My Top Driving Tips

One of the things you learn on an advanced driving course is to continually assess your own driving and make adjustments. Here are just a few of my top driving tips.

• Don't fix your speed, set a target speed.
  Do not attempt to maintain exactly one particular speed whilst driving. Instead set yourself a target speed. But be prepared slow down or speed up as conditions around you dictate.
• Do not follow too closely other vehicles driving along a slip road onto a motorway.
  Leave a gap so that vehicles already travelling on the motorway in the near-side lane can slot into that gap rather than having to slow down or pull out into the middle lane.
• When in doubt, ease off
  Do not instinctively change course when something unexpected happens ahead such as when a vehicle pulls out into your lane whilst on a motorway. Think first, and if you need more time, ease off the accelerator.
• Overtake briskly
  Even though you can overtake another vehicle travelling only a few mph slower than yourself, just how long are you going to occupy that overtaking lane? Why not just slow down a few mph yourself?
• After overtaking, do not pull back in too early
  Especially if it is raining heavily but also if the motorway is quiet, there's absolutely no reason to do this.
• Demonstrate better driving by example
  There are a lot of bad drivers around. However bad another person's driving, don't attempt to teach them a lesson or get your own back. If you do, there'll be two bad drivers, not just one!
• Stress-free queuing
  It is tiring stopping and starting when in queuing traffic. It's better for you and your car if you can keep the car crawling. Don't upset drivers behind by allowing a massive gap to form in front of you but do use the shadows cast by the sun on the cars ahead to determine whether the queue is about to start moving again or not.
• Maximise the visibility of your indications
  Think about how you can maximise the visibility and usefulness of your indications. Try to begin indicating before you start braking so that your indications are not obscured by your vehicle's brake lights and have a better chance of being seen.
• Never accelerate to get away from a tailgater
  Concentrate instead on what is happening in front of you. Make sure that whatever might happen ahead you will have time to gradually reduce your speed thereby reducing the chances of the vehicle behind running into you.
• Do not let yourself get worked up by other people's bad driving
  This is hard to do but if you allow yourself to get worked up by another person's bad driving you stand a good chance of increasing the likelyhood of having an accident yourself. Did the other person really do that deliberately? Could they have just made a mistake and handled it badly in the heat of the moment. Get satisfaction from minimising the risks and inconvenience presented by other people's bad driving. Treat others as you would like them to treat you in a similar situation.
• Pre-empt other people's courtesy
  When travelling in heavy traffic behind a number of other vehicles and you see another vehicle waiting to join the traffic flow, if possible, try to create more of a gap between you and the vehicle ahead. This might not only provide an opportunity for the waiting vehicle to join the traffic flow ahead of you but will also help you keep moving should a vehicle ahead of you begin to slow down or stop so that the waiting vehicle can pull out ahead of them.