Driving Tips

ALL POINTS Driver Training want you to pass your Northern Ireland car driving test first time and we provide our students with the very best tuition to assist them in not only passing their driving test but also in safe driving for life. To enhance this procedure we would encourage our students and visitors to our web site to read our driving tips as we feel confident they will help to make you a better and safer driver.

Tip 1 Reverse your fuel bills
In a car park, do you reverse into a parking space and drive out, or drive in and reverse out?
Did you know you can save up to £2 of fuel per week by simply reversing your car into a parking space, so you drive away forwards? As well as positioning your vehicle into a safer position to pull away, there are many benefits to both your vehicle, and your pocket.
New data from the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) Motoring Trust shows it takes an average five year old car a minute and a half for the engine to warm up and the most efficient way to warm it up is by driving it. Reversing out of a space when the car's engine is cold uses around 20 to 25 times more petrol in the first few seconds than it does when warm. If you do this 10 to 12 times a week that adds up to a cost of about £100 a year, not to mention the increased wear on the car’s engine.
Reverse parking is also usually safer and is advised in The Highway Code. Reversing into somewhere you can see (a parking bay) rather than reversing out into somewhere you can’t see (often a line of moving traffic) is much safer. It is also easier to control a car going forwards than backwards when it is first started, and attempting a potentially high risk manoeuvre such as reversing when you have just entered a car and are not concentrating fully, is more dangerous.
From a security point of view, reversing close to an object such as a wall can make it more difficult for thieves to gain access and, if you need to leave a parking space quickly for personal security reasons, driving forward provides you with better acceleration and improved vision.
Many drivers find it helpful to lower the left (nearside) mirror to provide a guide to your lateral position. Another option, where all the parking spaces run in parallel rows, is to line your car up with the space in front and reverse back in a straight line. This should automatically position you in the centre of the space – but do remember to look where you are going!

Tip 2 Emergency Vehicles
Deciding what to do when you hear an emergency vehicle approaching can be a dilemma. Do you stay where you are and potentially block the progress of an emergency vehicle? Or do you move into a position that may put you or other road users at risk?
Unfortunately, some drivers over-react to emergency service vehicles travelling on “blues and twos” (blue lights and two-tone horns). This is often because they don’t hear or see the emergency vehicle until it’s too close and then take drastic action to get out of the way. Playing loud music in a car distracts the driver and does not allow them to hear what is happening around the car. KEEP MUSIC LOW.
The IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) says that good driving practice will alert you early to emergency vehicles; regular mirror checks (side and rear) for example, and keeping the windows slightly down around town, so you can hear sirens approaching.
Don’t panic and just brake. It’s natural to want to react. But instinctively putting your brakes on immediately in front of an emergency vehicle doesn't help; it slows the progress of the emergency vehicle and jeopardises other road users.
Think about where you are on the road. You should deal with the problem in the same way that you deal with any other potentially hazardous driving situation. What is the safest option available to you?
Don’t cross red traffic lights or speed to get out of the way. The emergency driver has training and legal exemptions that you don’t have. Bus lanes and box junctions can be problems too, but let them resolve the problem of breaking the rules – not you.
If you are moving it may well be that you can continue at a reasonable pace and the emergency vehicle can follow you out of a pocket of congestion (such as a blocked one way system). In that scenario, attempting to pull over too soon, or slow down, might just cause a needless obstruction and so hamper the progress of the emergency vehicle.
Indicate your intentions clearly Don’t pull in opposite other obstructions, such as centre bollards. If you are thinking about pulling over across an entrance to a school or factory, you may be unwittingly preventing the emergency vehicle reaching its destination. And do think about where you are asking the emergency driver to overtake you – on the brow of a hill or a blind bend can be placing him or her in a very difficult position.
Get out of the way as soon as you can do so in safety.

Tip 3 Smooth operator
A good, safe drive is about a mixture of techniques, but high on the list must be the need to use the vehicle’s brakes in a smooth and progressive way. The IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) says drivers need to develop observation and anticipation, so that they can begin braking at an early stage and a leave a decent margin for braking more heavily if the need arises.
Many drivers tend to brake too late and too hard. Or arguably less dangerous, but equally annoying, some drivers have the habit of "comfort braking " - touching the brakes to enable themselves to feel better, even if they have no intention of slowing the car to any measurable degree. They do so in the belief that they are being careful drivers. Unfortunately this behaviour can often irritate the following motorists who may simply just want to have a smooth drive without having to continually "touch" their brakes every time they see the car in front doing so.
As taught by ALL POINTS Driving Training instructor it is better by far to learn to read the road ahead. Not only do you get early warning of developing hazards, you can respond by adjusting your speed using only your throttle i.e. decelerating!
Have you ever seen a "cascade" of brake lights ahead of you? An advanced driver will judge the speed and distances involved and, having left a decent gap, be able to follow in safety by letting the speed "fall away / decelerate" and so avoiding the need to brake.
Think too about your positioning on the road. Can you maximise your forward view by putting the vehicle in a slightly different position on the carriageway? This should not be an abrupt repositioning, but a smooth change in your line to enable you to see ahead that little bit better. Careful adjustment of road position improves the view ahead, particularly through corners.
Applying these techniques will also help save fuel.

Tip 4 A turn for the worst
Have you ever found yourself braking in a bend simply because it was sharper than you originally thought?
If you have, then have a think about how you actually go about assessing the severity of bends. If you get it wrong, the consequences are potentially very serious, particularly on rural roads, which still dominate crash statistics. And it is not just young, inexperienced drivers who get "caught out" by bends. It is here that, in the jargon, most "single vehicle accidents" take place.
There are a number of clues we can take from the environment to help us. The most obvious are the road signs and markings. There are other less obvious ones: the line of the trees, hedges, buildings, street lights or telegraph poles (although remember that sometimes telegraph poles run through fields, so don’t follow them!).
The actual width of the road can be a factor; the narrower it is, the less space you have to manoeuvre. Skid marks on the road are an indication of past mistakes. The position and speed of other traffic can also provide you with valuable information. Another particularly useful way of assessing a bend is to use the “limit point analysis” as taught by your ALL POINTS Driver Training instructor. The limit point is the furthest point which you can see, i.e. where the left and right hand sides of the road meet. To use this technique first make sure that you can stop before you get to it, then simply ask yourself: is it getting further away? If it is and you can see further ahead, then your speed should be fine. On the other hand if it is getting closer, then you could continue to reduce speed until the limit point begins to move with you and your view opens up again.
This technique takes a bit of practice but it will help you to link your speed with your range of vision and allow you to stop in the distance seen to be clear. And in roads where you can’t see through the bends it gives you a reliable and practical solution to a difficult judgement problem. If you are not an ALL POINTS Driver Training student and you would like to practice the *limit point analysis, give us a call as we would be more than happy to take you out for a lesson to explain this very important aid to safe driving.

We hope you have enjoyed reading our driving tips.
Living with your car: Avoiding bogus collisions and insurance fraud