Advanced Driving - what use? None!

[BertBert]

So the title, a bit tongue in cheek, but had my second incident of the year this week. Was driving in my rental car, I15 South and about to come off the Freeway. Traffic was slowing in the exit lane and I had good space in front, good space behind. The traffic slows a bit quicker but not to a stop. Still good space in front and behind.

Hold on, the woman behind is not concentrating and I can see what's going to happen. I use as much room I have in front of me to give her as much room as poss before the inevitable happened. Bumph in the back of me she goes.

So I can see it coming, I use up my safety space, have nowhere to go.

A bit like the daft bint who changed lanes into the lane I was in behind me trying to occupy the same space as my trailer!

Would love to know how to have avoided being rear ended(!) in a rental car in the US (what a pain to sort out).

Advanced driving? Feels like I have ony got to the andavnced observation stage - whatching the accidents as they happen!!

Bert

[vonhosen]

Advanced driving does not guarantee you no collisions.

[All Jagged Up]

BertBert said:

So the title, a bit tongue in cheek, but had my second incident of the year this week. Was driving in my rental car, I15 South and about to come off the Freeway. Traffic was slowing in the exit lane and I had good space in front, good space behind. The traffic slows a bit quicker but not to a stop. Still good space in front and behind.

Hold on, the woman behind is not concentrating and I can see what's going to happen. I use as much room I have in front of me to give her as much room as poss before the inevitable happened. Bumph in the back of me she goes.

So I can see it coming, I use up my safety space, have nowhere to go.

A bit like the daft bint who changed lanes into the lane I was in behind me trying to occupy the same space as my trailer!

Would love to know how to have avoided being rear ended(!) in a rental car in the US (what a pain to sort out).

Advanced driving? Feels like I have ony got to the andavnced observation stage - whatching the accidents as they happen!!

Bert

I've been in direct conversation with the safespeed lady to get to understand her better. I was looking at a "winter driving thread" on her site. I'd say all their posters offer excellent advice on aggregate - which was a surprise to me as I really thought "wannna speed site" I took issue with some of the site owner's points though and I phoned her up to clarify. She was very concise and clear from similar event - stating that an astute driver would have planned - left a safety margin, approached any queue with this in mind . . allowing traffic to crawl forwards by a longer margin to create vital extra space.

Were you in L1? Safespeedv2 advised me to stick to L1 . . and to create whatever space possible in the other lanes to try to lessen the danger. I am perhaps not doing her justice and hope she comes back to correct my recall of her conversation which I think has merit but ALSO some room for debate.

[SafeSpeedv2]

Part of good driving is about anticipation and safety. Which of the lanes had the best 'escape route' (probably L1 is typical), or the very best chance of good 'exit'?
It is fine to have some room in front of you for most situations, but if you can always allow for the escape route you then have your space in front of you AND the escape route.
By keeping (as you did) once stopped, your eyes mostly on the rear view mirror to ensure that you are ready to act, keeping you car in first gear and ready for immediate action.

Edited by SafeSpeedv2 on Saturday 30th May 20:38

[Kinky]

What's it got to do with Claire from SafeSpeed

I'd also guesstimate that a vast majority of members and contributors to SafeSpeed are PHers.

[BertBert]

SafeSpeedv2 said:

Part of good driving is about anticipation and safety. Which of the lanes had a clear 'escape route' or the very best chance of good exit.
It is fine to have some room in front of you for most situations, but if you can always allow for the escape route you then have your space in front of you AND the escape route.
By keeping (as you did) once stopped, your eyes mostly on the rear view mirror to ensure that you are ready to act, keeping you car in first gear and ready for immediate action.

Unfortunately I had no choice of lane. It was lane 1 and the exit lane for where I was going at the end of the exit. There was another lane next to me which was also an exit lane (for the other way at the end of the exit). That had much faster passing traffic so didn't offer an escape route.

Bert

[SafeSpeedv2]

Kinky said:

What's it got to do with Claire from SafeSpeed

I'd also guesstimate that a vast majority of members and contributors to SafeSpeed are PHers.

It was another incident that happened to have similar characteristics as it goes !

[All Jagged Up]

vonhosen said:

Advanced driving does not guarantee you no collisions.

pieces of string are infinite!

[Kinky]

SafeSpeedv2 said:

Kinky said:

What's it got to do with Claire from SafeSpeed

I'd also guesstimate that a vast majority of members and contributors to SafeSpeed are PHers.

It was another incident that happened to have similar characteristics as it goes !

Thanks Claire

I was struggling to understand the relevance

[SafeSpeedv2]

SafeSpeedv2 said:

It is fine to have some room in front of you for most situations, but if you can always allow for the escape route you then have your space in front of you AND the escape route.
By keeping (as you did) once stopped, your eyes mostly on the rear view mirror to ensure that you are ready to act, keeping you car in first gear and ready for immediate action.

BertBert said:

Unfortunately I had no choice of lane.

So this was your 'single' exit lane with a generally faster one to your side and you have stopped was there no hard shoulder ? or grass bank ?

BertBert said:

It was lane 1 and the exit lane for where I was going at the end of the exit.

Do you mean 'and' the end of the exit lane. So were you at the next junction or something?
Were you still able to find space to you right (UK left or nearside) - I am assuming you were in the States - that correct?

BertBert said:

There was another lane next to me which was also an exit lane (for the other way at the end of the exit). That had much faster passing traffic so didn't offer an escape route.
Bert

OK fair enough.

Edited by SafeSpeedv2 on Saturday 30th May 21:13

[BertBert]

In the US - yes. There were two lanes for the exit. One for right at the end of the exit ramp and one for left at the end of the exit ramp.

I was in the RH exit lane, concrete one side and the lane on the other side had faster traffic.

Bert

[SafeSpeedv2]

BertBert said:

In the US - yes. There were two lanes for the exit. One for right at the end of the exit ramp and one for left at the end of the exit ramp.
I was in the RH exit lane, concrete one side and the lane on the other side had faster traffic.
Bert

And beyond these lanes ? - got a google map ref or towns etc ?
If I saw a block of cars in front of me building I would slow to a crawl, from a good distance back, thus ensuring that as I creep forward I have a buffer of cars behind me and plenty of space in front IF there is NO direct escape route .... beyond this the lane to your left IS a possible ....

[BertBert]

Yes I agree, that's pretty much what I did. Unfortunately it did not have any affect at all in managing the car behind.

It was a situation that developed quite rapidly (say 5 seconds). So another possibility is to work out how to have gained more time to take action.

Bert

[Robert060379]

You can be the best driver in the world. Doesn't mean the guy or gal that runs into you isn't a complete idiot.

[waremark]

Horn? Hazard flashers? Flashing the brake lights? (Not saying I would necessarily have managed all or any of the above!)

[7db]

Robert060379 said:

You can be the best driver in the world. Doesn't mean the guy or gal that runs into you isn't a complete idiot.

I won't be happy with my driving until I can make the idiots miss me (or at least be on the horn, reversing onto the verge out of their way when they finally nail me)

[Odie]

Hand on horn and keep it there until she shows signs of paying attention.

Did this the other day when a guy decided to try to reverse out of a parking space when i was already fully out of my space. He stopped, looked at me like i was a tt (perhap i over reacted, but meh) and i drove off without a dented car.

[Thirsty33]

BertBert said:

So the title, a bit tongue in cheek, but had my second incident of the year this week. Was driving in my rental car, I15 South and about to come off the Freeway. Traffic was slowing in the exit lane and I had good space in front, good space behind. The traffic slows a bit quicker but not to a stop. Still good space in front and behind.

Hold on, the woman behind is not concentrating and I can see what's going to happen. I use as much room I have in front of me to give her as much room as poss before the inevitable happened. Bumph in the back of me she goes.

So I can see it coming, I use up my safety space, have nowhere to go.

A bit like the daft bint who changed lanes into the lane I was in behind me trying to occupy the same space as my trailer!

Would love to know how to have avoided being rear ended(!) in a rental car in the US (what a pain to sort out).

Advanced driving? Feels like I have ony got to the andavnced observation stage - whatching the accidents as they happen!!

Bert

Advanced driving cannot guarantee no crashes, but whenever I come up on a queue I slow a little earlier and leave more room in front, watching for that person in my mirror. Twice I have seem it coming - the first I managed to accelerate away into the gap I had left myself and just missed being hit, the second time the gap was too small and the idiot too fast; although I had given him earlier warning by doing this and allowing him to see me earlier round the bend than he otherwise would so he braked a litle earlier - probably meant he hit me at 40 rather than 50.

Just keep asking "what happens now if" and you should over time develop more and more ways of keeping a safety zone around you. It's not a precise science though - you cannot legistlate for everything, but observation does pay on balance.

The only thing I do know is that over the years I have to brake suddenly less and less often. Now driving standards in general seem to have got worse, so I must be anticipating things better - I drive faster than I used to when I can, but with a different attitude. Sudden braking in 9/10 cases is a failure on your part to have seen what was going to happen, even if the other driver was techniclly at fault. (YES there are exceptions - don't bother to list them!!)

[WhoseGeneration]

waremark said:

Horn? Hazard flashers? Flashing the brake lights? (Not saying I would necessarily have managed all or any of the above!)

My thoughts too, plus, if room, weaving left to right in the lane.