Safe Speed Forums

There've been some fairly smug posts on the "I'm an advanced driver so I do nothing wrong. Ever" line recently, so I thought this'd be a good antidote. None of us are perfect!

For the record mine are:
1. Not indicating for long enough when I change lane
2. Driving too close to the kerb

Whats the point in this?
If you know what your faults are then why not try to improve? Such as joining an advanced motorists organisation and taking further training perhaps.
And when you're done, perhaps you could come back and re-appraise the spirit in which the posts to which you are referring were made

So - consider how you correct it.

Not being "smug" - but that's what I do and what my wife does.

It's after an incident like the one which involved my wife that you really really begin to evaluate driving for real. Not "smug" but - CAREFUL AND WITH THOUGHT!

Read the other thread - not at all "smug" to think about driving, follwo IAM advice about "thinking and evaluating each drive" and everything it involves!

Complacent drivers, on the other hand, never evaluate, never think and never learn or even want to learn. If, as I think, you are referring to the "signalling" thread - then complacent drivers indicate without thinking and are the ones who signal and just move into another's path and cause collisions.

I am sure you do not really fit into that category - or do you if you admit to a fault and do nothing about it?

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Farting in the car.

Picking my nose at traffic lights.

By the way - if you drive too close to the kerb - then you are risking the wall of your tyres by kerbing them.

You are lethal to me, IG and all cyclists as you fail to give us space.

If you do not indicate long enough when you change lane - why bother signalling to me at all? You telling me here that you signal and move without thinking about it?

Hey - that's why you are calling us advanced wallies "smug" when I come to think about it now!

Sorry - not had a good day at work (lurgies) and just had the journey from hell home as just a flurry of snow and people panic. why

Bad habits in car? Um - I chew dental gum... eat chocolates...or sucky sweets... sing along to whatever's on the radio....

I don't pick my nose nor did I squeeze blackheads at traffic lights - occasionally combed my hair and flirted a bit if fit girl was alongside at lights before I met Wildy

Not aware of farting or breaking wind and Wildy and kids have not toldme about any such habit...have not noted my wife doing this either - as for the kids - they are kids and do as kids do as do the dogs if in the car.

Course the dogs get the blame for any rather pungen odour anyway and if they are not in the car ... we do have teenagers

_________________
If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
It makes folk wonder just what you REALLY got up to last night!

Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.

Thanks - someone has got my point! I know these are bad habits, but in order to improve I have to acknowledge my failings. I don't believe any level of skill (certificated or not) enables one to believe one's driving is beyond improvement.

Mate - I recall IG posting once that he's still an L driver - meaning we should always look at each drive critically and constructively. It's what the Schumacher etc do as part of the profesionaly job of racing and what the late great (and sadly missed ) Richard Burns did.

You should never stop learning and seeking to improve each detail of each drive however small. But then this applies to most things we do and seek to do professionally. It means you think - and train yourself to think hard and honestly - constructively critically - to best of your ability. Brain's a muscle - more you use it - bigger and stronger it gets. And more able it is to control you!

_________________
If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
It makes folk wonder just what you REALLY got up to last night!

Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.

I sometimes squeeze through very small gaps between parked cars on my side and oncoming traffic, rather than waiting. It's done at very low speed and I've never had a door mirror high-five with the oncoming or parked cars, but my passengers HATE it. Drivers of the oncoming vehicles aren't always that impressed either.

The farting and nosepicking thing goes without saying.

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“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” - H. L. Mencken

Absolutely. When I first arrived here I was quite surprised by some of the ideas that the advanced drivers were promoting. But rather than get a bottom-lip wobble and accuse them of smugness I got off my deriere and decided to investigate for myself.
I learned a lot from undertaking the IAM process, and one of the most important was to keep on learning. I am and I do constantly. I tell myself off if I slip into an old habit, I berate myself if someone else's stupidity gets up my nose. And I have a damned good word with myself if I realise I've stopped concentrating even for a short period of time.

Just to reiterate: I am NOT in any way condoning bad habits AT ALL. I wish I didn't have any, and try to correct my own.

I am also NOT condemning/mocking any form of advanced training AT ALL.

If anything, I believe driver training should be more rigorous, and more frequent.

I just wanted to see what we thought of ourselves.

Obviously, the Scam partnerships/T2000/Brake etc. think we all drive too fast......

Actually, make that my third bad habit

I think in many cases it comes down to observation and anticipation. It is true that we never stop learning, but a good teacher is to analyse the reasons why you failed to anticipate or observe correctly whenever that happens to you.
For example, last Saturday evening I was in the process of ovetaking on a straight bit of single carriageway, when the car I was overtaking suddenly signalled right. This put the wind up me as you might expect, but I managed to complete the overtake safely (it was too late to pull out safely), and later noticed him turning into a driveway on the right a few seconds later.

Now I know he must have failed to use his mirror before signalling, but people do, and perhaps with a bit more thought I might have realised what he was doing before he signalled and been able to drop in behind him, rather than overtaking. After all, he was dithering about at about 40 in a 60 limit on a straight bit of road, which was a reason why I overtook him, but he might have been doing so because he was looking for his turning on what was an unlit rural road. This might also account for why he was not paying attention to what was going on behind him.

I cite this as an example of the sort of thing that happens from time to time that a driver can learn from. Perhaps I was too impatient in this case. Perhaps I could have read his intentions better.

prolly never giving a lot of gap form the mirrors of other cars when passing by

i judge a line to miss the mirrors, + a leeway - but the leeway is never a lot, maybe 1 foot maximum - if someone opens a door, its all over

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Going into auto pilot on drive home after a long tiring day with work stuff on my mind.

I think this will be a good way of killing myself/someone else if I let it.

I try to do a 'talk-through' to combat it. Music can stop you thinking about work a bit but it can also induce autopilot.

I doubt I'm ever over the speed limit when it happens but far more dangerous than speeding whilst fully 'switched-on'.

using the bike almost exclusively, then eventually getting back behind the steering wheel and forgetting I'm not on a bike.
Only done it twice (so far), both times very little traffic about, but twice was quite enough.........

I am always very careful to leave a decent gap when driving on the motorway. I don't talk on the phone and I believe I give my driving a high level of attention.

But, in busy but free-flowing conditions, I do find that, more often than I feel happy about, I am slightly taken by surprise by traffic ahead abruptly slowing, whether with or without brake-lights.

I had one today where I was following a car that was passing a lorry on a 2-lane uphill stretch. I was the full 2 seconds behind, but he must have encountered a car ahead that was not gaining on the lorry at all, and he had to brake sharply.

Not a "near miss", but you cannot afford to let your attention slip in those circumstances.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed