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Basic Defensive Driving Tips Part 2 |
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Written by Jerry Malcolm
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In our first attempt to go over Basic Defensive Driving Tips Part 1, we talked about the need to arm yourself with defensive driving skills because driving on the public streets and highways can be a dangerous project. Defensive driving skills return to you the ability to have greater control over the many hazardous things that can happen to you on the road. It is worth our while to review some of these basic defensive driving tips. Even if you have been skilled at defensive driving for many years, a refresher is never a bad idea. So let's continue with the rest of our basic defensive driving tips with …
Defensive Driving Tip Number Five - Stay Humble
When you have been driving for many years, its easy to begin to drive on autopilot. It could be if you have developed good defensive driving skills, you can become overconfident and complacent. If you have not had a ticket, an accident or a close call in a long time, its easy to think that you are immune from danger. But you are never immune from danger.
To be effective at defensive driving, you must maintain a constant awareness and alertness about other drivers and what is going on around you. That means doing a gut check from time to time that you do not allow your overconfidence to take over. It means always reminding yourself that it only takes a moment for a traffic emergency to happen. And it means keeping the principles of defensive driving fresh in your mind through reading about them as you are doing today and even taking a refresher course from time to time. That might seem like a nuisance but if it keeps you and your family safe, its worth it.
Defensive Driving Tip Number Six - Seek Out More Defensive Driving Knowledge
We just touched on this tip because we talked about taking a defensive driving refresher course to keep your skills and knowledge up to date. If you can take a course from a professional defensive driving instructor, you might be surprised the bad habits you have developed over the years. We don’t intend to build bad habits but time has a way of making us let down our guard and get lazy.
But even if you don’t go out with a driver one on one, you can find affordable defensive driving courses online that you can take to refresh your knowledge of the skills you must have to drive safe in just about any situation. We cannot cover everything in these two sort articles. Part of staying humble is admitting that you could have allowed your defensive driving skills to get rusty. But part of being a responsible driver it taking the action you should take to improve those skills. If you take that refresher course every few years, your confidence will be strong that you have the ability handle the many road situations that happen to you when you drive. And that will be a confidence that is well deserved.
Defensive Driving Tip Number Seven - Take a Nap
Driving safely requires focus, alertness of mind and the ability to respond quickly if an emergency comes up. That is a state of heightened awareness that sometimes is easy to loose, particularly if you are going to drive a long distance. So make it an unbreakable rule that you will not drive tired or drowsy.
If you are on a long distance drive and you get sleepy, either tag team with another driver or pull over to a rest stop and take a nap. That might seem like an odd thing to do in your car. But that short rest period can sharpen your reflexes and freshen your mind enough so you can keep alert and always driving defensively no matter how long of a journey you may be on.
Defensive Driving Tip Number Eight - Look Out for the Other Guy
We talked about putting aside a competitive or hostile attitude about the other drivers on the road back in the first part of this discussion. That myth that you go out on the road to fight against others for road space and to "win" is not conducive to a successful defensive driving program. Instead, adopt a different attitude entirely about your fellow drivers out there. They are just like you because they got in their cars to go do something important like to go to work, to go see loved ones or to run important errands. And like you, they have a goal of not having an accident and getting through those errands without incident.
If you see your role in the lives of the strangers you drive with on the roads and highways as supportive you can do all you can to help the other driver get where he or she needs to go. By allowing others in when they are merging into traffic, communicating that you will help if they need help and being a partner with other drivers, that diminishes the road rage significantly. And when you show generosity to another driver, that driver is likely to drive down the road and show that same courtesy to someone else. Who knows you could start a trend of courteous and supportive drivers out there. That would be a great trend to support to be sure.
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