GM Stories: My Worst Accident...By Far

I want you to imagine you are taking a nice drive. Maybe it's the afternoon, you will be home soon, you will focus on things you'd rather be doing than driving or working. Now take a look at your rear-view mirror, and imagine this monstrosity bearing down on you. That was similar to what happened to me, although to be honest, there wasn't enough time to look in my mirror...

It was either late April, or early May ( I know this because I was in school pursuing an engineering degree at the time. Finals were right around the corner, and I had planned a study session when I got home that night). It was a gorgeous day, sun shining, maybe 80 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. It was the kind of day that Arizonans who live in the Phoenix metro area love, because they know the blowtorch that is the Arizona summer would be coming soon, and any cool day before that would be enjoyed to its fullest.

I was driving back to the GM proving grounds in east Mesa. I was driving an Oldsmobile minivan (yes, they did make those back then!). My minivan was towing a small trailer, with maybe 1000-2000 pounds on it (whatever the limit was for that particular vehicle). I had gone up to the forest town of Payson that day, and the last part of the schedule the GM engineers asked me to run was to take Hunt Highway, a desert road that led to the town of Florence, almost halfway to Florence, and then turn around and go back to the proving grounds. That was to be the end of my day. Here was what the minivan looked like, without the trailer:

I was on the return leg of the Hunt Highway part. I had turned around at the midpoint, and now was making my way northwest along Hunt Highway. Hunt Highway is a two lane road, normally fairly busy at 2:45 PM, the time I was on it. I drove along the road, keeping the speed limit, watching the scenery go by as it had on the way down. At some point, I came up behind a woman in a Ford Taurus station wagon. She was going about 5 miles per hour slower than the speed limit, but because Hunt Highway was such a dangerous road, I didn't dare try and pass her. I lowered my speed enough to where I wouldn't be tailgating her, and continued to enjoy the ride.

The minutes cruised by, and before I knew it, I passed the entrance to the quarry that was on Hunt Highway. As I passed the entrance, a truck, similar to this one, pulled out on to Hunt Highway behind me.

I had seen trucks like these numerous times. This area of Hunt Highway was in the middle of becoming a huge bedroom community in the southeast part of the Phoenix metro area, so there was always construction going on. I noticed the truck, called a belly dumper or bottom dumper, because it unloaded from the bottom of the trailer, but apart from keeping tabs on its following distance to me, which wasn't an issue, I didn't worry about it too much.

The next part happened very fast, and could be called a true miracle. Remember the woman in the Ford Taurus station wagon I mentioned earlier? Well, she applied her brakes and stuck her hand straight out the driver's window, pointing left. It took me a few seconds to figure out what she was doing, having not seen a driver use a hand signal for over a year at that point. What she was doing was giving me the hand signal for a left turn. I had begun braking while I was trying to figure out what she was doing, and as a result, was slowed down enough for her to make her turn without being a problem for her.

All of a sudden my minivan was smacked from behind. I didn't have time to react, it was all instict. I was pushed into the oncoming traffic lane, away from the woman in the station wagon who was stopped. Thankfully, she didn't move, and I was able to go around her, turning the wheel to the left and the right to counter the numerous skids that were the result of the car being hit so hard.  When I was able to get the car under control, I made for the right side shoulder of the road, and got out to see just what had happened to me. It only took a quick look behind me to figure out the cause.

That belly dumper, the one that had pulled out behind me from the quarry, he is the one who had hit me. He and I were both OK, and the woman in the station wagon came over and checked on both of us. Thankfully she, and everyone in her car were OK as well. I called my boss at the GM Proving Grounds to report the accident, and sat back and waited for the tow truck to take me home.

I asked the driver of the belly dumper what had happened, and was amazed at what he told me. He had pulled out from the quarry as I said, and he started down the road, his trailer full of gravel for a construction site somewhere in Mesa. He, being higher up than me, noticed the woman slow and then stop, and then he noticed my brake lights, indicating that I was slowing, but he had a cigarette that needed to be smoked, and  the lighter in the cab of the truck had just popped, indicating that it was ready to light his cigarette. (Cigarette lighters were activated by pushing them in. They would make a popping sound after a minute or so, indicating that the element inside the lighter was now hot enough to light a cigarette). The driver of the truck told me that he bent over to light his cigarette, took his eyes off of the road, and that's when he hit me. Cars today don't come with lighters anymore, but this is what they used to look like:

Interestingly enough, your car still has this in it, although it's not used for lighting cigarettes anymore. Look at the following picture, in the area in front of the gear shift lever. That round opening would have been a cigarette lighter had this been a car from the 70s. Now it's a 12 volt auxiliary power unit for your personal electronics.

But back to the story. I mentioned that this was a bit miraculous in the beginning, and that was not hyperbole. The time of the day I was on that road, and the stretch of road it happened on, normally would have been full of cars. Had it been a normal day, I would have gotten punted from that semi in to oncoming traffic, and had a head on collision with a car doing 60, with me doing probably 25 to 30 because I was still slowing down for the lady in the station wagon. But that didn't happen. I was punted to the woman's left, while the truck went on to the shoulder of the road on the right. The woman, though completely stopped, was not touched by either car. The lack of cars in the area I was shoved in to, combined with the woman and her kids not getting touched, are why I said this was miraculous.

That accident happened 17 years ago, but it is still the worst accident I have ever been in. Thankfully everyone came out OK, and the only damage was to two vehicles, and the driving career of the belly dump driver, who told me as we were waiting for the tow trucks that this was his second accident in less than a year, and that he was likely to lose either his job, or his license, or both, because of this. I never heard what happened to the driver of the truck, but I do hope everything worked out well for him, as well as the luck, and divine providence, worked out for all of us on that day.  Until next time....

The Fear of Driving

One subject that is not talked about much, yet is experienced by many, is the subject of the fear of driving. That fear is similar to the picture above, which is one of the classic images of fear. It is classic because it is so ironic, (the elephant could likely crush the mouse with a mere sneeze, but he is terrified of it) but isn't most fear ironic? A man will stress out and fear rejection by asking out a girl, and because of that, he doesn't do it. All that is, is walking up to a person, saying hi, and asking if they'd like to go out with you. But we overcomplicate things and imagine the very worst, and by the time the man is done overthinking, the woman has gone in his mind from a natural human being to a monster, and in his mind,  he has gone from a great guy to a schmuck who has nothing to offer. Neither are likely true, but the mind makes them true. The fear of driving is very similar in some cases, but on the other hand is very real. When someone gets in to a car, they are strapping  in to what for most people will be the most dangerous thing they ever put their hands on, and yes, that includes anyone who was in the military, as cars kill far more people than weapons have in this country. But even considering that, there are ways to make it so that fear does not destroy you. Let's look at some.

Before we start, I want to say a couple of things. First off, no blog, however well  constructed, can cure a person of an emotion. That is not possible. I present this information to allow the reader to maybe see things in a different way. I also want to say that I am not making light of fear, nor am I trying to present myself as superior to anyone in writing this. This is an attempt to help, in the truest spirit of that emotion that I can muster.

Let me show you a couple of pictures. Some very intelligent people have taken the word fear, and turned it in to an acronym. These acronyms can be very powerful for someone struggling with fear.

I don't show  these acronyms to make light of fear, I show them to present another side. Fear is truly the strongest emotion we humans experience. It has been said that humans will do more to move away from pain than we will to move towards pleasure. This is because of the fear of the pain, and the desire to never experience it again. Fear of driving is a very real fear, and one that many people face. To see how fear can be dealt with, let's  break it down in to two categories, because, in my experience, the fear is different for different people at different parts of their lives. The categories we are going to look at are the driver just starting out, and the elderly driver.

The Driver Just Starting Out:

If the above picture is not familiar to you, it's taken from the second Harry Potter movie. In this movie is a scene where Harry Potter, the main character, is not allowed to go to wizarding school by the relatives he is staying with. Harry's friend, Ron, realizes something is wrong, and borrows his father's Ford Anglia, which is a flying car, and goes to rescue Harry. Ron gets Harry to school, but not before breaking quite a few wizarding laws, and crashing in to an ancient tree on the school property.

While it might be a bit flippant to use a comedy scene to illustrate new driver fear, the scene brings up some good points that feed in to the fear of the new driver. Just like Ron, the new driver is trying to control something he doesn't understand, and is afraid of. Just like Ron, the new driver does not have the reactions or wisdom to drive the car as it needs to be driven to be driven safely. Just like Ron, the new driver wants to show that he is grown up enough to do an adult thing: drive, but often times gets in to trouble similar to Ron's. 

One of the things a new driver can do is to admit that they aren't in control and don't know everything. They should also admit they need to ask questions, and most importantly, don't get down on yourself for messing up. There is nothing wrong with asking questions, even if you think you should have known this already. And if you are a guy reading this, do yourself a favor and get rid of the old standard that just because you are a guy you are automatically supposed to know  everything about everything. No one can do that. As a new driver, you have the right to not know, and then ask questions. 

Overall though, I would advise new drivers to not panic. You are going from walking or bike-riding to driving a car. It's much faster, requires more skill to operate, and the consequences for messing up are higher. You will get scared the first time you try and drive on the freeway and you finally see how fast driving really is there. You will get scared at other times, too. I remember when my aunt took me driving for the first time. I was 13 year old, and we were in Porterville, California, a sleepy farm community in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley. I was driving my aunt's car back from the store, and I was doing a great job. I was watching my speed, keeping in the middle of the lane, and not swerving. I started to relax, sure that I had this driving thing down. Then my aunt reminded me that I had to keep watch of my rear-view mirror as well. I glanced up at the mirror, and there was a car tailgating me. I was scared to death. All of that confidence melted away, and for a split second I couldn't figure out what to do. With my aunt's help, I was able to recover and get home safely. New drivers will have this happen to. Do not stress about it. Do what I did, use it as a learning experience, and use it to make you a better driver.

The Elderly Driver

This driver has been driving for many years. They have vast experience, and have been through just about any situation driving-wise that life can throw at someone, and come out of it not only alive, but as a more skilled as a driver. Unfortunately though, time and age take a toll on most drivers.  Elderly drivers usually have reduced reaction times and tend to drive slower, which is why younger drivers get so angry at them. But let's spare a thought for the older driver. They started driving when things were much simpler, and much fewer people were on the road. Just like the younger driver, they have also made an adjustment, but in this case it isn't from walking, to bike riding, to driving. The elderly driver's adjustment has to do with how the technology of their car progresses, how much faster everything seems to go around them, and how much scarier driving is as a result of those two things.

Just like with the younger driver, I would advise patience. As an elderly driver (and I would define elderly driver here as anyone from mid 50s and up in age), you should give yourself the time you need to adapt to whatever situation you find yourself in, and not worry about other drivers. If you need to drive slower, then drive slower, just do your best to make sure that you are always in the right lane, and you are doing your best to not impede anyone.  If you find that driving tends to bring on a feeling of panic, take a second, ask yourself what's going on, and see if you can make an adjustment. For instance, let's say you normally go to the store at 4 PM, but you have noticed that there are more cars on the road and you find yourself feeling scared whenever you drive at this time. Then see if you can drive at another time, say 11 AM, when most people are at work.  You should do whatever you need to do to take care of yourself and make driving and enjoyable, and safe, experience for yourself.

However, there is one thing that must be mentioned when it comes to elderly drivers, and that is when to stop driving. Just like the young driver has to deal with the growing pains of getting used to a car and the new skills they need to learn to drive safely, an elderly driver must get used to the notion of monitoring their skills and begin to see when driving is becoming too much of a burden to be borne any longer.  According to  the American Association of Retired Person's (AARP) website, there are 10 things an elderly driver should consider when it comes time to make the decision to stop or limit driving:

1. Almost crashing, with frequent "close calls"
   
2. Finding dents and scrapes on the car, on fences, mailboxes, garage doors, curbs, etc.
   
3. Getting lost, especially in familiar locations
   
4. Having trouble seeing or following traffic signals, road signs, and pavement markings
   
5. Responding more slowly to unexpected situations, or having trouble moving their foot from the gas to the brake pedal; confusing the two pedals
   
6. Misjudging gaps in traffic at intersections and on highway entrance and exit ramps
   
7. Experiencing road rage or causing other drivers to honk or complain
   
8. Easily becoming distracted or having difficulty concentrating while driving
   
9. Having a hard time turning around to check the rear view while backing up or changing lanes
   
10. Receiving multiple traffic tickets or "warnings" from law enforcement officers

AARP suggests that if an elderly driver notices signs such as the ten above, they should seriously consider taking one of AARP's safety courses, which could help the driver with some of the issues they may be facing, and if it is time to stop driving, these course could help the elderly driver make that decision. 

Fear is nothing to mess with. It truly drives the world, and moves all people one way or another, depending on how much fear we as people put in to something. Fear also exists when it comes to driving. A new driver experiences fear due to not being familiar, or ready, with the challenges driving a car brings to them. An elderly driver experiences fear due to the increased speed of modern drivers, the decline in reaction times, and the very real question of when an elderly driver should stop driving altogether. Even though there is fear in driving, there is much pleasure in it also. If both young and older drivers keep this in mind as they drive, they can hopefully have a much safer, and enjoyable driving experience any time they are behind the wheel. Until next time.

DRIVING SKILLS NUMBER FOUR: How to Adjust and Use Your Mirrors

When it comes to adjusting a car's mirrors, people seem to fall in to two camps. Camp one says that you should adjust your mirror so that no part of the car is showing, so that you get as complete as possible a view of your blind spots. Camp two says that you should have a portion of your car in the mirror, to show you where you are in relation to what's around you. Which camp I believe to be right is the subject of today's article.

Take a look at the picture below, taken from Car and Driver's website (http://www.caranddriver.com/features/how-to-adjust-your-mirrors-to-avoid-blind-spots):

In this image, Car and Driver is attempting to make the case of the Society of Automotive Engineers, (or SAE, these are the people who grade engine oil, among a number of other very worthy things), who published a paper in 1995 describing a strategy using mirrors to eliminate blind spots. What they proposed was to adjust both side mirrors outward until what they showed just overlapped what the center mounted rear-view mirror showed. While I am in no ways going to display the temerity to call such a great organization as the SAE wrong, I will say that in my experience, it is better to have a small part of the car visible in the rearview mirror, and here is why I say that.

I want you to take a look at the following picture. 

This is obviously a picture of a child, but what else can you really know about it? You can see what look like floaties on the child's arm, but is this child really around water here? Is the child in the air, or is the child sitting down in front of a background? These questions might sound silly, but with only a small part of the picture showing, as here, there is no way to really know what's going on. It's only when one looks at the whole picture that one can see what is really going on:

Now that the whole picture is clear, you can clearly see that this picture is of a child, at the beach, who was thrown in  to the air by his or her father. It's the same with the mirrors on a car. In my opinion, if you adjust your mirrors outward so far that you don't have any of the car in the mirror, the situation is like that in the first photograph. Yes, you know that there is a child there, but you don't know where the child is, how far away, if they are something you need to worry about, or anything else. All you know is that there is a child. If mirrors are adjusted out to only show the blind spot, the driver has no frame of reference for how close the car in the mirror is. Having a small part of the car visible in the mirror allows the driver to not only see the car, but the driver can see how close or far the car is, and see if any adjustments need to be made as a result of that car. These are things that having a mirror only focused on blind spots just don't let you do.

Another hazard with only having mirrors focused on  blind spots is the possibility of a driver getting overconfident and no longer checking blind spots by turning their head. While I think having a driver not need to turn his or her head to check blind spots is the whole reason that the SAE encourages people to adjust mirrors to only focus on blind spots, I think that drivers losing this skill will possibly be a bit more careless about looking around them, and this is what I fear can lead to more accidents, not how the mirror is adjusted.

Ok, so now that that subject has been discussed, let's talk about how I think mirrors should be adjusted.. First off, is the rear view mirror. This mirror should be adjusted so that it is looking straight back through the rear window. You should not be able to see yourself when you look up to gaze in to the rear view mirror, and the mirror should not show the ceiling of the car or the deck lid (this is the flat area between the rear seats and the rear window). The side mirrors should be adjusted so that when the driver looks in to them, a small sliver of the car is visible. If a driver has the side mirror adjusted so that the car door is taking up 1/3 of the mirror, the mirror is not adjusted properly. I suggest that no more than maybe 1/8 of the mirror's surface should show the car door when the driver looks in to it. If you take a look at the first image in this article, you'll see that the way Car and Driver adjusted the mirror had too much door in it. I'd half about half of that much of the car door in the mirror. 

This kind of adjustment is the best of both worlds in my opinion. The mirror captures a good portion of the blind spot, and yet there is still a part of the car visible, so that the driver has a frame of reference for the images he or she is seeing. This isn't important while driving on roads, but if the driver has to back into a parking space, or is trying to see how much space is between him and another car, or the driver is trying to see how straight they parked, this way of adjusting mirrors allows the driver to do just that.

Now how to use your mirrors. You should be looking in your mirrors every ten to fifteen seconds when you are driving. My normal routine is to check the center rear-view mirror first, then go to the left mirror, and then go to the right one. When a driver does this, he or she isn't studying the image in the mirror, they are more scanning the mirror, looking for such things as erratic driving behind them, following distance between them and cars coming up behind and just basic awareness of the driving situation behind them. This allows a driver to be able to be proactive in dealing with driving situations that might come up. 

So to wrap up, my experience has shown me that having a small part of the car door visible in the mirror allows a driver to have a frame of reference for what they are seeing, while also allowing the driver to back up and check clearances more accurately because they can see where the car is in relation to white lines or other cars. Once mirrors are adjusted like that, they should be checked every ten to fifteen seconds, with the  driver looking at the center rear-view mirror first, and then the left mirror, and finally the right. Drivers should scan the images in the mirror, not study them. In all honesty, it doesn't matter what pattern a driver uses to look at mirrors, as long as all the mirrors are checked often, and they are adjusted in such a way as to give the driver the best possible view of what's behind him or her. Until next time...

The Danger of Autonomous Cars

One of the newest trends to come out of the automotive world is the autonomous car. Autonomous cars are cars that can drive themselves. While this is nothing new to most Americans, having been part of our culture thanks to T.V. shows like the Jetsons and movies like I, Robot, up until recently, the notion of a car that drives itself has been pure fantasy. But thanks to companies like Google and Uber, the autonomous car might be a reality long before anyone thought it was possible. But there are problems with autonomous cars, and that is what this article is going to be about.

Take a look at the picture below. It is a scene from the science fiction movie, I, Robot. The movie is about robots that come to life and attempt to take over society. But one interesting thing in the movie is that everyone, like actor Will Smith is doing in the scene below, has cars that drive for them, rather than cars that they drive:

So what's the big deal, I can hear some people say? A car that drives itself would be a blessing. People could sleep on the way to work. People could use the drive time to get ready for work or to catch up on reading or to finish shaving or putting on makeup, and do it while someone else drives, instead of doing those things and driving, which happens all too often today. All of those are valid points, and if we ever get to the technological level of the society in I, Robot, I will yield to them. But we are nowhere near that society. The autonomous cars that we have now are limited in scope. Some will need the equivalent of wires in the road to guide them (Honda and Mercedes-Benz were two car companies working along those lines in recent years). The Google and Uber autonomous cars essentially use lasers and sensors to see obstacles in the road, identify them, and then move the car in the safest possible way, or stop it altogether if the computer deems driving at that point to be hazardous. Here is a graphic of how the Uber self-driving car works:

As you can see, the Uber car primarily relies on Lidar, which is a system which uses laser beam pulses to measure distances and essentially see. That is how the Uber can drive, know when to stop, and know when to turn; the laser pulses, measuring distances, tell it when to do those things. The Google system is very similar to what Uber uses. Here is a video showing the Google self-driving car at work:

Ok, so again I can see people saying, what's the problem here? These cars have enough cameras and enough lasers to see through anything, and they both have a computer to organize that information much quicker than a human could and make decisions that will be free of emotion and ego. So what's the problem? The problem is apathy, and to a large extent, atrophy, at least in regards to driving skills. I  want to bring to your mind a movie called Wall E. Wall E was a movie set in the future, very similar to I, Robot. A future where mankind is so technologically advanced that machines not only drive us, they feed us, clean us, clothe us, and do basically everything but breathe for us. In Wall E, makind has become lazy, and ambitionless, due to technology doing things that humans used to do as a matter of course. In this clip, the robot WALL-E ends up on a cruise ship, and he is going along a corridor, passing two men who are talking to each other about their day. 

 I don't know if you noticed it, but the two men in the clip are having a conversation with each other, via some sort of electronic device, while lounging on chairs that move them around, all while being only five feet from each other. While this might sound like a stretch in comparison to self-driving cars, I don't think it is. What will happen to our driving skills if cars start doing all the driving? Already there are mainstream cars that have automatic parallel parking. In the past, parallel parking was one of the hardest parts of the driving test, because of  the difficulty new drivers had in learning how wide their cars were and how to brake and accelerate smoothly. Now the car does it for you. If all cars do this, how well will drivers be at parallel parking in 50 years? And the driver aids won't stop there. We already have automatic emergency braking. How soon until totally automatic braking, so that a driver doesn't need to worry about stopping distances or think about how his or her car is handling? And how soon until cars are accident proof? It's not as far fetched as it sounds. In fact, one author, Richard S. Foster, tackled that very subject in his short story, "A Nice Morning Drive." In the story, the government has mandated that cars must survive a 30 mile per hour crash with no damage to the car or the occupant. As a result, cars start to be built like tanks, with 30 mile per hour impacts bouncing off the cars like water balloons thrown against a brick building. The story talks about the main character, who has an MGB roadster that, even though he knows it's illegal, he still takes it out on the road for nice drives as often as possible. In one instance in the story, he encounters one of these cars that can survive 30 mile per hour accidents (called MSVs or Modern Safety Vehicles) and as happens with human nature, we no longer respect that which we believe can't hurt us. So the drivers of MSVs treat non MSV cars as objects in a demolition derby, and do their best to destroy them, knowing full well nothing can happen to their cars. As the story says:

"people became accustomed to cars which went undamaged in 10 mile per hour collisions. They gave even less thought than before to the possibility of being injured in a crash. As a result, they tended to worry less about clearances and rights-of-way, so that the accident rate went up a steady six percent each year....most of the non-MSV owners were kept busy dodging the less careful MSV drivers."

This is what happens when people don't have to worry about their safety and the need to drive well. In the story, MSV cars, which by the end are mandated to survive 60 mile per hour crashes, drive as if they were tanks, running over anything, not worrying about being hurt, not worrying about damaging the car, because it can't be damaged. If we enter a world where the car drives itself, and we don't have to worry about being hurt, or being drivers, can anyone say that our society, in time, will not be like the society in Richard Foster's short story? Will drivers in cars that drive themselves become arrogant and forget the danger that exists any time someone drives a car? I hope not, but it is a future that I don't think is as far-fetched as it might seem. Until next time...

Driving Rental Trucks

Moving can be an exciting time: maybe you are on your way to your next job, house, or apartment. Maybe you are starting at a new school. Maybe you are finally getting that dream house in that dream state that you have always dreamed of. No matter which of the above the situations apply, you still have to move. If you have the money, you can hire people to move you, and then all you have to do is focus on driving yourself to that new place. But most people don't have that kind of money, and have to rely on doing their own driving, at the wheel of a rented moving truck. Here is the way to do it safely.

The first thing to do is leave your ego at the door. Yes, I'm talking primarily to the guys who are reading this, but this could apply to the ladies as well. We are born with this notion that we should be able to do anything just because we have to do it. This is wrong, and gets guys in to lots of trouble. It is OK to admit you don't know a lot about driving a moving truck, and that you need to take it slow and feel things out. In fact, this is the best way to approach the moving truck, as it is those people who treat the moving truck as a car who end up ripping the corners off of parking structures, hitting cars, or running over curbs. And guess who gets to pay for all of that damage: yep, the driver. So respect the truck and what it represents, and be OK with the fact that this is new for you and that you need to go slower until you are comfortable.

 The fact of the matter is that for most people, a moving truck is the largest thing they will ever drive. And most people apply the width, following distance, and braking distance of their street car to a moving truck. This doesn't work. A moving truck has twice the turning radius of a street car, and needs much longer to stop, especially if it's fully loaded. The visibility out of the windows and mirrors of a moving truck is terrible, and you just can't turn you head to see if someone is in the blind spot. It is a much different beast than a street car, and as soon as the driver realizes that, and respects it, they are on their way to a safe driving situation.

Let's look at some of those differences between road cars and moving trucks. The first thing we are going to look at is visibility. You will notice first off that you are higher off of the ground in a moving truck, and that your mirrors are bigger. You need both of those to help you see. But while you have bigger mirrors, you don't have a center mounted rear-view mirror like you do in your car (because all you could see in that mirror, if they gave you one, is the front end of the cargo compartment). You need to get in to the habit of checking your mirrors often, and relying on your blind spot mirror to help you figure out if you can pass or not. Below is a typical U haul mirror.

A typical U-Haul Mirror

This mirror setup is much different from most cars. The side view mirror is the one at the top The mirror at the bottom is a large blind spot mirror. This blind spot mirror is what you are going to look in before you attempt to make a lane change, as that is the only way you can check your blind spot in a vehicle this big. You will need to get in to the habit of checking mirrors often, and studying that  blind spot mirror for a couple of seconds before any lane changes, because while not only are stopping distances and turning radiuses bigger on a moving truck, you guessed it, the blind spot is as well!

Next is stopping distance. If you came from a regular street car, your stopping distances just went from stopping on a dime, to taking  football field length spaces to stop in a moving truck. This is because your weight just went up, due to all of the things your moving truck is carrying. It takes driving the truck to know this for sure, but a good rule of thumb is that if you get the biggest moving truck U-haul rents (which I believe is a 26-foot truck), you should triple your stopping distances to start. And always stop smoothly. Stopping smoothly and in a controlled fashion will be the difference between braking for a stop, and breaking all your stuff. Start off with triple the stopping distance, and then you can lessen it if you see that you are coming to a full stop before triple the stopping distance of your car. I'd bet you end up with a stopping distance between two times and three times the stopping distance of your road car.

The turning radius is the next thing we are going to look at. Your road car has a relatively tight turning radius (turning radius is the size of the circle that the vehicle makes as it turns. The smaller the car, the smaller the turning radius. The bigger the car, the bigger the turning radius). A moving truck has a bigger turning radius than a road car, much bigger in fact. You need to keep this in mind as you complete left or right turns. It will take longer for the car to complete a turn than it does in your road car, and if you try to negotiate a turn in a moving truck the same way and with the same turning as a road car, you will run over cars and sidewalks, guaranteed. You need to give your moving truck more room to stop, as well as more room to turn.

Lastly, lets look at something that has nothing to do with driving, but can have a big impact on you being able to drive safely: the way you load the truck. You should follow the  instructions that the moving truck company gives you as far as loading goes. But one rule of thumb is that you want to make sure that there is no way that the stuff you have in the moving truck can move, or shift. If you try to take a corner in your moving truck, and the turn makes the stuff you have in the back of the moving truck shift, not only will it damage your belongings, but it could push the truck one way or another based on the excess force that the load moving puts on the truck. There is a correct way, and an incorrect way to load a moving truck. Let's let the folks at Penske truck rentals, a major moving truck rental company, show us how it should be done:

If you respect your moving truck for it's size, unique requirements regarding mirrors and vision, extra room needed to turn and slow down, and you load it just like shown above. Your moving truck experience can be just as magical and exciting as hopefully your move will be. Until next time...

How to Avoid A Carjacking

It's difficult to find accurate, nation-wide statistics for it, but whether Carjackings are up, or down, they remain a serious threat to drivers everywhere. Sometimes, a carjacking is simply an attempt to get a car, and once the driver is out of the car and away, the carjacker doesn't pay any more attention to them. But other times, carjackers take the car, and the life, of the driver they carjack. Let's take a closer look at carjackings, and some steps to prevent them.

Carjacking is the attempted theft of a car from its rightful owner, usually using a weapon or other kind of threat. According to the U.S. State Department, most carjackings occur in urban areas, or in areas where there are not many people. Most of the carjackings that occur in the United States deal with urban drivers, so that is where this article will focus.

The State Department's  Carjacking, Don't be a Victim page (found at https://www.state.gov/m/ds/rls/rpt/19782.htm ) gives great information about the kinds of carjacks, how to avoid them, and how to decide whether or not to fight back. That website will be the main source I will use in this article, and even though the webpages focus is on international carjacking, there is much there that can be used with carjacking in the United States.

First off, the State Department says your first best weapon against carjacking is to not put yourself in a situation where it can happen. They say to be careful of urban areas, intersections or anywhere you have to stop, and areas that cause traffic backups and trap cars, such as cul de sacs, or gated driveways. There is one other major way that a driver can avoid a carjacking, and that is to not make themselves an attractive victim. This is done by first off making sure that all the doors are locked as soon as the driver gets in the car, and making sure that all the windows in the car are up.  It's also done by not having anything in the car that could be attractive to a robber (in other words, cover your valuables. Imagine driving through a dangerous downtown, with a new TV in the front seat. That is what you don't want to be advertising anytime you drive).

But that's not all a driver can do to aid avoidance. The other thing is to keep your focus. Many times, drivers use traffic stops or traffic tie ups as chances to check their phones, or to just zone out as an escape from the monotony of driving. This is a very bad idea. The average carjacker has two things in his or her favor: surprise, and fear. The driver that is going through their day oblivious to their surroundings is just what a carjacker is looking for. And make no mistake, like other thieves, carjackers are creatures of opportunity. They might see a Mercedes with all of it's windows down a quarter of a mile away, but if they walk by a car with its windows rolled down, and an oblivious driver at the wheel, who do you think a carjacker is going to go after first? That's right, the oblivious driver.

Sometimes though, avoidance is not enough. There are times when a driver is just at the wrong place at the wrong time, what then? Well this is where your preparedness will come in to play. If you have your doors locked and your windows up, the carjacker can't get in to your car. But that is not their only weapon. The State Department lists four ways that carjackers, using cars, can get your car:

• The Bump. A bump occurs when a group of carjackers, driving behind the target car, intentionally hit the target car. When the driver of the target car gets out to inspect the damage or to see if the person who hit them is OK, a carjacker jumps in to the victim car, and drives away. 
• The Good Samaritan. This one is clever. A group of carjackers will stage a fake accident. A driver will see the accident, stop, and try to render aid, While they are out of the car, a carjacker takes the car. 
• The Ruse. A carjacker uses the car's lights and his or her voice to indicate to the victim's car that there is a problem with their car. The victim, being concerned, pulls over to investigate. While they are out of the car, a carjacker takes the car.
• The Trap. This one occurs when carjackers use daily things, like gates, to trap the victim car. Once the car is trapped, the carjacker can go up to the victim, flash a gun or a knife, and get an easy car as the driver will know that there is nowhere they can go.

Spare a quick thought to the potential innocent bystander in all of the above mentioned scenarios: passengers. Very often, there are children in a carjacked car, and more than once carjackers have been known to either throw children out of moving cars, or place them on the side of the road. The carjacker is more interested in getting the car, a kid is a nuisance that is quickly dealt with. 

So what should you do if you are bumped? Drive until you get to a safe, public place.  Then stop. If the person doesn't follow you, it might be a good indication that you were a victim of a bump. Call the police, tell them what happened, and get instructions from them. If  you see an accident by the road, don't stop unless you are a doctor, and even then, be wary. Call the police or 911 to report the situation. .But don't get out of your car. Call for help, and  then wait if you feel you must, but do so from a safe distance. If you see someone pointing to your car or gesticulating that you have an issue, do not follow them to where they want to go. Just like with the bump, go to a safe, public place, and check your car out. Above all, follow your gut. If you get a feeling that this doesn't seem right, follow it and get out of there. 

Now how do you fight back if you are carjacked? If you have followed my advice here and kept your windows up and your doors locked, you will be a tough target for a carjack, especially if the carjacker is on foot. I remember a carjacking that happened in Phoenix about ten years ago. A car thief was running from police. He pulled a gun on a woman who was pulling out of a store parking lot. Luckily, this woman was smart. Her windows were up and her doors were locked. The carjacker tried to open the doors and banged on the window, but it was as much use as the Fox trying to blow the brick house down. The driver of the car acted instead of waiting, and took off as fast as she could. She ended up throwing the carjacker to the ground as she drove off, potentially saving her life and the life of anyone else in that car.

The State Department has a list of things that a driver should go through to determine whether or not to fight  back when carjacked, but I feel many of those are a bit beyond the scope of this article. My fervent hope for anyone reading this is that you will get in to the habit of keeping your doors locked, and your windows up. Yes, I understand that it will be tough if you don't have air conditioning in the summer and you have to roll up your windows. Yes, I know that when it's 75 and gorgeous outside, you want to drive with your windows down, the radio up, and you want to put all of your focus on how good it all feels. But be careful, because those are just the kinds of people carjackers prey on. And you won't see them coming. Carjackers are desperate men or women. Only you will know your situation, but according to the State Department, the best thing to do is give them the car. This might hold true for most situations, and most times, and once the carjacker  gets the car, you might never have to see them again, but there are enough other cases to make one question the validity of doing what a carjacker wants. Take a look at the following incidents reported in Curt Rich's excellent book, "Drive to Survive"

• Incident 14: A woman was getting gas at a self-service gas station. A recently released parolee demanded her keys. She gave them to him. He shot and killed her and took the car. The car was a cheap, common, Japanese sedan.
• Incident 16: A young woman was waiting in a drive-thru line at a fast food restaurant. A young man shot her, dragged the blood-soaked body out  of the car and drove away. At his trial, he admitted that he killed her. He had run out of gas in his getaway car from a convenience store robbery, and needed a car with a full tank of gas.
• Incident 17: A young mother, as she got in to her car in a parking lot was thrown to the ground by an attacker, who proceeded to take her car and drive off. Her baby was strapped into the back seat, so she tried to hang on to the car to rescue her child. The carjacker, seeing this, brushed the car up against a guard rail in an attempt to dislodge the mother, killing her. Later, they threw the baby, car seat and all, out on to the median of a freeway. The child survived because it was in a car seat.

The above incidents might be one in a million shots, or they might be more common than is reported, but I would advise anyone reading this to not trust a carjacker to do what they say they will do.

The moral of the story: stay aware, stay focused, stay behind locked doors and rolled up windows. My advice, and take it for what it's worth, as I'm a person who has never been carjacked, and has never worked in law enforcement, is to not yield to carjackers. My suggestion is to fight back. The first step in that is keeping your windows up and your doors locked. The next step is to always remain focused, and not get yourself in to situations where you could be carjacked. If you do get carjacked, drive off if you can like the woman in Phoenix. Above all, do not make yourself an easy target. Make the carjacker have to look elsewhere for his or her ride, and stay safe. Until next time...

GM Stories: The Day Looking Behind me Almost Got me Killed

Today's GM story involves one of the strangest, and most heart-stopping occurrences I've ever had behind the wheel. To set the stage, let me say that one of the things that we often did while testing for GM was drive off property. Some of the more popular spots for the engineers to send us to were Payson, Superior, and where I was going to for this story, Globe.

Globe is an old mining town in central Arizona. Billy the Kid is one of the more famous residents of Globe in years past. And while that famous resident shot up saloons and killed people, my mission was much more mundane, and boring: log test miles in a car and run certain sections of road to see how certain parts of the car performed. But Globe is not where my story today takes place. For that, you have to go back to the sleepy hamlet of Queen Valley, or more precisely, the railroad crossing just past town.

The road to Globe goes through this particular railroad crossing, and the route the GM engineers wanted the test driver to take also ran through there. This particular route had stops at certain pull outs, where we were to stop, and then accelerate up to a certain speed. This one particular one at the Queen Valley railroad crossing was at an asphalt pad just past the railroad. I pulled in to the pullout, stopped as instructed, and then as soon as I was stopped, I made ready to accelerate hard up to the speed limit, as the engineers desired for that test.

So just as anyone would do, I pulled up close to the edge of the road, and looked behind me. The time was a bit past 5 PM as I recall, and as always at this time, the road, AZ 60,  a two lane highway, was busy. There were many cars behind me, and many cars on the other side of the road going the other direction, but I wasn't too concerned with them, as the fact that they were on the other side of the road meant that they weren't going to effect me. 

So I looked behind me, patiently waiting for my chance to enter the traffic stream and make my way towards Globe. One car...then another...then two more... and finally, a gap. I get ready to hit the gas, knowing that I have to accelerate hard to get out of the pullout and get up to speed so that I don't impede the traffic behind me and cause a dangerous situation as I pull out.

The last car I had to wait for passes me, and I get ready to hit the gas. I've done all I need to do for safety, and since I'm sure that  behind me is clear, I turn my head to the front, and hit the gas.

But as soon as I hit the gas, I shifted my feet and slammed on the brakes for all that they were worth. For just as that last car went past me that I was waiting for, a car on the other side of the road, seeing that same gap, took that same opportunity to go that I was waiting for, but for him, he entered my side of the road to  pass the slower car in front of him. Had I not looked forward for that split second before hitting the gas, whoever that driver was, and I, would have been involved in a very nasty head on collision. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I had to take a second to compose myself, as this was the last thing I was ever expecting on that road.

This was such an odd occurrence that I have never seen it since, nor have I ever heard of it happening to anyone else. But it did happen to me on that day. The moral of the story: do not assume that anything is safe or that any part of the road does not need to be looked at when you are entering traffic. While what happened to me is pretty rare in my experience, the notion of assuming that a driver only needs to focus on one direction can be since to be working pretty often actually, anytime someone attempts a U-turn at an intersection. The next time you attempt a U-turn at an intersection, take a look at the cars turning right at the  same intersection that you are going to do your U-turn at. Most of the time, the people turning right will not even look up to see if someone is going to try a U-turn that might end up in the same lane that they are in,  and I personally have had some close calls with people turning right  just as I start a U-turn who didn't have a turn signal going and for whom I thought they were waiting for the light to turn green to go straight. So this example isn't as extreme as it might have first been thought to be, but it does do a great job of illustrating just how important it is to not assume anything and to know what's going on all around you at all times. Until next time...

DRIVING SKILLS NUMBER THREE: Negotiating Medium and High-Speed Turns

Today we are going to look at something that causes a lot more headaches, and a lot more accidents, than most people realize: turning a vehicle at medium or higher speeds. At first glance this is no more difficult or should take no more thought than it does starting the car: take keys out, put key in to ignition, turn, drive. But there is much more to it, as we will go over now.

There is a reason why there is a Formula One car from the 1960s at the top of this blog. Formula One cars, then, as now, operate on a knife's edge of adhesion. What that means is that it only takes an unsmooth motion or jerking of the wheel to make the car lose control. And it is exactly this jerkiness that causes most of the accidents that take place while turning.

Accidents that occur while turning in either a medium or high speed corner can be attributed to one of two things. The first is a mechanical failure (tire blow out, suspension failure, hitting a pothole which causes damage to the car). And the second is the driver aggressively operating the steering wheel while the car is being turned. Apart from making sure you keep up on maintenance of the car, not much can be done about the first kind of accident. Therefore, all of our focus today will be on preventing the second attribute to corner accidents: aggressive operation of the car while turning.

I can imagine a potential question right away: Why would a car that weighs around one and a half to two tons (as most modern cars do) have an issue with being turned aggressively?  The mass of the car should be able to resist that, shouldn't it? Not really, actually.

What is important to remember about a car is that all cars run on four tires. This you already know, what you may not know about is the contact patch of those tires. Whether you are talking about a donut spare (that little rubber thing you have in your trunk that resembles a black Frisbee, yet is supposed to be a spare tire!) or mammoth off road tires fitted to a one-ton truck, all tires have a contact patch which is not much larger than the palm of your hand. This contact patch is that part of the tire that is in contact with the road while the car is being driven. But that doesn't actually tell the whole story. Remember, tires have tread, that means that the contact patch isn't a solid oval, it is an oval that is not connected at all points because of the spaces between the tread blocks. These spaces are necessary because they allow water to be removed from the road surface by the tire going over the water. (but that is a subject for another post.) What's worse, that contact patch can move, because unless your tires are bald (and in that case you have bigger issues for sure) those tread blocks will move side to side depending on how aggressive you steer the car. So a car that might be fine at 60 going at a straight line (where the contact patch, and the tread blocks, are being pushed in the direction the manufacturer intended them to be pushed, in line with the direction the car is travelling) will be totally different when the car is turned at 60 miles per hour. At that point, not only does the contact patch shift  because of what we already discussed with the tread blocks, but the outer tires have more weight on them because of the g-forces of the turn. This causes the tread blocks to be both pushed down, and out. If too much force is applied, and applied too quickly, it can cause the tread blocks to be pushed further than they can go and still maintain grip with the road surface, and in a worst case scenario, those tread blocks can slide along the surface of the road altogether, meaning that there is no longer any control of the car. Here is a picture of the tread of a modern tire.

In this picture, you can see the individual tread blocks, and the large open spaces between the tread blocks. Remember that contact patch that was about the size of your hand? That patch is made up of what you see in the picture above. That is why driving smoothly, or unaggresively, is so important. By operating the car in a smooth manner, you allow the car to maintain the level of grip that it was designed to have, which results in a safe trip.

So, how does a driver operate a car smoothly in a turn? A driver does this by first off being prepared  to steer in to a fast turn, and then knowing how to turn in smoothly, and safely. 

In my experience, most accidents involving medium to high speed turns are the result of surprise. The driver was either daydreaming or focusing on a song or their phone, or just wasn't paying the attention that they needed to the road. Other factors are drivers not believing turn speed limits, and drivers being overconfident in their abilities to drive a car. Regardless of the reason, most drivers who have accidents while turning were not ready mentally for the turn they were entering. A driver gets ready by first off always being prepared for a turn. At no time should a driver enter a turn of any kind without knowing in the back of his or her mind that at any time in the turn, the car could lose traction if the driver operates the car aggressively in the turn. A good driver is prepared for this, and whether they are entering a 20 mile per hour turn, or a 60 mile per hour turn, they drive with the same focus and caution, knowing that it is most likely going to be their fault if an accident happens due to poor driving. So the first step in turning safely is being ready and prepared for the turn, and knowing that the turn could go bad if the driver is too aggressive.

The next way that a driver negotiates a medium or high-speed turn safely, is in how the driver turns in to that turn. All turns should be done smoothly, and deliberately. There should be no sawing of the wheel (the rapid back and forth movement of the steering wheel in a turn that is sometimes seen in auto racing), nor should there be sudden movements. A driver should enter the turn, see where they need to move the steering wheel, and once the driver gets to that point, they move the steering wheel in a smooth, but deliberate way, in the direction of the turn. Now don't let that word deliberate confuse you. What that means is that the wheel is turned not in a weak or indecisive way, but in a solid way. Not in a way that is jerky or abusive, but in a confident way in the direction that the car needs to go. 

One question that might come up is how do I know when to start steering in to the turn, and when to start steering out of the turn. That can be judged by the curve itself. Take a look at the turn below.

This is what a typical high speed corner looks like.

The above corner is a corner that has a suggested speed of 45 miles per hour. This is quite typical of many of the high-speed corners you will come across in the United States. So pretend for a minute that you are approaching this corner in your car. How will you get through it safely? Well first, slow down to the recommended speed for the corner before you enter it. Yes, I know that most people can safely get through a corner like this by going ten or sometimes fifteen miles an hour over the recommended speed, depending on their car, but they risk more than just a quick accident at those speeds. Stay with the recommended speeds. Even if you can get through the corner ten miles an hour faster, you will save maybe five seconds off your trip. The danger is not worth that short of a time gain.

Ok, back to the corner. You see that there is a 45 mile per hour corner coming up. Let's say you are doing 55 miles per hour. The way you begin the corner is by braking for the corner and being at the speed you need to be at for the corner BEFORE you enter the corner. This is a piece of advice that came straight from Sir Jackie Stewart, a British Formula One driver who earned three Formula One World Championships and survived Formula One at a time when it was common for three or more drivers to die every year. He knows what he is taking about, and if you take a second to look at what he is saying, the logic is sound. By being at the speed that you need to be at before you enter the corner, the forces working on the car will only be going in one direction, the direction the car is turning (if you brake in to the corner, then not only are cornering forces working on the car, pushing it sideways, but braking forces are working on the car, pushing it forwards. This can lead to a loss of traction much easier than if braking is completed before you enter the turn.) It also frees the driver up to do nothing but focus on steering the car through the turn as smoothly as possible, instead of having to juggle braking and releasing the brakes, and turning the car.

The next thing is when to turn. My rule of thumb is that for a medium or high speed turn on a street or highway, I start to turn in to the corner just before the road begins to change from straight to curving. I do this because the corner was made to be taken at the speed the yellow sign indicates. If I am already at that speed, I should be able to safely turn in to the corner as soon as the corner begins, if I am doing the speed that is recommended for the corner. Of course allowances might have to be made if your vehicle has a high center of gravity (like a delivery truck), or if there is an issue with the car, but those are things that you should be mindful of before you even start driving the car.

Next comes the final part: turning out of the corner, and returning the steering wheel to straight ahead. This action should be done as if it were the undoing of going in to the corner. If you are at or very close to the recommended speed for the corner, you should start turning the wheel back to straight as you see that the corner is ending and the road is becoming straight again. Just like with the braking issue going in to the corner, you shouldn't accelerate past the suggested speed of the curve until the car is all the way out of the curve. This will again give the forces acting on the tire the opportunity to only push the tire in one direction, and will allow you to focus on one thing at a time, which can be important if you approach the corner on a busy traffic day or if you are a new or older driver.

The diagram below gives a good overview of the forces acting upon a tire (and a car) in all situations:

When the car accelerates in a straight line, the forces acting on the tire are in a straight line, and forward. When the car brakes, the forces acting on the tires are in a straight line, but backwards. When the car is turned either to the left, or to the right, G-forces are applied to the tire, which is what causes the tire to slide if the G-forces have a strong enough effect upon the car.

Slip Angle is the amount that the tires slide when a sideways force is applied to them.

The above diagram  gives a good impression of what happens to the tread blocks of a tire when the tire has a sideways load, or G-force applied to it. As already said, these forces will cause the tread blocks to slide, or slip, and the Slip Angle is the amount of slip the tread blocks endure. This is why it is so important to always keep your tires in mind as you turn, because any corner taken to aggressively could lead to a loss of control.

Lastly, let's look at an example of a car loosing traction. In this case, the car is a Ford Escort MK. 1 Rally Car. Look at how his aggressive driving causes the rear end to oversteer, or slide:

As you can see in the video, the driver enters the corner aggressively, and as soon as he gets past the middle of the corner, the rear tires loose traction, and the car slides. On a racetrack, this is no big deal, as cars are often designed to slide around corners because it is the fastest way to negotiate a turn, if the slide can be controlled. But in a motor car, at night, by yourself, this is the last thing anyone would want to experience.

The way to negotiate a turn safely is to first off recognize the importance of the tires and the forces acting on them, and how they could be made to lose traction if a driver is too aggressive. Then it's important to take corners at the speed that is suggested for them, brake fully before entering the corner, turn in to the corner smoothly, but deliberately, and don't accelerate until you are through the turn and your tires are straight. Hopefully these tips will help you negotiate any corner you come across in your driving. I can tell you from personal experience as a test driver that sliding a car on a racetrack or closed off proving grounds is incredibly fun, but it is only fun because there are no other cars or people out where the cars are being tested, and the people testing them are trained professionals. The street is not like that at all, so keep the sliding to the pros, and negotiate turns in such a way as to get you, and your car, home in one piece. Until next time...

Why Flipping Someone Off is a Bad Idea

It happens every day, on roadways all over the world: someone does something while driving that someone else thinks they shouldn't have done. So to get back, they flip the person off. Flipping off someone (or giving someone the middle finger, as it's also known), is a very popular way of expressing frustration and expressing the way someone feels about another person's driving. But flipping people off has consequences that I've not seen with any other form of insult, and those consequences are what today's article is about.

I won't lie, I have flipped off many drivers in my day. Usually, my flipping the other driver off was as a result of that driver cutting me off, tailgating me, or doing anything else which I judged rude or dangerous that I felt needed a response. I have also flipped off people who have flipped me off first before, and that has been the situation when I seem to have used the middle finger most often. But the expression of giving someone the middle finger causes something primal and offensive in us, and it can, and has, led to road rage incidents, intimidating driving, and dangerous maneuvers by drivers who felt offended by getting the middle finger by another driver.

On the surface, this gesture shouldn't be a big deal. What is one rude gesture when we are surrounded by negativity all day long? We are deluged by cuss words and offensive actions almost by the minute thanks to memes, Facebook or Twitter feeds, movies, songs, or YouTube videos. But there has always been something about someone giving the middle finger to someone else that makes us almost literally lose our minds as humans. I have seen minor road rage incidents caused because someone flipped off someone else. I have seen fights started because of middle fingers. There seems to be something about the middle finger that triggers an almost instant reaction of hostility in most people, and it is this reaction that is the most dangerous, because if you've read any of my other articles, you have seen that emotions are rarely controllable, and the stronger ones, like hate, are even less so.

So what's the solution? It comes in two forms. The first part is to not use the middle finger yourself when you drive in reaction to someone doing something to you. The second part is doing your best to control your own reaction when someone gives you the middle finger.

So you are driving along, and all of a sudden someone swerves in to your lane, or they cut you off, or they pull a quick right turn in front of you, and then slam on their brakes to enter a driveway. In any of those cases, you would be justified for being angry and wanting to react to the person who wronged you. But if you take a second, remember the danger of the middle finger, and choose not to use it, and instead use something else to show your frustration, something that carries far less offense, you will go a long way towards diffusing a bad situation. What I do when I feel I need to react to another driver's bad actions is to simply put my hand up, kind of like in a "did you seriously just do that? Seriously?" pose. Somewhat like this:

Did You Really Just Do That?

I've never had anyone react in any way similar to the way they react to this gesture like they would if I flipped them off. In fact, using a gesture like this seems to be a far less offensive, and less dangerous, way of expressing disapproval of another driver's actions. Of course, you might have other gestures, depending on where you live and the culture you were brought up in, but anything will likely work better than a middle finger. Do your best to retire the middle finger from use when you drive. Driving will be much safer for you if you can.

Now what about the other issue: your reaction when you are flipped off? Just like with the first situation, do your best to ignore a middle finger. This situation can be a bit harder to do, because I've noticed that people seem to have an automatic response to being flipped off, and that is to flip off the person who flipped them off. Oftentimes, it seems like it can't be helped. But I have found that by making a conscious effort to not employ the middle finger, and some practice, I have almost completely eliminated it from my driving.  I have done my hand wave, like the picture above, when I've been flipped off, and I can say from experience it works much better. It gets the nervous energy and anger out,of me but doesn't seem to inspire the same kind of hatred in other drivers. And that is the best way to go.

I am not saying that giving up the middle finger is going to be easy, especially if you've been using it for a long time. That is especially going to be true in a culture where the middle finger and profanity are found all over the place, all day long. But if you keep in mind the information in this article, especially those points about road rage incidents being caused by middle fingers, and the rage that the middle finger seems to bring out in people that get it, I think a driver can train themselves to not use that gesture. It will be hardest, in my opinion, to not be tempted to use it when it is first used on you, but if you try to employ another gesture, like the hand one I mentioned, and you use that one when you feel you need to, it can replace the middle finger in time. Of course, the best situation would be to not have to use any gesture in response to something another driver did to you, but that takes time, patience, and a calm spirit, which are not things that everyone can have all the time. The best thing to do for all involved though, is to remove the middle finger, and the potential harm it can cause, from driving altogether. Until next time....