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Welcome To www.SafestwayDrivingSchool.com Serving the Bay Area For 35 years Email: Safestwayds@comcast.net - Driver Education now available on line.

Consider This

How Long To Become A Good Driver?

About one year, says Thomas H. Rockwell, director driving research laboratory at Ohio State University first 12 years of experiments with drivers. Until this length of time, a driver does not have enough experience to be good. Rockwell reported in an article April 3 issue of Automotive news Be Good, the auto industries weekly newspaper. Student drives he said simply don't make the grade under sophisticated movies, video tape television cameras distance and measuring gadgets that measure vehicle dynamics. Discovered by university researchers that when cameras record the view form the drivers vantage point besides where he is looking, beginning drivers found that moving there eyes 4 or 5 times per second to gather irrelevant information. And a novice glances at the side of the road continually to ensure that he is in his lane. The experienced driver gets that information peripherally while looking down the road. It was found.

The novice driver also looks at his speedometer more than he does his mirrors, while the experienced driver does completely the opposite told to drive at a certain speed beginners usually exceed that rate by about 10 MPH : Experienced drivers are about right n target. The good driver looks down the road when traveling at higher speeds. but the bad driver doesn't says Rockwell his team found that the good driver also has what they call "spare visual capacity" they can look at the road scenery even close their eyes 20% of the time and still get enough driving information. The tired driver is a special hazard says the researchers. Test show a tired driver will stare at the center line on a boring freeway often focusing above the cars hood. Thus he receives information to late to avoid a collision. Researchers concluded that the car driver is similar to a computer. Gathering and analyzing information but often he fouls up.

Parent: Use this information to help your son or daughter in over coming the novice driver syndrome.

FEAR

A major weakness of the new driver is fear, and it can effect the seeing habits of a new driver.

In a 12 year study Thomas H. Rockwell at Ohio state university it was found that beginning drivers move their eyes 4 to 5 times per second to gather irrelevant information. A novice driver glances at the road continually to ensure himself that he is in his lane; the experienced driver gets the information peripherally while looking up the road. The novice driver looks at his speedometer more than he does his mirrors while the experienced driver does completely the opposite. The experienced driver looks farther down the road when traveling at higher speeds. While the new driver look close to the front of his vehicle. What does all this mean? It means that it takes a driver about one year of experience before he wakes up to the fact that in order to be a safe driver he must use his eyes properly.

Who is at fault for this failure to the new driver? The fault falls on the trainers.

Why? because they fail to teach the one thing that is most essential for a person to drive safely. And what is that you ask? The proper use of the eyes.

Read the outlines and you will note that it is specified a DRIVER SHOULD BE AWARE, SHOULD LOOK, SHOULD SEE, BUT THERE IS NO BREAKDOWN AS TO HOW. No one address the fears of a new driver and how to overcome them. What fears you ask? Let's start with the car it self, a few examples, how about the forward length and width of the hood? how can we maintain the car in a lane when it looks as if the right side of the car is over the lane? And when the new driver looks at parked cars to his/her right, it appears that he's/she's going to hit them? Remember what was stated about the new driver using his eyes 4-5 times a second to gather irrelevant information? These are a few of the new drivers fears.

Any education in driver training must start by overcoming these fears. The trainer must teach how not to gather irrelevant information by teaching good seeing habits. As a prerequisite to getting behind the wheel, or at the very least once in the car, at a parking lot, or a quite area where a student can concentrate on subject matter, a demonstration of how to look ahead , how this practice can overcome fears by demonstrating that in looking ahead the driver will get proper position on the lane without looking side to side.

Why does a novice driver follow so close to the car in front? One reason is he/she is looking only at the car in front. Seeing is a selective act and when the new driver decides to see what's directly in front , that's all he/she will see.

At Safestway Driving School all of these fears are addressed at the beginning of training so that the new driver can start with good seeing habits.

(No) Right of Way Philosophy

There is a greater misunderstanding about the uniform right-of-way law ( as legislated by most states) than any other part of the uniform traffic code. Ask any driver if he knows the right-of-way rule and he gives you a look that says. "why, you dumb so-and-so, I've been driving professionally for fifteen years. Do I know the right-of-way?" The answer to that is, "Well, do you?"

It's downright amusing sometimes to hear people quote it to you. They actually start like this: "When two vehicles reach an intersection at the same time, the one on the right has the right-of-way." Right then we know that he is not quoting from the same law. He has not learned the basic principle of the uniform right-of-way law. Let's start reading it together.

It reads like this. "When two vehicles enter an intersection from different highways at approximately the same time, the driver of the vehicle on the left shall yield the right-of-way to the vehicle on the right.

That's quite different from what most people say. In one case, the law says in most states "Never Gives the Right-of-way to anyone." The law only says who shall yield and places the penalty on the driver who fails to do so. They may have him arrested- if they are still alive after the crash- but don't make this silly mistake of thinking the law has given anyone the right-of-way.

The only person who can give you the right-of-way is the other driver. Until he does so, you haven't got it. We have read dozens and dozens of collision reports which start with "I had the right-of-way," and there have been several near fights between drivers involved in collisions in which each driver claimed he had the right-of-way. Most of us have even read or heard of "shoot-outs" over who was I the right in a traffic situation.

When you come to think of it, it's rather plain to see that neither one had the right-of-way, for if either one had, there would have been no collision.

You can mark this down as truth- in every case of vehicle collision neither driver had the right-of-way, although one or both may claim it.

With this knowledge of right-of-way a new light is shed on correct behavior at intersections. We must know the law, of course, but for the safety's sake we must never assume that we have the right-of-way until we are sure the other fellow has yielded it to us.

This safety concept also especially applies to pedestrians and bicyclists. Even though the light is green and/or you are in a marked crosswalk, you can be injured or killed unless the driver does actually yield. As often as pedestrians insist they are "protected" by law, so shall we continue to have pedestrians injured or killed.

When bicycles are in motion they are subject to the same regulations as other moving vehicles. however, when they are stopped, the bicyclists foot touches the pavement and therefore he becomes subject to all regulations covering pedestrians.

Safestway Drivng School Serving the Bay Area for 35 years!

swayclassroom

The ORIGINAL Safestway Driving School!
Serving the Bay Area for over 40 years

1133 Bont Lane,

Walnut Creek, CA, 94596

800-380-3181

(925) 933-3181

See Areas Served

For your local Number

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Send mail to MichaelScott1@juno.com with questions or comments about this web site. Copyright © 2007 Safest Way Driving School Last modified: 01/02/10

Send mail to MichaelScott1@juno.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2007 Safest Way Driving School
Last modified: 01/02/10