DRIVING SKILLS NUMBER ONE: Focus and Vision

DRIVING SKILLS NUMBER ONE:  Focus and Vision

I’m starting a new series on driving skills, and I am going to begin at what my experience has shown me is the most vital part of driving well and driving well enough to survive any trip you’re on: vision. What does vision mean exactly? Well, the traditional definition of vision is simply seeing something, but I define it in terms that go much deeper. It means how you see the road, but it’s more than that. Vision includes not just seeing the road, but understanding it. It involves seeing potential road hazards or accidents, and driving in such a way as to avoid them. It involves knowing how to read the body language of cars and drivers (And yes, cars do have a body language, as you’ll soon see!), and predict what other drivers are going to do before they do it.

As an illustration, take the photo below:

How many potential trouble spots can you see right off the bat? Take a second and look at it.

You should be able to spot:

1.       The car beginning the left turn

2.       The bus

3.       The motorcycle

4.       The white car in the lane to the left of you.

5.       The fact that the light is green, and has been for a bit

6.       Pedestrians near the bus stop

All of these could be trouble spots. What if the car making the left turn slows or stops in the road for the car making the right turn, and causes the white car to swerve into your lane? What if the bus stays in the right lane and doesn’t move, forcing you to have to decide to either change lanes or stop? What if a passenger, who just left the bus, tries to run across the street? What if the light changes to red and you have to stop suddenly? What if the car making a right turn stalls, or has to stop in the lane because a pedestrian decides to walk across the street right at that moment? You might not think that these things are likely to happen, but they do, every day. The driver with vision notices these things, and while he or she might not have to take action because nothing happens (many times the scenarios that we just discussed above never come to pass) they are prepared to take action, which saves time in reaction that could lead to the difference between life and death.

So vision is just like the exercise we did with that picture. It is you, observing the world around your car, noticing and understanding everything, and seeing what could be trouble and what isn’t. Vision allows you to see things before they happen. If you have a car that wants to make a right or left turn from a side street into traffic, and they have stopped in such a way as to have the front of their car almost in traffic, you could assume that the driver is impatient, and might pull out at any time. If you see a driver constantly checking their mirrors while they are stopped, you might assume that will reverse or that a U –turn is coming. If you see a driver yelling at either kids or another adult in the car, you could assume that the driver is distracted, and you should beware of them. If you see someone eating, putting on makeup, shaving, or reading in the car (and yes, I’ve seen all of those happen more than once while someone was driving a car), you can assume distraction as well, and get far away from them.

So how do you acquire this vision? All you need to do to acquire good vision for driving is to unplug from all your distractions while driving, whether they be electronic, or human, and put most of your focus on driving. Having said that, I, like you, live in the real world. There are billboards, there are people blowing up your phone, there are chatty passengers who all seem determined to steal away your vision and focus from the road. I don't expect you to really be able to tune out everyone and everything. I get that you're human, and things can distract you. The trick is to remove those distractions before you start driving. That phone? Put the ringer on silent (not vibrate, silent) and put it in a bag or somewhere where you can't get to it from the driver's seat. That chatty passenger? Don't be afraid to ask them to be quiet while you are driving. You or they might think something like that is rude, but a little rudeness can be forgiven if the alternative is a nasty car accident because that passenger took your vision away. Those billboards or things on the street you see that catch your eye? Look at them quickly (we're talking a half a second, no more) then back to the road without looking back again. That gorgeous guy or girl walking, same thing. Quick glance, and back to the road. Distractions happen, as long as you don't focus on them, they won't be able to take your vision away from you.

While you are focused on driving, make sure you take in the whole world around you. Check your mirrors every five seconds, and put your focus primarily on any trouble spots. That doesn’t mean that you take action when you see a potential trouble spot (like a car that pulled out too far) but it does mean that you notice that, and are prepared to go into another lane or hit your brakes in case something happens. Having vision allows you to prepare to take action, and this can make all the difference between avoiding an accident, and not being able to. Think about it: When you aren't expecting something, like let's say a ball being thrown at you, how much longer does it take you to be able to catch it compared when you were ready for it? The difference is only seconds between being prepared and not being prepared, but when you think that, in a car going 60 miles per hour, you go 100 yards in a second, seconds count. That  is why vision is so important: it makes you prepared to take action if you need to.

So the vision equation goes something like this:

Attention + Understanding what you see + Preparing to act on what you see = Vision

Vision isn’t the only thing you need to drive safely. You also need focus. Focus is of course driving the car without distraction. It is putting your attention 100% on driving and operating the car. It is listening to the car to make sure there are no sounds that might indicate that the car is unsafe or that a problem might be starting, and being 100% present as you drive. That means no daydreams about what Aunt Martha’s Coconut Cream Pie is going to taste like as you are driving to a family dinner, or how you are going to do on that tough chemistry test  when you get to school. Focus is paying attention  as close to 100 percent to your driving, and by focusing and having solid vision, you will not only make sure that your trip is safe, but you will be able to give a very precious gift, the most precious gift you can give to any other driver out there: the gift of a safe driving experience because you are a driver with vision who focuses on driving and driving alone, and doesn’t let anything else distract them. Until next time….