KNOWLEDGE - THE HIGHWAY IS A LIFETIME SCHOOL

DRIVE SMART - DRIVE SAFE - DRIVE WITH PACKS
PACKS =Patience-Awareness-Courtesy-Knowledge-Skill

Safe driving requires awareness, and awareness grows out of knowledge. Little knowledge = less awareness = danger! Safe drivers have a huge body of knowledge learned from books and lessons, from talking with knowledgeable experienced people, but most of all, truly, from years of driving experience. “Learning from experience,” will forever keep our roads dangerous. Alternative pre-driving learning is similar to pilot training – simulators and Drivers Ed with instructors in the car. Now, with the prevalence of computers, Drivers Ed programs on CDs using game-type manipulators, could perform pre-driving learning at a higher level than current practice.
In most states, you must pass a test to obtain a drivers license. You must know traffic laws, road signs, and “driving safety rules.” And you must know the safety parts of the vehicle and how to operate the vehicle “safely” in traffic. Statistics clearly show that the tests don’t do an adequate job of weeding out dangerous drivers. A national Drivers Ed program and national Driver Test requirements would help change these horrifying statistics.

To gain driving knowledge, new and young drivers too often pay with their lives, their bodies, and their cars, in greater numbers than any other class of drivers. Those crashes are proof positive of the old adage that, “A little knowledge is dangerous.” Your first drivers license is admission to high school. Hey kids, get a license and THEN learn to drive. If you’re smart, when you finish high school, you’ll go to college. And then, if you are really smart, you will keep on learning from life on the back roads, the streets, and the highways. Two months after getting her license, my grand daughter announced, “Most drivers are a- - holes.” How did she learn so much so quickly?

A good experienced driver has integrated much of the knowledge needed to drive safely into his/her driving habits. Newer drivers are in process of doing that but are not yet there. About five years of steady driving experience helps drivers become reasonably safe for themselves and others.

Drivers must have integrated knowledge and awareness to respond and react effectively to road situations. As an example, safety requires knowing the safe distance between you and the car ahead of you and using that knowledge. How do you really know what that safe distance is? You must have knowledge of safe stopping distances at any given speed; you must know where you are – city, town, super-highway; you must know the number and speed of vehicles on the road around you; you must be aware of the time of day – the light conditions, the weather conditions, the condition and contours of the road and how those conditions affect your stopping time; you must know the speed, the condition of your car and its brakes; you must know your own reaction- time and your physical and mental condition as they may affect your reaction time, especially if you are angry or upset; and you must know that the pieces of this puzzle constantly change in size, in number, and location.

Awareness and knowledge help you when the unexpected happens. What if the brake-lights of car ahead of you or the car ahead of the car ahead of you don’t work and the driver has slammed his foot on the brakes to avoid a child running into the street? That’s a switch that kills a lot of people. What if you don’t know that roads on bridges turn icy in windy damp weather AND there is no warning sign and the approach to the bridge is on a curve? Unknowledgeable drivers are shocked to discover that they don’t control their vehicles. Now that’s a switch, isn’t it? Young drivers often believe in the safety of fast-reaction time. That’s cool. Without knowledge, it’s cold, and useless. There’s lots more of stuff like that waiting for the Freshman driver.

The answer to the question, “What is the safe distance between you and the car ahead of you?” rests on a great body of inter-related knowledge that you may or may not yet have. The safest method to obtain five years of safe driving and crash-free experience, is to drive slightly below the speed of surrounding traffic. (Can young drivers do that?) By doing that, all drivers gain time and knowledge to be able to make the many decisions needed to avoid danger.

Here are some areas of knowledge that do not require experience, yet add significant margins of safety to driving:
1. Always know where you are going, how to get there, how long it will take to get there, and how to identify the place when you arrive there. Always give yourself enough time to get lost and to get there without speeding.
2. Know the condition of the safety elements of your vehicle; the horn, brakes, tire condition, windshield wipers, signal lights, headlights and tail-lights, and mirrors. Make sure they are all in tip-top working condition and if not, adjust your driving accordingly.
3. Know your own mental and physical condition and adjust your driving to reflect that knowledge. (Anger =Danger; Upsetment is a bumby road!)
4. Know the laws, the rules of the road, and the meanings of signs.

Drivers who may have knowledge and don’t use it endanger themselves and others. So really, possessing knowledge without using it shows a high degree of ignorance – or stupidity. Tailgating, not using signal lights, speeding, weaving in traffic, not knowing where you are going, driving with defective lights or squishy brakes, and similar acts, all show your ignorance or stupidity, take your pick.

Likewise, possessing knowledge and driving without awareness, is dangerous. Drivers who concentrate on the road ahead of them without ever looking in their mirrors endanger themselves and others. Drivers who simply drive in the left lane with long lines of faster drivers fuming behind them, are showing a high degree of ignorance, stupidity, and a lack of awareness of danger.

Be a good student of safe driving! Keep learning to drive safely. Always!!

Uncle Packsman

Quick Tip: Always signal promptly. That shows that you think ahead. Doing so may save your life.