{"id":37,"date":"2013-10-24T16:48:38","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T05:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/?p=37"},"modified":"2020-09-20T14:51:16","modified_gmt":"2020-09-20T04:51:16","slug":"how-can-a-new-driver-drive-more-safely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/how-can-a-new-driver-drive-more-safely\/","title":{"rendered":"How can a new driver drive more safely?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Congratulations. You&#8217;ve spent a lot of your own personal time learning how to drive so that you can achieve your goal of a full licence. Now you&#8217;ve got it, you still need to get more experience, but hopefully without having an accident. What are the things that will be the most dangerous for you as a full licence holder.<\/p>\n<h2>Tiredness<\/h2>\n<p>If you are not used to driving long distances, the first time you do it you will find it draining. There\u2019s so much to pay attention to, plus there\u2019s the inactivity of sitting in the seat which will make you feel drowsy. Opening the window might work for five minutes, but it\u2019s not a long term solution. Neither is turning on the radio or making the inside of the car suitable as a penguin habitat by winding down the air conditioning.<\/p>\n<p>The only ways to combat tiredness are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Having a nap before you drive<\/li>\n<li>Getting a good night\u2019s sleep the night before<\/li>\n<li>Stopping the car and having a power nap<\/li>\n<li>Stopping the car and having a quick break, doing some stretches and walking around the car.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can also try foods and drinks with caffeine for a temporary boost (apples work well, too), but it\u2019s not addressing the real problem. Mid-afternoon our circadian rhythm tells us we want to sleep, so you will tend to feel tired then. If you are driving around when your usual bedtime is, you will feel tired, too.<\/p>\n<h2>Mobile phones<\/h2>\n<p>94% of you would rather give up sex for a week than lose your mobile phone according to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sciencetech\/article-2327831\/94-UK-adults-live-sex-mobile-phone.html#ixzz2TvxEdDH4\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this<\/a> survey. This probably means you&#8217;re doing it wrong. It\u2019s the mobile phone that has all our attention, even in the car. The problem is that to use a smartphone\u2019s features you have to take your eyes off the road, up to several seconds at a time. You could travel the length of a football pitch in the time it takes you to open an app or check a text, and that\u2019s enough time for you to plough into the back of another vehicle that might have a spiky thing that impacts your head.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps if vehicles had to have spiky things on their rear bumpers and in the middle of the steering wheel we\u2019d all drive with more care.<\/p>\n<p>If you get a call, use a hands-free kit to answer it. If you get a text, pull over to read it. Some phones \u00a0will compose a text using a hands-free option (like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.holden.com.au\/about\/innovation\/mylink\/commodore\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Siri Eyes-free, which is available on some Holden Commodore models<\/a>), but that is technically still texting so I&#8217;m not sure how police would feel about that. It\u2019s best to pull over, anyway, as you are distracted when doing this.<\/p>\n<h2>Friends<\/h2>\n<p>Your mates can be the biggest distraction when you are driving. You\u2019re all having a good time, you\u2019re on the way to the party, the music is cranking. Your eyes should be on the road. On the way back, you\u2019ll be the sober driver and your mates might be boisterous, asleep or verging on throwing up. Either way, it\u2019ll be late and you\u2019ll probably be tired. It\u2019ll be dark and your reflexes are already dulled.<\/p>\n<p>If you are tired you will eventually start to take micro-sleeps. You have no control over this \u2013 your body takes them automatically and you can\u2019t stop it. They are fractions of a second where your body falls asleep. Eventually these become so frequent you risk falling asleep and then you\u2019ll be off the road and into something immovable. You then might have an appointment with the law for negligent driving, that\u2019s if you survive. And your friends won&#8217;t be happy about it.<\/p>\n<h2>Tyres<\/h2>\n<p>The main two factors for grip on the road are tyre pressure and tread depth.<\/p>\n<h3>Pressure<\/h3>\n<p>Get into the habit of checking your tyre pressure every month or so and make sure you know what the manufacturer-recommended pressures are. If the tyre pressure is too low you\u2019ll get a lot of sidewall flexing and very erratic handling. In the worst case, the tyre can come off the rim. If the tyres are over-inflated your steering will feel really light because there\u2019s less tyre in contact with the road. This also means less grip.<\/p>\n<h3>Tread depth<\/h3>\n<p>The treads on your tyres are there to channel water away so that the blocks of the tyre can be in contact with the road. If you\u2019ve ever tried driving a go-kart or racing car on slick tyres in the wet, you\u2019ll know it\u2019s like driving on ice. If the tread depth isn\u2019t deep enough, water pressure will cause the tyre to ride up on top of the water, and then you\u2019ve got aquaplaning and very little grip.<\/p>\n<p>Watch out for deep puddles. When it\u2019s been raining (particularly on back roads), you\u2019ll notice two lines of puddles will form that follow the tyre tracks. This is where the road has been slightly compacted by the movement of vehicles and creates slight troughs. By positioning your car slightly to the left you will avoid driving through this deeper water and that has two benefits: less chance of aquaplaning, and you\u2019ll use less fuel because there\u2019s less drag on the wheels. Just be careful if you\u2019re positioning your car to the left that you don\u2019t hit deep standing water on the edge of the road. If you ride a motorbike you can ride between the tyre tracks.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s some real-world aquaplaning<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mERAaeCrj0E<\/p>\n<h2>Change in the road\u2019s grip levels<\/h2>\n<p>Tarmac road tends to have a fairly uniform grip. Motorcyclists know that they should avoid manhole covers and white lines in the wet, but the black bits tend to be fairly uniform in the dry. However, there are plenty of places where the road\u2019s surface can change grip with very little warning.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If it\u2019s frosty, areas that are sheltered from the sun will remain slippery for longer than areas that are in the sun.<\/li>\n<li>In rural areas there can be stretches of muddy road where livestock have been moved, or agricultural machinery has driven.<\/li>\n<li>On minor roads there might be areas of gravel<\/li>\n<li>Outback roads that are sandy, or roads that might have sand and fine dust blown onto them, will be slippery<\/li>\n<li>If the weather has been dry for a while a film of rubber builds up on the road and immediately after it rains this can be really slippery<\/li>\n<li>Black ice: you can\u2019t see it, and that\u2019s what makes it dangerous.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Speed<\/h2>\n<p>The capability of modern cars far surpasses those of the 1980s. Anti-lock brakes mean that cars can stop very quickly in front of you. This is one reason why you shouldn\u2019t tailgate.<\/p>\n<p>The other thing about speed is that when you are a new driver your reflexes aren\u2019t as honed as when you\u2019ve been driving several years, so you really need to keep the speed lower, especially when the weather\u2019s bad. A posted speed limit, like 100kph, doesn\u2019t always mean it\u2019s safe to do 100kph, even if you do have a late model vehicle. There are all kinds of other things like visibility (due to spray or fog, for example), standing water, what other drivers might do, etc.<\/p>\n<p>There you have six things that might cause an accident if you\u2019re not aware of them.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve had an accident, what was the first one caused by? Let us know in the comments section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Congratulations. You&#8217;ve spent a lot of your own personal time learning how to drive so that you can achieve your goal of a full licence. Now you&#8217;ve got it, you still need to get more experience, but hopefully without having<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/how-can-a-new-driver-drive-more-safely\/\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,6,8],"tags":[51,49,48,52,47,50],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advice","category-car","category-heavy-vehicle","category-motorbike","tag-aquaplaning","tag-distractions","tag-mobile-phone","tag-speed","tag-tiredness","tag-tyres"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3806,"href":"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/3806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}