Road positioning on right hand bends
Discussion
I bow to the great wisdom of PH again.
One of the biggest 'problems' with my driving is an inability to maintain decent road position on right hand bends, I always seem to come over and hang tight on the central markings limiting my FoV down the road.
On left hand bends I instintively align myself about 1ft from the central line (where approriate I'm happy to cross it), and am naturally very happy there, but on right handers I always seem to cut across, it just happens.
Has anyone got any tips about how to keep the car tighter to the curb? I've tried looking further into the distance, which sort of helps, but I definitely have a inbuilt response that draws me to the central line. My best success is to forget the curb and just concentrate or trying to situate myself a few feet from the central line, but I have to keep telling myself 'remember' every bend.
How can I make this natural?
Thanks,
Stu
One of the biggest 'problems' with my driving is an inability to maintain decent road position on right hand bends, I always seem to come over and hang tight on the central markings limiting my FoV down the road.
On left hand bends I instintively align myself about 1ft from the central line (where approriate I'm happy to cross it), and am naturally very happy there, but on right handers I always seem to cut across, it just happens.
Has anyone got any tips about how to keep the car tighter to the curb? I've tried looking further into the distance, which sort of helps, but I definitely have a inbuilt response that draws me to the central line. My best success is to forget the curb and just concentrate or trying to situate myself a few feet from the central line, but I have to keep telling myself 'remember' every bend.
How can I make this natural?
Thanks,
Stu
I think what your describing is self preservation kicking in and taking you back into a safety position, I personally am a bit reluctant to take up a full nearside position for right handers especially up here where there tends to be about a foot of gravel at the side of the road as a result of the winter of gritting. It makes me nervous when I'm a passenger with the nearside mirror rattling through the bushes! I would rather just use a modified safety position for most part but of course if the surface is good then full nearside is good, you just have to have confidence that you have chosen the right speed based on the limit point movement so you can happily maintain the position without the centrifugal forces taking you wide and hence into the scenery,
Regards,
Gary
Regards,
Gary
It's certainly not a worry about understeer or anything to do with handling charactersitics of the car, I just veer towards the centre of the road!
I think I do have this (well founded) fear about getting too close to the kurb, drain covers+grit play havoc with the elise and certainly clattering over a badly level drain would be worse than IMO than having a closer limit point.
The thing is that on some roads the lanes are quite wide, and I could sit quite a bit more left in the lane without being too close to the kurb, but I just can't seem to force myself to do it, instinct pulls me back towards the middle of the road.
I think I do have this (well founded) fear about getting too close to the kurb, drain covers+grit play havoc with the elise and certainly clattering over a badly level drain would be worse than IMO than having a closer limit point.
The thing is that on some roads the lanes are quite wide, and I could sit quite a bit more left in the lane without being too close to the kurb, but I just can't seem to force myself to do it, instinct pulls me back towards the middle of the road.
This from my ragbag of 'driving tips' accumulated over the years...posted without recommendation or comment...
"If you are having difficulty in visualising where the edge of your nearside tyres are on right hand bends, you could try the following:
Find a straight (safe!) piece of road with a straight line painted on the nearside. Even a car park will do. Manoevre your car so that the outer edge of your nearside tyres are in the middle of the line. From your normal driving position, look forward to see where the line appears to cross the lower edge of your windscreen or windscreen wipers. You could even mark this position somehow.
Thereafter, anything that's to the left of that position is left of your nearside tyres, and anything to its right is to the right of the nearside tyres.
This is obviously specific to each vehicle and any given seating position."
BOF.
"If you are having difficulty in visualising where the edge of your nearside tyres are on right hand bends, you could try the following:
Find a straight (safe!) piece of road with a straight line painted on the nearside. Even a car park will do. Manoevre your car so that the outer edge of your nearside tyres are in the middle of the line. From your normal driving position, look forward to see where the line appears to cross the lower edge of your windscreen or windscreen wipers. You could even mark this position somehow.
Thereafter, anything that's to the left of that position is left of your nearside tyres, and anything to its right is to the right of the nearside tyres.
This is obviously specific to each vehicle and any given seating position."
BOF.
BOF said:
This from my ragbag of 'driving tips' accumulated over the years...posted without recommendation or comment...
"If you are having difficulty in visualising where the edge of your nearside tyres are on right hand bends, you could try the following:
Find a straight (safe!) piece of road with a straight line painted on the nearside. Even a car park will do. Manoevre your car so that the outer edge of your nearside tyres are in the middle of the line. From your normal driving position, look forward to see where the line appears to cross the lower edge of your windscreen or windscreen wipers. You could even mark this position somehow.
Thereafter, anything that's to the left of that position is left of your nearside tyres, and anything to its right is to the right of the nearside tyres.
This is obviously specific to each vehicle and any given seating position."
BOF.
Or a variation on that is lining up where there is cats eyes and do a bit of driving by braille with the nearside tyres, the ripple strip white lines at the edge of d/c's are fun and make a lovely noise to say you are spot on as well, but meantime take your position but take an extra 10mph off your speed and concentrate on position rather than progress then build up the speed again? "If you are having difficulty in visualising where the edge of your nearside tyres are on right hand bends, you could try the following:
Find a straight (safe!) piece of road with a straight line painted on the nearside. Even a car park will do. Manoevre your car so that the outer edge of your nearside tyres are in the middle of the line. From your normal driving position, look forward to see where the line appears to cross the lower edge of your windscreen or windscreen wipers. You could even mark this position somehow.
Thereafter, anything that's to the left of that position is left of your nearside tyres, and anything to its right is to the right of the nearside tyres.
This is obviously specific to each vehicle and any given seating position."
BOF.
Gary
What Dave said. Slower entry into the corner will give you more confidence to stay out longer.
After that it's a case of looking towards the limit point/raised limit point for when the power can get down (and eventually whether the rest of the corner cut) but whilst doing this using peripheral vision to track the central white line as a judge on how close into the kerb the car is.
It's a case of really positioning the car for the right hander a long way before the corner (well before the braking zone) so that all of the run in and turn-in is with the central white line in a similar position on the car.
Different people have different views about when you can get onto full power and apex -- I reckon as soon as you see the raised limit point getting on with it, then that's a great time to tighten up to apex and power out. A more cautious approach would be to wait until you have good vision of both sides of the subsequent straight before committing to the exit.
After that it's a case of looking towards the limit point/raised limit point for when the power can get down (and eventually whether the rest of the corner cut) but whilst doing this using peripheral vision to track the central white line as a judge on how close into the kerb the car is.
It's a case of really positioning the car for the right hander a long way before the corner (well before the braking zone) so that all of the run in and turn-in is with the central white line in a similar position on the car.
Different people have different views about when you can get onto full power and apex -- I reckon as soon as you see the raised limit point getting on with it, then that's a great time to tighten up to apex and power out. A more cautious approach would be to wait until you have good vision of both sides of the subsequent straight before committing to the exit.
Cheers guys, I'll give it a go, but knowlege of car dimensions isn't the problem I dont think, it's just this inbuilt desire to cut across. Nice tip though re: finding the point on the car that correlates with the wheels, cheeky!
It's so frustrating when you know you do something wrong, but for the life of you can't correct it!
It's so frustrating when you know you do something wrong, but for the life of you can't correct it!
If you don't crack it in your next couple of drives out then might be worth spending some time with a professional to work out what the cause is.
I know you said you don't think it's got anything to do with the handling of the car but subconsciously you could just be doing what feels like the safest method (in terms of not upsetting the car at speed). It took me quite a while to get out of that habit even though I was happy with the handling of the car.
I know you said you don't think it's got anything to do with the handling of the car but subconsciously you could just be doing what feels like the safest method (in terms of not upsetting the car at speed). It took me quite a while to get out of that habit even though I was happy with the handling of the car.
Hi Stu,
You are not alone! Even after years of advanced driving, where most of the skills are unconscious now, I still have to concentrate on positioning for right hand bends. I suspect it's quite common, because being towards the nearside feels unnatural for many.
However, it's very important from a safety perspective. Being positioned towards the nearside on the approach to a right-hand bend keeps you further away from any oncoming traffic that cuts the corner. Correct positioning has saved me from incident in the past.
Having said that, very few car drivers give enough consideration to road surface. I believe you're right to avoid the nearside where there could be poor road surface. I believe it's worth sacrificing some forward vision in favour of stability (as taught in advanced riding).
Not taking the road surface sufficiently into consideration has caused me trouble in the past, however well trained I thought I was. It was only when I started biking that I truly learnt better habits.
You are not alone! Even after years of advanced driving, where most of the skills are unconscious now, I still have to concentrate on positioning for right hand bends. I suspect it's quite common, because being towards the nearside feels unnatural for many.
However, it's very important from a safety perspective. Being positioned towards the nearside on the approach to a right-hand bend keeps you further away from any oncoming traffic that cuts the corner. Correct positioning has saved me from incident in the past.
Having said that, very few car drivers give enough consideration to road surface. I believe you're right to avoid the nearside where there could be poor road surface. I believe it's worth sacrificing some forward vision in favour of stability (as taught in advanced riding).
Not taking the road surface sufficiently into consideration has caused me trouble in the past, however well trained I thought I was. It was only when I started biking that I truly learnt better habits.
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