How To Improve Your Driving Habits – Driving Safety Tips
Almost every adult spends some time behind the wheel of a car almost every day of the week. Many people spend several hours in their car each day. If you spend a lot of time driving, then you probably consider yourself to be a good driver. While that might be true, the fact is that everyone can stand to improve their driving. Being a good driver will improve your experience on the road and ensure your safety as well as the safety of others.
Your Driving Habits
The first step to improving your overall driving behaviors is to identify what you do that needs improvement. While most people consider themselves to be safe drivers overall, the truth is that we all have a set of behaviors that are not considered safe. You have to figure out what yours are in order to begin correcting them. The next time you’re making your daily commute to work or school, pay very close attention to the way you drive. Police officers who cite people for unsafe driving identify some of the following as among the most common driver errors:
- Not coming to a full and complete stop at all stop signs and red traffic lights.
- Insisting on the right of way at four-way stops.
- Making a U turn without taking the time to study your rear view mirrors.
- Passing or merging into traffic in an aggressive manner.
- Not taking enough time to look both ways before proceeding through a stop sign.
- Driving over the speed limit.
- Not slowing down to a safe speed during inclement weather.
Increasing Your Awareness
While it’s easy to look at other drivers and point out what they’re doing wrong, it’s not nearly as easy to look at yourself and identify the times that you break the rules of the road. Everyone has personal driving habits that they learned from their parents, friends, and other people who were influential when they were first learning to drive; when you think about it, you can probably see the ways in which your parents affected the way you drive now. If you are serious about wanting to improve your safety on the road, then you have to be willing to be critical of your own driving. Take a mental step back from simply driving on “autopilot” and make an accurate assessment of how you’re driving.
Identifying Your Mistakes
Once you have identified the bad driving habits you express on the road, it’s time to go about fixing them. This isn’t a simple process and it requires a great deal of commitment to your goal of becoming a better driver. If you discovered that you are pushy at intersections and four-way stops, then make a conscious effort to slow down and take your time. The more often you practice implementing your new, corrected, behavior, the more natural it will become. With a little time, your new and improved driving behaviors will become second nature to you.
Safe Driving for Life
Don’t try to make too many changes at once. Pick a single behavior you want to correct and work on that. When you feel comfortably habituated to that new behavior, choose something else to improve. Even though it will take several months before you have corrected all your negative driving habits, every little effort counts. You can be certain that making even a single change today will have profound effects on the rest of your life.