Passing your driving test does not mean that you are a good driver, as you can tell on most roads every day. Passing your driving test means that you have reached the stage where you can continue learning to drive without supervision. But how many people really continue to learn to drive after they pass their test? How many people think about what they've done and how they could improve? How many people realise when they've done something wrong and learn from it to try not to do it again?
Very few.
This is the reason the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) was set up. Most people are oblivious to the dangers around them when they are driving and the IAM course focusses on making you aware of these dangers so that you are a safer driver. This means reducing the chances of you causing an accident and reducing the chances of being in an accident caused by someone else, as well as reducing the damage caused in an accident you could not avoid. All this naturally reduces your insurance premium with most insurance companies so it's very cost effective. Here are some tips to improve your driving but I really would recommend going all the way and becoming IAM certified.
The most important rule is to be relaxed. The Highway Code stipulates that you should not get angry at other drivers regardless of their actions. So, if you get angry behind the wheel, you are technically breaking the law. Before you set out on your journey, you should realise that there are people out there who really shouldn't be allowed out of their house, let alone behind the wheel. There's nothing you can do about it, so just face it, you are going to have to prepare yourself for these idiots and when they turn up, it should be no surprise. Getting angry with them will serve no purpose except make you as bad as them. When we are angry we do stupid things that endanger ourselves, so take a deep breath, it doesn't matter that they just cut you up and almost killed you. You survived, so now you have the opportunity to learn from this experience and work out how to prevent it happening again. You need to learn from it. You need to learn what you can do to prevent others from endangering you in the same way again.
Speeding. This is a very controversial subject. Some people argue that the speed limit is a limit and not a target, which sounds like a reasonable point of view, except that, in law, it IS a target. If you or your vehicle are incapable of driving close enough to the speed limit, you need a police escort. On the other hand, this does not mean it is acceptable to exceed the speed limit. The IAM say that they teach the appropriate use of speed. This does not mean that they teach you when it is safe to do 150mph on the motorway, it means they teach you what speed is appropriate for the circumstances without breaking the law. If you are the sort of person who thinks it is OK to exceed the speed limit, there's very little I can do to convince you otherwise. An IAM course may help convince you. But if you are involved in an accident that was not your fault, one that would have happened regardless of the speed you were travelling at, then you are still likely to be given the blame and prosecuted accordingly. You may lose your licence, you WILL have to pay higher premiums. All for something that wasn't your fault.
I have friends who can drive safer at 100mph than other friends can drive at 30mph. Speed in itself is not always inherently dangerous. In fact, excessive speed is solely responsible for very few road traffic accidents. I refuse to get in the car with some of my friends because their lack of driving awareness, judgement, reaction time or just general intelligence is not safe at any speed. It is a shame that these same people consider themselves to be safe drivers based on the sole reasoning that they do not exceed the speed limit.
The next logical area to tackle after speeding, is driving too close to other vehicles. If a vehicle in front of you is going too slow, tailgating them will not make them go any faster and will not get you to your destination any quicker. In fact, tailgating makes a lot of people slow down in order to put you at a safe stopping distance. If you are travelling too close to the vehicle in front, it obscures your vision so that it is more difficult to determine when it is safe to overtake. If you drive further back, you'll have much better vision around the vehicle and also you'll have a nice run up to accelerate once you decide to overtake.
But tailgating doesn't just happen when the car in front is going too slow for you. At least 90% of people drive too close to the car in front all of the time. They have grossly overestimated their reactions and their stopping power. As a good rule, you should be at least 2 seconds behind the car in front. That means you should be able to see them pass a marker, then be able to count 2 seconds before you pass that marker. As useful phrase is "Only a fool breaks the 2 second rule". It takes about two seconds to say that so watch the car pass a marker and you should pass it AFTER you've had time to say all of that phrase. The advantage of recommending 2 seconds instead of a particular number of metres is that the faster you travel, the bigger the gap you should leave. Remember, if you drive into the back of someone, the law regards it as your fault. Even if the driver in front slammed on their brakes for no reason, you should have been driving far enough back to anticipate and react to that.
You should be aware that driving too close to the car in front is the cause of more recorded accidents than any other single cause.
You can do something about this and it'll save you a lot of trouble if you do. If you take just one lesson away with you after reading this page, make it this one.
