What Are The Biggest Mistakes Most Drivers Make?

And why? That’s the one that’ll surprise you most. After all, we all like to think we’re good drivers and that our experience counts. In other words, the longer we’ve driven, the better we’ll be. If only ……

So, what is common to these mistakes? And how many are there?

Well, the common ground is habit, and ‘old’ brain. And there are three key–critical areas.

All Training is Based on Learning New Skills. Okay, so we all know that. But do we know how it relates to the everyday function of driving? Few have studied this, and even fewer understand the staggering implications. Yet the remedies can be so simple. Firstly, let’s look at: Habit. What do we take with us when we drive? Everything we take out on the roads comes from preparation and practice for the Driving Test. Driving at 30–40mph and preoccupied with reverse parking, junctions and emergency stops. Sure, there is loads more to practice for the driving test. But there’s nothing related to the high speed driving conditions that we’re going to encounter for the rest of our motoring lives. The saying, we can’t learn everything at once, holds true. But, what happened to the rest of our training, post test, to develop those particular skills? In Martial Arts, The Forces, Business, Professions or Trades, we begin with initial training to lay the foundations upon which to build further essential training. The Driving Test would be equivalent to our first grading – Completion of a Foundation Course. Why should driving be different? Isn’t There a Whole Level or More Completely Missing? We leave the Test with ‘slow speed’ – learner driver habits of reaction and observation. Nothing more. So the habits we base our driving skills on are necessarily limited, and must remain so regardless of how many years of driving we do.
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What training did you have to drive onto and use Motorways at real speeds? Who taught us how to overtake effectively on the open road? And most importantly, who helped us upgrade our visual skills to match the demands of faster driving?

And secondly, what of the ‘old’ brain?

The part that still looks out for predators that might make us lunch. The part that provides ‘knee–jerk’ reactions. Instinctive behaviour. Evolved over millions of years as we moved about at — wait for it — 3–4mph! That’s right. Reactions geared to a slow–speed world and simple survival tactics: fight, flight, freeze, fixation and safety–in–numbers.

But we can overcome it with Training, Application and Practice. We can TAP into our potential. But only with more training. The missing level. The stuff we all need, but few get. More on that in a mo. But, now, thirdly!

Eyes and Brain.

Like the ‘old’ brain, everything about us has evolved to cope with a slow speed world. One where the main form of movement was walking. And there’s the problem staring us in the face. Well, actually staring at our feet. Or in reality, 3–4 paces ahead. Looking for our next footfall. Checking the ground. Watch folk walking on the pavements and into supermarkets. Check yourself out. Our eye muscles are trained to look down most of the time with occasional peeks up and ahead and about.

We Need To Retrain Our Eyes To Extend Range of Vision

For effective road driving we need to re–train our eyes to stay up most of the time with occasional down. The exact opposite of our evolved state. But if you want to drive effectively you have to take your eyes for a workout!

Here’s how. Begin by giving yourself ‘room’ to see. Back off to about 3–seconds behind the vehicle in front. You can’t see anything if you’ve closed down your view ahead. Then soft focus it and look past it, around it, down the sides of it, beyond it, over it or under if appropriate. Open your view. Raise your eyes and raise your game.

Author’s Tip: Hold your hand out in front of you. Palm towards your eyes. Now, move it in until your vision is totally obscured. Then gradually move it away until you feel that’s it’s OK. You’ll know it when it happens. And guess what? It always equates to the ‘comfortable picture’ about 3–seconds behind another vehicle. Try it. Then go out and try using a vehicle in front instead of your hand. You’ll never want to drive close again!

This is because the ‘old’ brain needs to see things relative to each other to detect change. It’s looking for sabre–tooth tigers peering through the foliage, or sudden movement. Too close and the picture doesn’t change. It just gets bigger. Same as pixels of the computer screen, or in digital camera terms, but larger if it’s coming closer.

Too close to a vehicle in front and your brain can’t necessarily react to sudden braking. But if it can see that vehicle relative to the surroundings it can detect even sudden change. Time to react and space to do it in if you’re backed off.

Back Off And Give Yourself Room To See

So to summarise: Open the view. Raise your eyes and you’ll raise your game, simply, easily and best of all, quickly, by an amazing 4–500% or more. Go and ‘see’ for yourself, you’ll be glad you did!

Also, avoid ‘locking on’ to any other vehicle, visually or spatially. Soft focus the vehicle ahead and look beyond. Again, back off or stay back. You’re safer with loads of space round you on the roads. No question. The opposite of the herding or pack instinct that is still in us.

Give yourself as much room as you can reasonable get. And guess what? It’ll be more than you do now. Or should be! And you’ll be less stressed and more able to follow just on your throttle most of the time. A mark of a truly ‘good’ driver.

Get Out There & Get Some Real Training

So, where can you get the appropriate training, or coaching as it really is, to take you to Level–2? Not generally with your pre Test Driving Instructor, unfortunately. Only a few have trained beyond the Test themselves. They are in reality mainly Driving Test Instructors.

Well, the good news is there are a few specialist companies out there doing great work. Check them out. It may be the best investment in you and your whole car–ownership package that you ever made. The best ‘real’ insurance, performance enhancement, reduced wear and tear, plus lower stress levels Add–On package you could ever ‘treat’ yourself to.

It’s a wonderful upgrade you’ll enjoy for the rest of your driving career. And, long after most of the cars you’ve owned have grown old and are on the scrap heap, you could still be improving!

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This page was last updated
Friday, 28-Jan-2011

Road Driving – It Just Brings Out The Animal In Us