Driving in the rain
Driving in the rain can cause some drivers problems. They drive too fast for the road conditions. They close up on the car in front. They make other drivers panic. And, suddenly crash.
Driving in the rain is not difficult if it is done well. In this article I will tell you the best way to tackle driving in the rain.
When you are learning to drive your driving instructor should talk to you about driving in the rain. Most driving school do cover driving in bad weather.
In my other articles, I mentioned the idea of a safe gap. This is the gap between you and the car in front. You should be able to stop safely in the distance that you can see to be clear. This safe gap is also known as your stopping distance.
Your stopping distance is made up of thinking distance and breaking distance. You do not need to learn your stopping distance. Can you tell what 100 yards looks like at 60? I work on a safe time gap – do I have time to stop if…
A safe time gap for a good driver on a good road in good weather is two seconds. I teach my student drivers to keep four seconds gap. As the car in front passes a fixed landmark, start to count. Count – 1000 and 1 etc. When you reach the same point, you should have the correct safe time gap.
A fine film of muck and oil lies just under the surface of the road. It floats on the top of the rain and puddles. It is the shine on the road when it rains. It makes it harder to stop in the rain.
You should double your safe time gap when it rains.
Rain makes it harder to see. This why you put your wipers on. This also means that other drivers are struggling to see. If your wipers are on your lights should be on.
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Fog KillsFog Kills I am sorry to be so blunt about it, but fog is a killer. If I were more accurate, the way people drive in the fog gets them killed. Every time there is fog on the freeway, there is a crash. It need not be like this. Fog is a dense formation of water droplets near the ground. It...
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Spotting the problemsA good driver is aware of other road users and anticipates what they are going to do. They are hazard aware. This is the skill of scanning the road and linking what you see to what you need to do. Learn to do this early enough and you will find that you really are the king of the road. Try this ...
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