mxdi's driving school
Here are some tips that I believe lead to better, safer, and more enjoyable drivingContext
When I bought my manual FK7 Honda Civic, I became obsessed with developing a driving style, and approaching driving deliberately, rather than letting it remain a mundane chore. I learned how to maximize my fuel savings while not driving like a grandma, and I also learned about weight distribution so I could hit the corners on my favorite roads.I ended up crashing my Civic following a rainy day, thanks to my balding tires and a lack of judgment. I still believe in many of the techniques I've learned, but I am now much more risk adverse, and still use many of those techniques and mentalities today.
Today I am driving a manual Mazda3, which is much more of a no-thrills grocery-getter than my turbocharged Civic was. It also gets worse fuel economy, which has further driven my mission to maintain 30+ mpg.
Braking
When I drive, I like to adopt a "least braking possible" mindset; I often forgo using my brake pedal unless I'm stopping, quickly lowering my RPMs for a safe downshift, or in a situation where it is imperative to brake to avoid a collision. I am able to do this by maintaining a comfortable gap between me and the car ahead, which lets me slow down with engine braking and downshifting at a comfortable pace, giving myself plenty of time to decide if I need to escalate and get on the brakes, continue coasting, or get on the gas. I am watching the cars in front of me and gauging what they are doing to make this decision.My reason for doing this is to save fuel and extend the lifespan of my braking components. The way I see it, by engine braking, you're utilizing the intense frictions of the road, engine, and drivetrain to slow yourself down with 0 work, but by using your brakes, you're using up a finite resource and often creating unnecessary wear on your braking components. It's also easy to brake too much, and have to re-accelerate after, which is hurting your fuel economy.
A technique I picked up from my touge phase was "trail braking," where you hold the brakes going into a turn, then slowly/gradually let off as you start the turn. When braking you are shifting weight onto your front tires, and unloading the rear tires. The extra weight on your front tires can give you more grip and thus tighter turning, and the lack of weight on the rear tires allows the back to rotate more freely. Be careful with this though, since too much weight on the front tires can cause them to actually lose grip, so don't think you can enter a corner at mach 10 just because you're trail braking.
Margin for error
The most important thing about driving is arriving in one piece, notably above "arriving on time." Nearly everyone thinks they're a good driver and think that they expend a great amount of situational awareness, but this obviously isn't true. You must learn to be humble and recognize that your judgment isn't always right; so to compensate you must operate with a margin for error. Everyday people tell themselves "I can hit that gap" or "I can speed up after this merge before that car catches up" and cause collisions. If you're telling yourself "I think," then you are likely not operating with large enough of a margin. Your margin should accommodate for potential lapses in judgment of not only yourself, but also in the people around you. By operating within a margin, you allow for yourself or others to make mistakes, and still avoid collision.I crashed my Civic because I didn't operate within a margin. In my case, the margin should've been the tires squealing; that should've been my sign that I was running out of margin. Nearly everyday I would hit my favorite backroad and break traction on nearly every corner, wearing down my tires each time. Eventually I hit one of those corners on a wet road with some more margin than usual, but still less than I should have, and I lost control and ended up in a ditch. My misjudgment cost me a car that I still miss dearly, because I didn't give myself enough room for error. Had I have been going even 5mph slower, I likely could've saved the turn. Nowadays I don't let my tires squeal at all; if they do then I know that I am flying too close to the sun.
Acceptance and pride
The dumbest thing I see people do consistently is jump across traffic to avoid missing their exit at the last second. When you realize you're about to miss your exit, you're forced into a quicktime event where you must decide whether or not it's safe to gun for the exit. But under an intense time crunch, you're not allotted the time to properly assess your surroundings and operate within a margin. In this situation, it's always better to get off an intersection or two after and turn around. The threat of losing a few minutes on your ETA is not worth the risk of getting into a collision.When you're driving with passengers it's easy for this judgment to become clouded as your worry about the ridicule you might receive because you zoned out and forgot to prepare for the upcoming exit, but it's much more respectable to admit fault rather than attempt to compensate by risking the lives of you, your passengers, and any other nearby motorists.
You should also exercise acceptance when stuck behind slow drivers. Riding their ass doesn't produce any good outcomes: you are getting more frustrated, they are potentially becoming stressed and less observant of other factors, and you are now increasing risk of collision for no reason. In these situations, I find it's best to give them space, then calmly look for an opportunity around. Even if this means slowing down temporarily or even for a while, maintaining your margin of error is important.