12 SOME TIPS
12 SOME TIPS
I thought that I would give out a few tips to help people improve their driving ability.
First; get to know your vehicle. You should be able to turn the lights on and off without looking for or at the switch; the same with the windshield wipers, the signal light, the door locks and power windows.
In tractor-trailer school they would teach you to glance at your instrument panel and in both left and right rear-view mirrors every 12 seconds. After you practice it long enough, it becomes a habit that you don’t have to think about but will keep you aware of what is happening behind you and what your vehicle is doing. When you check your instrument panel, look at your speed, if there are any lights on, on your emergency group, your battery charge and your oil pressure. [If you lose your oil pressure, you only have seconds to shut your motor off before it seizes.] Check your tachometer, too; over revving your motor will burn too much fuel for what you are doing. Use a higher gear if the tachometer is too high.
In a car, if you tach over 2000 you are using too much gas to pull away from stop signs and lights. Ease up on the gas pedal a little and keep your tach below 2000; that way your transmission will shift into a higher gear and you will go faster but burn less gas. By keeping your foot down on the gas, your transmission thinks that you are passing someone and will stay in a lower gear, making your motor rev higher before shifting into a higher gear.
Second; after you get to know your vehicle, get to know where your vehicle is in relation to what is around it. How close are you to the center line when you are driving down the road? Most road beds are 24 feet wide; 12 on your side of the center line and 12 on the other drivers side. Most cars are about 6 feet wide. This means that you have 6 feet to move from one side of your lane to the other. Seems like a lot of room but, if your in the center of your lane, you only have 3 feet on either side before you are out of your lane. That’s a little better than the length of your arm.
One way to check to see where your car is when you are driving down the road is to look in your rear view mirror at the road by your tires. How close is the center line? If you think that your tires are only 6 inches from the center line, you are too far to the left. [Remember that you are looking in a mirror and the rear tire is almost 6 feet behind you. What looks like 6 inches is probably closer to a foot or more.]
While cars are 6 feet wide, transports are up to 9 feet wide [I know, I know; they’re only supposed to be 8 feet 6 inches but the mirrors have to stick out beyond the sides to be able to see past the trailer and they are usually about 9 feet.] so transports need a lot more space travelling down the road and in the turns.
In my truck, I habitually travel 6 inches from the side marker line. This keeps me as far away from the rest of the traffic as possible but still gives me good solid road to drive on.
You can check how close you are driving to the edge by using your right side mirror and the side marker line beside your rear tires instead of the driver’s side mirror and the center line.
