Safe driving is far more than taking a course in driver education; it’s also a matter of using your head and common sense.
The first thing to fix firmly in your mind is that your sense of time goes out the window the moment you get into a car. This can easily be illustrated by timing how long it takes to get out of a side street onto a well-traveled road, and then asking someone else in the car to estimate how long you were sitting there.
If you actually waited ten seconds, the other person would probably say 30 or more seconds.
An example of this foregoing point is that if you leave late and try to make up some time by driving extra fast to work, you may save two or three whole seconds. Conversely, if you leave two minutes early, and try to spend some extra time by driving slowly, you’ll get there about two minutes early; perhaps one minute and 56 seconds early, if you really drag your feet.
Another point, which you can prove for yourself quickly, comes from watching the progress of somebody who has passed you because of his feeling that you’re going too slowly.
Pick out a marker when that person passes it, and count the seconds until you reach it. Somebody really steaming down the road will pick up as much as five whole seconds in a mile, and maybe even 30 seconds in a trip of five or ten miles.
The worst driver is one who is convinced that he’s the best driver in the world. So if somebody says “Wasn’t that last corner a little fast?”, consider if the remark was legitimate. If it wasn’t, forget it; if it was, learn from it.
Continually analyze your own driving: “Did I make that entry onto the freeway properly, or did I almost risk an accident because I jumped into traffic too quickly?”
Think about it!
