Car driving tips to help improve road skills
One of the very important car driving tips is to know about the handling characteristics of your own car. You need to know if your car is susceptible to Understeer or Oversteer These will affect how the car handles corners. It is also of great benefit to understand how weight transfers around a vehicle, in an emergency maneuver situation. Other car driving tips to be conscious of are again about knowing your vehicle and whether it's front, rear or 4 wheel drive. This affects how a car handles on the road. If you don't know this, there are obvious ways to find out but you can probably find this in your manual or ask a mechanic. Many people already know this but if you don't it's worth finding out as it gives you foresight into how to treat the car in cornering and acceleration situations. Front wheel drive cars tend to be susceptible to understeer. Rear wheel drive vehicles often tend to oversteer. 4 wheel drive cars provide better traction as all wheels drive on the road but they can still suffer from either characteristic. Try to get a good feel for the stopping distance for your car as they will vary in different vehicles. This really is great knowledge and is worth testing at least once on an empty straight road (not motorway or interstate) at the standard speed limit. Don't try an emergency stop at high speed. Doing an emergency stop in your own vehicle allows you to get an appreciation for how well it's going to stop in a serious situation. It will also make you more conscious of tail gating which is a major cause of accidents on all types of roads. It is important to leave a good amount of space between you and the vehicle in front as it allows you a chance to react if the unforeseen happens. General rule of thumb here is the 2 second plus rule. This is where you find a landmark on the road ahead of you (like a sign) and take note of when the car in front passes it. You should not be passing it sooner than you can count two seconds from when the car in front passes it. Double this to 4 seconds in wet, cold or icy conditions. It's always good to get some extra training if you want to improve your skills. Some car driving tips here are to go for a track day or book a driving experience, where you are taught by a racing or rally instructor. One of the main things taught on such days is that smoothness and fluidity in your driving are a major part of skilled driving. Another great option is to book some Advanced Driving tuition. Then take the IAM Advanced Drivers test to become a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists. Passing this test and gaining membership is a great way to become a highly skilled and safe driver. It also makes you think about your driving and road positioning. You will be taught about things like correct road positioning, cornering and safe overtaking. You are made conscious of things like looking ahead on down the road to foresee potential dangers, rather than just a couple of cars in front of you. The instructors are extremely experienced (often ex Police traffic officers or similar) and any anxieties you may have will vanish doing this type of course. Wherever you want to improve your driving another very good place to start is by practicing in a non pressured situation, away from traffic. So for example, some car driving tips if you're having problems with parallel parking (which many people find difficult to get right first attempt). Take half an hour or so each week or as much time as you have available to practice this. Any empty, traffic free area (such as a large car park) that has a curb will work. You'll find that you will only need to do this a few times in a non pressured situation before you'll have completely regained your confidence and refreshed your ability to park perfectly first time. For specific help with parking tips please see the section dedicated to this. This works just as effectively if you feel especially anxious when driving on highways and motorways. Take an evening once a week and spend just half an hour driving on a non congested section of this type of road. Usually there's a really flat spot on the roads just after rush hour in the mid evening when everyone has eventually got back home from work. If you eliminate the pressure from the other motorists by driving when there is very little traffic, you can begin to focus again on your driving and make conscious improvements to any bad habits you may have picked up along the way. Once you are feeling good again about yourself on the road you can easily get back into driving confidently in heavy traffic. For more car driving tips and more specific guides to improve your driving, see the
driving techniques
section for more specific help with driving.
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