Each year, about 6 million motor vehicle accidents occur in the United States, leading to property damage, injury, and death. Becoming a better driver may help lower this statistic.
Safe driving skills come with knowledge and practice. Read on to learn 5 ways to improve your driving.
1. Take Driving Lessons
Any type of driver’s education teaches you invaluable skills and allows you to practice safe driving with an instructor present. This helps undo the bad habits of experienced drivers and prevents new drivers from developing an unsafe routine.
These courses also eliminate points from your license and lower your car insurance. It literally pays to get educated on the road.
2. Put Your Phone Out of Sight
What does a phone have to do with your driving skills?
A traffic study revealed that cell phones caused 2,841 fatalities in 2018 alone. In the seconds it takes to glance at a call or shoot back a text, you can ruin your life and somebody else’s.
Just keeping your phone visible creates a distraction. The screen lights with notifications up and tempts you to peek.
Instead, close your phone inside a purse or glove box. You can set it up to let callers know you are driving to avoid a car accident.
You don’t want to admit fault following an accident, and using a phone places the blame on you. Avoid this scenario altogether.
3. Keep With the Flow of Traffic
Speed limits serve two main purposes. First, they give you a speed that allows you to safely and efficiently traverse the area. Second, they keep the flow of traffic fairly uniform.
Driving too fast puts you in danger of losing control on winding roads, causing accidents on busy roadways, and hitting pedestrians. For this reason, you should never exceed the speed limit.
Driving too slow can also create an accident when other cars are following the speed limit. But, sometimes you need to drive under the speed limit to keep safe, like during traffic jams or bad weather. Learn to keep with the flow of traffic, because uniformity keeps roads safe.
4. Stay Vigilant
Stay vigilant by constantly looking around. You need to watch, not only the road before you, but also traffic up ahead, things going on off to the side, and your rearview mirror.
Do not keep your eyes focused on one spot for too long. This can lead you to miss an important detail, like a dog running into the road or an accident ahead causing a line of cars to brake in front of you.
To keep yourself alert, don’t drive when you feel exhausted or when you are under the influence of alcohol or mind-altering drugs. Ubering will cost much less than an accident.
5. Know Your Destination
Not knowing where to go can put you on edge, distract you, and cause common road mistakes. It will tempt you to pull up your GPS, call for directions, or spend too long reading street signs rather than looking at the road. Study a map or read directions ahead of time so you at least know the general direction you’re heading in.
Become a Better Driver
Following these simple tips to become a better driver will help make the road a safer place. Little practices make a game-changing difference.
We want to create a society of game-changers. Read more ways to make a difference on our website!