Driving Tips
Moving off
- Set the gas before lifting the clutch, when pulling away
Pulling up at the kerb
- Once pulled over at the kerb first apply the handbrake then neutral then cancel indicator. Someone flashing their lights might not be flashing you, remember to act, but act safely!
- If someone pulls into the kerb in front of you they may open their door suddenly without looking
Emerging
- Emerging through a queue - stop at the centre line and look for overtaking motorbikes
- At junctions always look left (as well as right) before crossing the give way line
- At blind junctions use peep and creep - give other people a chance to see your bonnet so that they can react to you
- If you can’t see both ways at a junction before emerging for at least 100 metres - STOP
- At STOP junctions it is illegal not to stop completely
- Double check everything - one look is never enough
Turning left and right major to minor
- Use mirror, signal, position, speed/gear, look
- Have a plan A and plan B, remember the 'what if' scenario
- Always take a right turn into a side road as though a a large vehicle is waiting to pull out of it
Manoeuvres
- Do manoeuvres slowly and stop and start
- When manoeuvring you can always shunt forwards if you are unhappy with it
- When manoeuvring stop before the other driver is close enough to have to react to you
- When reversing look out of the back window over your left shoulder at least half of the time
- Steer the way you want the back of the car to go when reversing - to the kerb steer to the kerb
- Why not open your window slightly, you might hear something coming before you see it!
Roundabouts
- Approach a roundabout slowly enough to work out what’s going on before you get there
- Timing is everything - avoid reaching a mini-roundabout at the same time as an approaching car
- Never pull out alongside another vehicle unless you can see clearly – it will not protect you
- You can overtake through a roundabout in the right-hand lane
- If you find yourself in the wrong lane go with it, unless you can change lanes safly and in plenty of time
- Drive over mini-roundabouts when it is impractical to go around them
- Never approach a roundabout with another vehicle next to you on your right-hand side, it will block your view, slow down
Dual Carrigeways
- Slip roads - use the whole length and check your blind spot
- A lane change should take about 5 seconds to complete - very gradually
- Accelerate in your lane to stay ahead of the vehicle behind before you move out - when changing lanes
- Indicate for 4 flashes before changing lanes on a dual-carriageway
- Never drive in another vehicle's blind spot on a dual-carriageway
General driving
- When overtaking parked vehicles be parallel to them before you get near them
- Emergency stops without ABS - release foot brake and re-apply it if the car starts to skid
- Give Way doesn’t mean “wait for” it means “don’t get in the way of”
- Only use the right hand lane to overtake or turn right
- Indicate to tell people what you are going to do next - give them time to react
- Always approach a green traffic light as if it is a possible red light
- Don’t accelerate at what you’re trying to avoid
- All roads are two way unless there are one-way signs
- Always point your wheels where you want to go before you accelerate
- Braking, steering and accelerating should always be smooth
- Know all the car controls and switches so that you are able to use them without thinking about it
- You can overtake a cyclist on the zig-zags of a pedestrian crossing
- Two way streets have different road markings each side, one way both sides are the same
- Meeting situations? First reaction is to slow down, before changing position
- React to any HINT of danger - slow down
- The closer a car is behind you the further you need to be from the car in front, so that you don't have to brake suddenly
- Bringing the clutch up quickly doesn’t make you pull away faster - you just jump up and down a lot
- To pull away fast use loads of gas and stay in the first gear as long as possible
- Use “slow in fast out” for bends
- Use the same gear on a downhill as you would for going up it
- If you expect something to happen you will react twice as quickly
- Enough room to pass? - use their and your distance from the white line as a reference
- Look across bends
- Seeing a reflection (or lights) tells you something is coming, but not seeing a reflection (or lights) doesn’t mean that there is nothing coming
- Don’t look at cars as they overtake you - it might cause you to swerve towards them