A Winter Wonderland?

A Winter Wonderland?

One of the wonderful things about Facebook is that it introduces you to videos and pictures that you might never see if it weren't for Facebook. The two videos below are proof of that..

The first video is a Montana Highway Patrol video that shows a Montana patrolman trying to respond to an accident on an icy, snowy road where people whiz by at highway speeds regardless of the fact that there is an accident off to the side of the road, and a patrolman with his lights on. No spoilers here. Go ahead and watch it, and then come back.

Now it would be amazing to tell you that what you watched above was just Montana drivers (or drivers from whatever state) and that it doesn't happen anywhere else, but if I said that, I would be lying. Case in point is this video about an interstate in Michigan, also in the winter...

After watching those two videos, some things are very apparent, such as excessive speed and a lot of drivers who simply appear to be on cruise control both mentally and mechanically. From what I could tell, there were only one or two deaths between these two wrecks, and both of them came from the bottom video. Here is how to avoid this happening to you.

First off, keep an eye on the weather. If it's snowing as bad as it was in these videos, or it's icy, foggy, whatever, don't drive unless you have to. If you aren't on the road during inclement conditions, you can't get into an accident on that road.  I get that there are times where you have to go out, but if you don't have to go out in weather like what was shown in both of these videos, stay in.

Next, SLOW DOWN!!!!! I can't say it enough, whenever conditions are not perfect, you need to get off of that throttle pedal. Did you notice how many drivers in the first video were going highways speeds as they passed the accident? Did you notice how many drivers attempted to slow down when they go to the accident scene? This is insanity, pure and simple, and the results are what we saw in that first video: lots of cars going out of control, and lots of people hurt. Whenever you are in a situation where the weather isn't good, your traction isn't going to be good, and you won't be able to stop or maneuver as efficiently as you can when the weather is good. Slowing down will give you added traction, and will give you more time to react to situations like an accident up ahead of you. All of the cars we saw wreck in that first video were going way faster than conditions would allow for safe driving, and as a result, there were a lot of wrecks. Anytime you are in a situation like that, do what those driver's didn't do, and slow down.

Something to keep in mind is traction, and the lack of it in the videos above. Remember, the part of your tire in contact with the road is not much larger than the palm of your hand, and  when small space is driving over frozen or snowy ground, the traction is going to be very limited. So make sure you do not accelerate quickly, turn too sharply, or brake too roughly. Anytime you are driving in weather like this, you must treat the car like a fragile baby: do nothing rough, extreme, or aggressive. Instead be smooth, controlled, and agile with all of the controls. That will help you stay in control, or as in control as someone can be when it's as snowy and icy as it was in these two videos.

Focus is next, as in your focus has to be razor sharp in conditions like this. Speed and focus have what physicists call a proportional relationship. In other words, as one goes up, so must the other. The faster you go, the more focus you must give the road. If you ever get a chance to see the eyes of a racing driver, you'll see this in action: their eyes show nothing but pure focus. They are thinking about the car, the turn, braking, passing, all the things related to racing. Not a one of them is thinking about dinner, or the attractive person they saw at the bar that night, or about the next movie they want to see. It's 100% focus on the car and driving. The reason all the wrecks happened in the videos above is because the drivers who wrecked had the focus they would normally have on an interstate during a summer drive: traffic goes fast, roads are never a problem, and people never stop during a summer drive on an interstate. None of those people, especially the ones in the Michigan video, ever switched from summertime to winter time as far as their thinking went. During the summer, you go 75 on an interstate, and you don't worry about braking because you never have to brake. They took that mindset into the conditions we saw on that video, and the results were catastrophic

Now let's say something happens to your car on an interstate or busy road, and you have to pull over on a road such as either one in these videos. What you should do is pull off as far off the road as possible. If it's an interstate like this one, with people driving like this, I would not pull over onto the side of the road. Instead, drive until you reach an off ramp, and pull over there. True, you could do far more damage to the car by driving it a further distance when it's breaking down, but cars can be fixed, it's just money. You are much harder to fix if you get hit. So don't worry about the car, and get off the road, all the way off of the road. Once you're stopped, call someone (another reason I tell you to keep your cell phone charged every night so you have  a charged phone to start the day with, and if you deplete the battery a lot at work or school, charge it before you leave those places too), and ask them to pick you up. If it's cold out, you are going to likely stay in the car, which is wise. But do not forget to keep your seat belt on.  As you saw with both of these videos, these accidents were rear-end collisions: something that is survivable with a seat belt. If you don't have a belt on, what happens to you is what happened to the woman in the first video if you're lucky. If you aren't lucky, you get ejected on to the road and ran over, or you go through the windshield. Neither option is good, so stay belted as you wait for help.

On a related note, how is that survival kit you have in your car? You know, the one with the blanket, water, a snack, jumper cables (or a portable battery pack) and fluids for the car? If you get caught out in winter weather like this, a blanket could be a life saver, as it might take help an hour to arrive. If you don't have anything like this, I'd recommend a blanket for each person who normally rides with you, as well as a couple of bottles of water and a snack for each person. Don't just think this car survival kit only applies to people who live where it snows. Desert areas get down to the 20s in the winter. If you break down at night in the desert, you are going to want that blanket too.

The takeaway from all of this is to first, not drive in conditions like this if you don't have to, and then, slow down and stay focused, more focused the more the weather deteriorates. The people in these videos didn't, and how many of them now will either have family members lost to them, or have to learn how to walk again or function again due to injuries from these accidents? Too many, I'm afraid. Follow the tips I showed you here, and let's make sure you never end up in a situation like this. Until next time...

How to Avoid Road Rage

How to Avoid Road Rage

By this time, most people have either experienced, or heard of road rage, that special level of insanity that makes drivers want to literally kill other drivers for cutting them off, not going fast enough, or even very simple things like a driver forgetting to turn their  turn signal off. It seems to be most prevalent in larger cities, but if your community has cars and at least some asphalt, it can happen where you live. Here is how to avoid it in yourself, and avoid it in others.

First off, let’s look at the cause of road rage. Road rage is simply the result of someone having a bit too much on their plate, and exploding at the first opportunity. Just like most fights between couples, the supposed cause of the road rage incident is very rarely the real cause. It might be that a driver up ahead is going too slowly for the road rager’s  liking, and that person loses it, but that is not usually the real reason that person loses control. We all face pressures in our lives: people with road rage simply have poorer coping skills to deal with those pressures, or they don’t know how to deal with the pressures at all, and as a result, they explode on the road.

So how do you avoid road rage in yourself? This is actually the easier of the two to explain. To avoid road rage, you need to know how you are feeling.  And by saying that, I don’t mean whether or not you have caught a sniffle or if your knee hurts. I mean how are you feeling emotionally? To figure this out, I recommend asking yourself just that question: How do I feel today? Ask it, and then wait a bit for the result. Your body is amazingly good at letting you know what’s going on with it. Unfortunately, few people listen to what their bodies have to say. But if you ask that question and take a minute and see how you feel afterwards, you’ll have most of the information you need to know to figure out your emotional state. If you notice that you’re tense. If you notice that you’re stressed, if you notice that you feel under enormous pressure, you have all the components of a classic road rager. But forewarned is forearmed as the old saying goes, so knowing that you have the components of losing control before you start can aid you in not losing control. This is going to sound very out there, but you need to be mindful of where you are and how you are feeling. All that means is that you monitor your emotions, and take steps to control them as much as possible. If you know that taking the freeway makes you nuts, and you can take sides streets instead, take side streets. If you know that drinking soda makes you tend to get angry, give it up. (And I can attest to that being a problem I had. I gave up all sodas, and my temper evened out in a way that blew my mind. If you find yourself inexplicably angry, give up the sodas and the caffeine as much as possible, it will help). As much as possible, always try to know what emotions you’re feeling. And if you know you are feeling really strong emotions, and are very stressed, maybe today would be a good day to not drive. Only you know your emotional state, but if you know you get so worked up when things don’t go the way you think they should, and you are that worked up before you drive, then you should not drive that day, even if it means making your boss mad and staying home.  A day without pay is better than a jail cell for hurting someone because you got so mad you lost control of yourself.

Another very important aspect of fighting anger is the idea of should or woulds. What his means is that a road rager sees the world in those terms. It goes something like this: “Traffic should be going faster this time of day. If only this bozo would move over, I could get to work on time. I should get green lights this time of day, but nothing ever works for me. If you would learn how to use a Stop Sign, we wouldn’t be here all day.” The list goes on and on, but should and woulds are indicative of a very rigid mindset, ruled by an expectation of order which is absolutely foreign to the real world. Or in English, the world doesn’t work the way we think it should or would. It works the way it does, and as people, we need to adjust to that. Once a person eliminates as much as possible the shoulds and woulds from their mind, stress goes away because that person is not trying to force the world to fit into the box he or she thinks it should. That person is just going with the flow, and not trying to make anything happen. This lowers stress levels immensely, and makes driving, and life, much better.

To eliminate woulds and shoulds, monitor your self-talk (self talk is that steady stream of talking that we all have going on in our head. When you pay attention to it, if you notice a lot of would or should statements (like the ones I used above), try to eliminate them). You do this by asking why should this be that way, or what right do I have to judge what would happen if this person would do this or that? By doing that, you lessen the power of the should or would statement because you  bring the illogical nature of that statement out into the open where your brain can recognize it for the foolishness it is, and you can stop following it.

Now we switch gears and talk about other people locked in the road rage loop. These people are stressed and view the world through a narrow mindset of woulds and shoulds. The first thing you need to do is to find them. If you are paying attention, it isn’t actually that hard. road ragers are not good drivers: they tailgate, they speed, they make very unsafe maneuvers. They are your classic jerk drivers. When you see one, my advice is to not hold your ground. Get away from them as quickly as you can. If you’ve had a person tailgating you for a mile or so, try and get over, or speed up or slow up enough to make a space to the side so the tailgater can pass you. If you do this, and the tailgater doesn’t pass you and go on down the road, or antagonizes you by pulling up next to you and making threatening gestures, get away from this person as soon as possible. I would suggest getting off the road as quickly as you can. Road ragers tend to be opportunists. They will often go after the closest targets they can, so if you are not around to be a target, you will be safe (or as safe as you can be with those kinds of people around). Get away from the road rager, and then call the Police or Highway Patrol and tell them about the person. Do this even if you don’t have a license plate for them. If you give them the details about the road you were on, there are often police or patrolmen who drive those roads all the time, and one is likely on the road you are on and can check the road rager out.

One thing you don’t want to do is add fuel to the fire by returning gestures. I know how tough it is to not return a middle finger or not curse at someone when they do the same to you. There is just something about a middle finger that makes us all go nuts and make us all immediately want to become movie tough guys and get even. But think about it: you already are dealing with a deranged person (and that’s not just a knock on road ragers. Their anger has made them deranged. They don’t see it, but it’s true). If you flip the road rager off or curse at them after they have done so to you, you will just incite them more. You will be adding a gallon of gasoline to the open flame that is their rage, and we all know what happens when gasoline and an open flame come together. Don’t add fuel. Ignore the road rager as much as possible when they are saying or doing things to try and get a reaction out of you, and get away from he or she as soon as possible.

Dealing with road rage is one of the most uncomfortable and scariest things we deal with on the roads today. To recap:

                Road Rage occurs because people are over stressed and either have bad coping skills, or                       don’t have any skills at all to deal with their anger. As a result, these people are at the                           mercy of their anger, and it rules them in a very real way.

                We looked at two things in this article: How to spot Road Rage in yourself, and how to spot                  it in other drivers. When it comes to identifying it in yourself, you have to figure out what                    emotional state you’re in, and whether or not you feel stressed or overwhelmed. If you do,                  you are likely a target to potentially commit Road Rage

               

                Another thing we looked at was the idea of woulds and shoulds, and how messages like the

                world should be this way or my life would be better if you only did this are attempts to                         force the world to do what we want. Since the world doesn’t do what we say, we can                           become angry, and since this is anger without any sort of logic, it can turn into Road Rage

                You spot Road Rage in other drivers by looking for drivers who drive aggressively and                       unsafely. These are your classic jerk drivers, drivers who tailgate, insult other drivers, and                   do their best to make others uncomfortable to get them to do what they want. Your best bet                 when dealing with one of these drivers is to get away from them, then call the police and                     tell them where they are.

                Do not return middle fingers or curse at Road Ragers. This just pours gasoline on an open                   flame.

Above all, stay safe, stay vigilant, and watch our not only for yourself as a driver, but other drivers out there. Until next time…

What Do you Do if you are alone in your Car, Stopped on the Side of the Road, and Someone Knocks on your Window?

Let me tell you a story. This story involves one of the scariest things that ever happened to me. No, it doesn’t involve ghosts, robbers, or things that go bump in the night. It involves something even scarier, a stranger in the dark. As you may know, I used to be a test driver for General Motors. One night, I was driving a SAAB (a type of Swedish car) along with about five other drivers. We had all driven our cars, convoy style, from the proving grounds in east Mesa, Arizona, to a mountain side pullout outside of Globe, Arizona. I was working third shift at the time, which meant I got to work at 11:30 PM, and didn’t go home until 8:00 AM. The incident I’m going to tell you about happened about 3:00 AM, give or take an hour.

So the six of us did our route over the mountain road (called a schedule by General Motors’s engineers), and at the end of the schedule, we were asked to record our odometer, time, and readings from some of the instruments so the engineers could look at the data later in the week when they inspected the car. I was the last car in line as we finished the last schedule of the night, and I pulled up next to my colleagues, and began taking my readings.  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the other cars, which had finished before me, start to take off back to a spot we had all agreed on for lunch that night.  I busied myself with the readings I was taking, and when I got about halfway done the last car left. So it was just me and my SAAB, at about 3 AM, on this mountainside pullout. I had done this kind of thing about 40 times before, so I wasn’t scared, wasn’t worried about anything besides what I was going to have for lunch, and how great that burger was going to taste as soon as I got into town…

That’s when I heard the knock on my window. I literally jumped in my seat. I took a second to look around, but because I had the interior lights on in the car, I couldn’t make out much. Then the knock happened again, and I could see that it was coming from my left.  Looking out the driver’s side window, I could see a man standing next to my car. I hadn’t seen him walk  up because I had been so busy recording my readings. He knocked again, and getting my composure, I rolled my driver’s side window down about an inch. I asked him what’s up, doing my best not to let on how spooked I was (I was literally shaking a bit still).

“What time do we start?” He said

“What?” I returned

“What time do we start?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked him, too spooked to comprehend what he was asking.

“What time does work start? You’re part of the crew, aren’t you?” He said

“Uhhhh…no. I drive for GM. I am just here to record some numbers, then I head back into Globe” I said

“ So you’re not part of the work crew?” He continued. Remember, he knocked on the window of a small  European sedan, not a work truck.

“No” was all I said

“Oh” he said, and melted back into the darkness.

I remember looking in my rear view mirror after he left my window, and watched him walk behind my car, and deeper into the dark. I don’t think I have to tell you that as soon as I saw him go, I slammed that car into drive and got out of there so quick I’m sure I sprayed that guy with at least some rocks. To this day I don’t know what he was on about. There was no construction equipment evident anywhere on the pullout, and what’s more, I didn’t see any other cars besides the GM cars on the pullout that night. (I made an arc when I came into the pullout so that I would be able to take off down the road without having to back out.  Because of that arc, my headlights showed me the entire pullout. There were no other cars there). Looking back on it, it is still a bit spooky, because no work was going on there. Why did he wait until it was just me to go ahead and ask? Why would a guy ask someone who wasn’t in a work truck or who obviously wasn't parking there when they started? As the years have gone on, I am more and more convinced it was something nefarious. That is why I’m so glad I handled that night the right way. Here is what you do if someone approaches your car at night.

1. First off, do not roll your window down any more than an inch or a half inch to talk to them.  An inch gives you enough room to be able to carry on a conversation with anyone outside, but still keeps you safe because they can’t get in. Don’t worry about being rude. If you don’t know someone, treat them as a threat until they show you otherwise. Do not under any circumstance roll your window down all the way to talk to a stranger. Also, it’s going to be normal to be a bit shocked if your experience is anything like mine. Take a minute to compose yourself before answering. I can tell you without feeling the slightest bit of shame that I was still shaken up a half hour after meeting the guy on the pullout. There is no shame in fear; it’s there to help keep you out of bad situations. And if they person you are talking to is belligerent, don’t be afraid to get out of there if you feel you should.

2. Next, don’t be afraid to be rude. If you get a weird feeling from someone you’re talking to in the middle of the night (or even the daytime) that feeling is being given to you for a reason. Listen to it. If the person asks for a ride, if the person tells you that they are starving. If the person says their dog Minnie needs Milk Bones, don’t listen to them if you are getting the feeling they aren’t honest. Your first job is to protect you. You owe the person outside nothing.

Another important point concerns women that one might see. If a woman knocks on your window, whether day or night, you might think that she is harmless and it’s your job to help her, but listen to your senses. There are groups that go around with attractive women and have them play at being hurt or scared or something so that you will lower your guard and let her in. As soon as you do so, her accomplices will appear ready to attack and rob, or worse. So don’t let your guard down. Of course, I am not saying this is all women, or even most women. All I'm saying is to be on guard if a stranger approaches: something you should be doing no matter what the gender of the stranger is.

3. Lastly, you don’t owe anyone anything. If you don’t want to give someone a ride, don’t do it. If you think it’s risky, then it is and don’t do it. You can still do the honorable thing and ask the person to give you their name and where they broke down, record it on your phone, and then drive off down the road, and when safe, call the Police and report the person so they can get help.  Another thing to note is that if you  yourself are broken down in the middle of nowhere and a stranger stops to help, don’t be afraid to just pass them a slip of paper through your slightly rolled down window and ask them to call police. Don’t assume everyone is out to help you. Many people aren’t, and that is even more true when it is just you and one other person in the middle of nowhere or the dead of night. Law goes out the window at that point for many people, and people do what they want because they figure if there is no one to see, they can’t get in trouble. Believe this, it happens more than you think.

It’s been almost twenty years now since that happened, and I’m not going to lie, thinking about that still shakes me up a bit because it was so frightening. I honestly can’t say why I didn’t roll my window down all the way or get out of my car that night (normally when I stopped to take readings, I would step out of the car to stretch my legs or relieve myself after I was done. I didn’t do it this night, and I strongly think I have God to thank for keeping me safe and in the car.) What I do know is that I had a sketchy stranger approach my car, and I dealt with it well and kept myself safe. If the same thing happens to you, remember what you read here, especially the part about not lowering your window more than an inch and not feeling obliged to pick up a stranger. The most important thing is that you keep yourself safe. You can always call for help for someone from a safe place after you get their information. That is the best of both worlds if you meet someone who claims to need help. As always though, stay vigilant and be focused and aware of all things around you. Until next time…

How you Should Drive on Roads with Center Left Turn Lanes.

How you Should Drive on Roads with Center Left Turn Lanes. 

 In large parts of the country, most of the roads you encounter will be roads with what are called Center Left Turn Lanes. The picture below illustrates one of these kinds of roads. That lane in the center, bounded by the solid yellow lines on the outside and the dashed broken lines on the inside is what’s called a Center Left Turn Lane:

The purpose of these lanes is to begin, or end, left turns, as illustrated by this drawing taken from a Road Markings Page on the University of Wisconsin’s website. This drawing shows how these lanes are supposed to be used. See how there is a lane in the center, and how the car that turned left from a side street into  the main street ended his left turn in that lane? At the same time, the car on the left is beginning his left turn by getting into the lane so he can turn left into another side street.

Both of these are perfectly legal turns, and are done thousands of times a day all over America. What this article is going to focus on though, is the first situation I described above, ending a left turn in the lane, and when you should do it, and shouldn’t do it.

I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t I just say that the Center Left Turn Lane is for starting and ENDING left turns? If so, why shouldn’t it be used all the time? That is a great question, and one I plan to answer right now. Before I do though, I want you to put yourself in the place of a driver who has to deal with a car in that lane. Take a look at the picture below. (On a potential positive note, I tried to find an image of a car stopped in a Center Left Turn Lane, and could not find one on Google, so maybe most people are using them properly!) We have a white car, apparently stopped in the Center Left Turn Lane to either make a turn, or to merge with traffic to the right of him (I’ll touch on merging a bit later).  Let’s assume that this road is a major road where the speed limit is 50 MPH. Place yourself in the lane to the right of the car in the center lane. If you are that driver, you will be approaching that car doing 45 MPH or better, and you will pass within two to three feet of that car. Do you know why that car is there? Do you know for sure where that driver is going? No. All you know is that you have a car whose direction and motive you can only guess at, a mere few feet from your car.  Now let’s imagine that you are the driver of the black car, which is approaching the white car going the opposite direction. Do you know where this white car is going, or whey they are in the center lane? No. All you know is that there is a car there, and you will be passing within three to five feet of him going 45 MPH or better. How comfortable do you think you’d be driving around a car like that?

Another thing people do is use the lanes to merge into traffic. It goes something like this. A driver is trying to pull into traffic from either a side street or a parking lot. Traffic either won't let that driver in, or they don't want to wait, so he or she is having a hard time finding an opening to get through. So what they will do is when there is an opening to get into the Center Left Turn Lane, they take it, pull into the lane, and start driving in that lane like it’s another lane. Then they get over when they can, normally into a space that was made because the driver closest to them got freaked out at what they were doing and slowed down.

As you can imagine, there are huge problems with this. First off, it’s illegal.  True, there are some cities, like Phoenix, Arizona, where the center lane is what’s called a Reversible Lane, meaning that the lane  goes one direction in the morning, and the other in the afternoon, but these lanes are rare, and are VERY well marked when they occur. For most places though, if you drive through an opening in a Center Left Turn Lane, (the openings occur when there is an intersection of some kind) you are driving illegally. Some people though, especially if it’s busy, will drive in that lane for quite a while. One busy day I remember seeing someone drive in one of those lanes for almost a quarter of a mile before they made a very risky move and got into traffic. Bottom line, do not use these lanes to merge in that way under any circumstances.

So how do you use these lanes safely? Let me bring back the second image I used earlier:

The way the red car is using the lane is ALWAYS appropriate. He is starting a left turn from that lane, therefore taking him or herself out of traffic while they wait to turn left. This is the primary use for these lanes. As I said earlier, you can use these lanes to end left turns, but I would only do this under heavy traffic conditions. True, you should wait for traffic to clear and just make your turn into the proper lane, but I called this blog Real World Driving, and that is just not real world. What I normally do is wait a couple of minutes (and no, not what feels like a couple of minutes, but was really 20 seconds, but a legitimate two or three minutes for traffic to clear) to see if traffic will allow me in. Sometimes you’ll get lucky, and get in right away, sometimes you have to wait. If traffic is heavy, you’ll likely be waiting.  So after waiting for a couple of minutes, if I see that traffic is not letting up, and that I will likely be waiting for a long time, I will make a left turn into the Center Left Turn Lane, and then, I will STOP with my right turn signal flashing, indicating that I intend to merge into traffic. I will stay there, stopped, until an opening comes up, and then I get into the opening as quickly as possible. Note,  that I didn’t say anything about driving in the middle lane. Note that I have my blinker on, showing the drivers around me what I plan to do. Note that I don’t stay in that middle lane and check my texts or call my girlfriend and see what’s for dinner. Get in the lane, and get out, that is the story. But this is a rare occasion, and something I might do once or twice a year. The rest of the time, I don’t use the lane to end my turns, I wait for the opening and enter traffic when it's safe.

Center Left Turn Lanes are a great thing, and if you’ve ever driven on a very rural road, or an older part of a city that has older streets where you have to start and wait to turn left from an actual traffic lane, you know how safe, valuable, and convenient they are. That being said, they have an ulterior purpose, and that is to create a buffer between the two traffic flows. This makes people feel safer, calms them down, and allows them to drive in a way that is much more stress free. But put a car in that lane that is normally a buffer, and you have just made those drivers revert back to 1930s highways with only yellow markings for barriers.  If you need to use the lane, use them, that’s what they are there for, but get out of them as quickly as you can. Until next time….

DRIVING SKILLS NUMBER TWO: Not Trusting Anybody

DRIVING SKILLS, NUMBER TWO:  Not Trusting Anybody.

At first glance, my suggesting that you don’t trust anyone sounds harsh and cold, almost as if I’m saying that you should shut everyone else out and live alone in a cabin in the woods with only a squirrel and a raccoon as friends. But that’s not what I’m saying at all: I’m saying that you should never give any driver, pedestrian, motorcyclist or bicyclist the gift of your 100% full trust, because inevitably, that decision will come back and bite you in the butt. Here is why.

Before we go deeper into this, let’s do some defining. What does it mean to trust? Well, in a basic sense, it means that you can let your guard down around someone because you know that the person won’t hurt you or cost you something. This is exactly the kind of behavior I want you to avoid in a car. Not trusting anyone means not letting your guard down around other drivers, pedestrians, or riders, even if they look like they are as safe and as harmless as a white bunny rabbit in a grassy field.

Let’s look at some examples. What is to be feared from this driver?

Nothing, right? This is your standard minivan, full of a husband, wife, and kids, going along harmlessly to whatever their day has planned. You look at this, and this is likely what you think of:

And honestly, who can blame you. Minivans look so innocent, so dull, so incapable of causing problems. We think of minivan, and we think of efficient, safe people mover. But let’s look a bit deeper. What if that minivan above looked like this in the back:

Or what if the driver, instead of being a sweet, innocent, devoted mom driving her careful bundles of joy around, actually drove like this:

If the minivan in the first picture actually looked like the last two pictures, could you trust that driver to be safe? Could you trust that driver to not be distracted with kids having light saber fights in the back and mom trying to drive, text, and eat an ice cream cone all at the same time? Of course you couldn’t. The chances of that lady in the pic above  rear-ending a car at a stop light, or side swiping a bunch of parked cars because she was focused on her phone is very high. But you can’t see any of this from the outside, so how do you know?

Am I saying that the lady above is most minivan drivers? Of course not. Most minivan drivers are safe, careful drivers. I used the example of a minivan because of its reputation for safety. But there are a lot of drivers like here. Not trusting anyone means that you don’t trust a minivan just because it’s a minivan and it has a reputation as a safe and harmless car. No car is harmless when it’s being driven like it is by the woman above.

Another time people put their trust on hold is with elderly drivers, after all, how can a person like this harm anyone?

But what about this driver?

Can you trust that the lady in the picture above can see where she is going, and can drive in such a way that you aren’t in danger? Will she be able to stop in time when a light turns red, or when a car pulls out into the street without looking? Will she be able to see when she needs to turn, and make that turn safely? I personally wouldn’t say yes to any of those questions.

Again, this example was not designed to bash on senior drivers. Most of them have a wealth of knowledge and experience behind the wheel and are the safest drivers on the road because of it. But just like with minivans, when someone sees a senior citizen driving, they rarely consider them a threat, and that is what I find dangerous. There have been many times where seniors have gotten into accidents because they hit the gas pedal when they meant to hit the brake, or they couldn’t see where they were going and ended up hitting other cars or driving into businesses or homes. The bottom line, don’t trust anyone or anything based on an assumption of safety. No one and nothing is trustworthy when you are driving. Everything you see on the road can hurt you.

But does not trusting anyone mean that you hate everyone or look at them as beneath you or not worth your time because you have to watch out for them? Absolutely not. This philosophy of not trusting is simply a way of thinking that allows you to be ready for anything, and not to fall for stereotypes. To wrap this up, let’s look at one more picture:

Here we have what is undoubtedly the safest and most worry-free situation one could encounter: a bunch of happy kids, walking along, getting ready to Trick or Treat. There can be no more trustworthy situation than this, right? Well, what if the kid in the black hat (I'm assuming that's a hat, anyways, the kid in the black headgear, rear right!) in the background sees his friend across the street and runs out into the street to go meet him? What if the little cowboy in the foreground has his plastic pumpkin kicked into the street, and he runs out into the street after it? What if the little cowgirl in the foreground is told something mean by Dracula in the background, and runs home crying, crossing the street in the process? Can you really trust these innocent kids to stay on the sidewalk while you drive past them?

Hopefully by using these three examples, you have gotten what I am trying to say about not trusting people. What trusting anyone boils down to is basically an assumption that they will do what you think they will do when you are around them. But people are human after all, and being as we are ruled by our emotions and our desire to get wherever we can, as quickly as we can, sometimes people don’t act logically. Not trusting anyone means that you don’t assume anything of anyone, and that you are ready for anything, from anyone. When you drive past that minivan, you don’t assume that it’s safe; you drive past ready to take action to avoid anything. When you come across that senior citizen behind the wheel, you don’t assume they are safe because they are driving too slowly to be a problem. You drive by, ready for anything they could do. As you pass pedestrians of all kinds, you don’t assume they will stay on the sidewalk, but you are ready in case someone runs out.

Being ready is the bottom line of this article. This was not written to bash any group that was mentioned here, or to say any group mentioned here are bad drivers or bad people. The goal of this article was to get you used to the mindset that no one can be trusted, and that as a driver, you need to be ready for anything when you are behind the wheel. Until next time…

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….

Getting to School Safely

Getting to School Safely

School has just recently started again for the majority of the country, and with that in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to write an article about getting to school safely. This article is primarily going to focus on students who ride the bus to school. There will be another article for high school students who drive themselves soon.

So how do we get these legions of students from their front doors to their classrooms safely? Well first, we need to break this subject into three parts: bus loading, the bus ride itself, and bus unloading. As you might expect, we’ll begin with the beginning…

Bus loading

This refers to that period of time when kids wait for their buses and when they get on the bus. Normally, this goes off without a hitch, and as a result, little thought is paid to this time. But we need to change that because it is this time and the unloading, which will be mentioned later, that are the most dangerous time for students. A recent NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) study on school transportation accidents revealed that between 2003 and 2012, there were 174 student fatalities during transportation to and from school. Of those student fatalities, 119 were students who weren’t on the bus when the accident happened, making this time period the most important to focus on.  Those 119 were likely either hit by the bus they were either waiting for or had just exited, or were hit by other cars as they got off the bus to get home. So here are some tips to help keep kids safe while they are waiting for the bus:

1.      Make sure the student has a safe area to wait in. This area should be no closer to the bus than the sidewalk. The best waiting place for the student would be inside of his or her house, watching for the bus from a window inside the house, then not leaving for the bus until the parent or guardian sees it pull up. This way there is less chance a student runs out

in front of the bus or gets distracted and walks away while waiting for the bus.

2.      A parent or guardian should escort the student to the bus, always holding the child’s hand and watching for speeding cars or a bus operator who isn’t on the ball that day. I see a lot of parents who just let their kids run out to the bus when they see it pull up. While accidents rarely happen, all it takes is for the bus driver to have his or her foot slip off of the brake, or have the kid run after a ball or something else that has gotten into traffic for a bad situation to occur.

3.      The student should not enter the bus until the parent or guardian has determined the bus has stopped fully, and the bus is ready to be loaded. Some things a parent or guardian should look for is a bus that has not been moving for at least a few seconds, and a bus that has the Stop Sign extended, which indicates the driver is ready to load. Lastly of course, is an open bus door and a driver who indicates he or she is ready to load by vocal or hand gestures.

4.      The parent should stay at the bus loading area until they can see the child is safely on the bus and has sat down in their seat. My suggestion would be to watch the bus pull away as well, that way you can judge if there are any issues with the bus or bus driver that might need to be addressed. You will rarely, if ever see anything, but I think this is a smart move especially if your kids are younger.

It is really important that a parent or guardian keep in mind just how big a bus is, and how large the potential for blind spots are. True, buses have mirrors upon mirrors, but just like you do when you pull out, how much do you actually study your mirrors? If you are like most drivers, you give the mirror a cursory glance, and the pull out. Bus drivers are people to, and it is very possible that one will just give his or her mirror a quick glance because they are running late and then pull out when they don’t see anything. That quick glance could hide a child who is tying their shoe or who is trying to get a ball from under the bus or any other number of things that happen with kids. So bottom line, kids need to be watched at all times around a bus, and this is even more important when the kids are elementary school age.

The Bus Ride

While on the bus, it’s important that students know to stay in their seats for the duration of the bus ride. This information should come from the bus driver, and then the parent or guardian of the student should also echo it, so that the message sinks through to the child. They should not be standing up, walking the aisles, or engaging in any sort of horseplay. This is for a few reasons. One, it makes the likelihood of them being injured in a wreck that much higher because school buses do not have seatbelts, and they use the idea of compartmentalization, the idea that the kids are squeezed into overstuffed seats which act like airbags to arrest any movement if they get into a crash. But this compartmentalization doesn’t work if the student is not in his or her seat. Another reason to have the student always sitting or not messing around is that if a student is up and messing around, the driver must take focus off of the road and put it on the student as they look in the mirror and ask the student to sit down. This having to focus on student management on the bus takes the driver’s eyes off of the road, which even if it is just for a few seconds, could be enough to miss someone pulling out in front of the bus or could be enough for the bus to drift off of the road. If all students are in their seats and not messing around, the driver can put all of his or her focus where it needs to be: the road.

Some ways that a student could be encouraged to stay in their seat is first consider getting the student a smartphone. If a child’s nose is buried in their phone, they aren’t getting up or messing around. Music, with earbuds (avoid the big over the ear earphones as they are bulky and more likely to be broken around young kids) can allow a student to retreat from the world into his or her favorite song. It can decompress the student at the end of the day, and if the student is focused on music, they will be sitting in their seat, usually not bothering anyone because they are so into the song. If the student is a reader, a favorite book (or audiobook) can keep them occupied.

Bus Unloading

This time is just as hazardous as the bus loading, because this is when students are off of the bus, and have the greatest statistical chance of being injured by a bus. Here are some suggested steps to keep kids safe when getting off of the bus.

1.      Students should have all of their stuff ready to go when the bus pulls up to the school.  This is so they can get out and are not distracted by wondering if they lost this or that, or if they left this or that on the bus. My suggestion is to not have the student open their bag at all. Today, the most a student will need on a bus is their phone, and maybe some water or a snack. Most of that can fit into their hands, leaving the backpack to be kept zipped up. The reason I touch on this first is that if a kid is distracted, wondering if they forgot or left something on the bus, how focused are they going to be when they get off of the bus? Usually not very focused. If they have all their stuff still packed up like it was when they got on the bus, this won’t be a worry.

2.      Kids should leave the bus in as orderly a fashion as possible. I know this is not something that is really in the student’s hands, as the bus driver controls how they enter and exit, but the student should leave in a calm, orderly way, being very careful to use the handrails and not trip while getting off the bus. You might think that last sentence is like reminding someone that gasoline can start a fire, but I have seen lots of adults when I was a college student riding the bus trip getting on or off (including myself at least once!), so it bears repeating. When going down the stairs to exit the bus, students should go one step at a time, use the handrail, and get off as orderly as possible.

3.      Once off the bus, students should move away from it immediately. Students should not hang around the bus to talk to friends. Students should not hang around the bus to check messages on their phone. Students should step off the bus, get on the sidewalk, go maybe a hundred feet, find a place where they won’t get bumped into, and then wait for friends or check messages. Remember, most student fatalities regarding buses occurred because someone got hit by the bus or another car. If a student is at least one hundred feet away from the bus, it won’t be able to hit or hurt anyone.

Even though the majority of school buses don’t come with seat belts, they are still statistically the safest form of automobile out there, so your student is very safe while on that bus. But there is still danger there, and that danger is primarily from the bus itself when the student is around the bus. Stay safe and best wishes for a great school year. Until next time…