Situational Awareness

I teach performance driving as a side job, and I find almost none of the novice drivers I work with look far enough ahead. It is one of the most important skills to learn on a track. The farther ahead you are looking the more time you have to set up for a turn or react to another driver. I teach drivers to keep their eyes scanning across the road from the car ahead of them to as far ahead as the terrain will allow, and to include a scan of the mirrors. This clearly translates to the street.
Most drivers look at the back of the car ahead of them. Big mistake!

 

One of the many things I deplored about the popularity of SUVs was that with so many of the opaque behemoths crowding the road, seeing ahead was more difficult.

So I look forward to the day when I can get into the back seat of my 2012 Prius IV and tell it "let's go to work" and I sit back in comfort and read the paper while the car, with its radars and cameras and computers speedily and safely drives me to work. The only situation awareness I'll need then is knowing the most comfortable place to sit!

Mark Baird
Aalmeda CA

 

I've found that the Prius has changed my driving habits somewhat. For one I don't really speed much anymore, except on downhills where I don't have to burn fuel to accelerate. I do notice more how other folks accelerate and decelerate so uselessly in in town driving. The same people that come roaring past me often get stuck at the next light and sit there waiting for me to pass them again. It's sorta funny to watch but sobering to think about all of the wasted fuel.

 

This is where the third "high" brake light is helpful.

 

This is a pet peeve of mine. I like to coast up to a stop light, honk, and wave (in a friendly manner) at the guy who just blasted past me, and cut me off in order to gain one car length. Just my little way of telling them, that it wasn't really necessary. We both made it to the same place in just about the same amount of time.

In this current U.S. culture (Fast, fast, fast! Get out of my way!), however, I doubt that the driver understands the message (or even the fact that there was one!).

 

I have been driving on the roads and on the track for years now and would have said I knew how to drive a car. I recently got back into riding motorcycles (the ultimate defensive driving sport) and had to take a riding class to get a motorcycle endorsement on my drivers license. Now motorcycles are very maneuverable and can almost stop on a dime which leads one to think everything should be under control. Well, the better portion of the class had nothing to do with riding and operating the bike. It was AWARENESS training, so much so, that I have actually changed the way I drive a car now. Sure, there is the usual stuff about looking down the road ahead, but how far and how do you know if it's far enough? Well, on a motorcycle when you realize that your only airbag is the size of your nose, you tend to think about this constantly. 90% of all motorcycle accidents occur at intersections - 90%.

Now if you stop and think about this it makes sense. However, intersections involve not just the car in front of you but also the ones pulling out in front of the cars in front of you. So how far is far enough?

There is an answer to this question and it's very simple. Recognizing that there is a difference between cars and motorcycles in handling and breaking, you just create a Zone of Safety around yourself. That's what the call it in the Harley training course. It works even if the worlds largest SUV is in front of you. We have no control over what happens down the road and our only concern here is the guy in directly in front of us and to some degree the guy behind us. I don't know about you but I can't judge distance in feet between cars but I can figure out the time between me and the guy ahead. This is not the old car lengths rule. Watch the car ahead as it passes a sign or telephone pole and just start counting, 1 second, 2 seconds, etc, and stop counting when you pass the same marker. There is no magic here just distance converted to time.

According to the Highway Safety Institute 2 seconds distance at ANY SPEED is the time it takes for the average driver to immediately react to the car ahead. Notice that I didn't say safely react! Now add to this the time it may take for the car in front of you to react to what he sees in front of him and you start to get the picture. The training course recommended keeping a 4 second cushion if you expect to survive. What about the guy behind you you say? I just add time to my cushion and do the thinking for the dope tailgating me.

By the way. I was following a Prius the other day in the city and the wonker must have been using the "B" mode to brake because he was definately slowing down but there were no brake lights on (read that as he was keeping his braking a secret (stealth braking)). Remember that the next time you want to play while in traffic.

 

Since I'm stuck with the Sienna, I've driven like a Prius and gotten better mileage and I try to look at the "computer", but it's up by the rear view mirror. I'm sure I'm getting better mileage, I'll report more later after a few days.