other car pull ahead. If the car ahead brakes or an animal jumps out of the bush, you have no place to go. If you had a gap, then you can simply change lanes. There is nothing worse than that sinking feeling that you are about to rearrange the bumper of the car in front or run over an animal because you have no place to go.

Cover the brake. Whether on the highway or in traffic, make sure that you can brake quickly without any unusual movement, getting your coat caught, having to put down the latte, and so on, and yes I mean the parking brake as well as the foot brake. If you really had to stop suddenly you would be surprised how much additional stopping you can get by applying both.

Last but not least, observe the 2-second rule. Back in the days when I did my written test, we were taught to keep a following distance equal to one car length for every 10 miles per hour (yes, we were not metric in those days). So, how long is a car length? Back then, it was probably about double what it is today. Does that mean we should have shorter distances? What about kilometers? As there are more of them as there are miles, will that automatically make the distance longer? The answer is a flat no. The best method for determining following distances is to pick a point on the road, like a sign, overpass, street light or some other stationary object, and wait until the car in front passes it. Count 2 seconds to yourself, (one one thousand, two one thousand, slowly), and if you pass the object before the count is up, you are following too closely. Increase your following distance until you meet the criterion, and, if the weather is bad, make it three seconds or more instead. This method is a lot more scientific, because as distance traveled is a function of time and speed, when the speed increases so does the distance, and the safety margin. Remember 92% of all traffic accidents are caused by following too closely.

There are several other corollaries that are not golden rules but basic common sense, like put down the phone and the hamburger, don't give the road-raged idiot behind you who is following too closely a brake, unless you want a rearranged rear end (try slowing down to the correct speed for the distance instead, he is guaranteed to pass you). Don't drink and drive, or drive tired, or take medication that may make you drowsy (legal and illicit), drive angry, argue with the passengers, use the rear-view mirror for vanity purposes, drink, smoke or any other activities that require so called multi-tasking. If we all practiced these rules then we would be looking forward to a safe holiday season, which I trust will be your experience this year.