Chapter 2 - "Aiming" the car - Where to look!
WHAT YOU LOOKIN’ AT?
I’d say that THE toughest thing to convince people of is that, without exception, you should be looking ahead as far as you can see, in the center of the path you want to be in.
Let’s compare it to walking or riding a bike - or even a skateboard:
- Did you ever try to ride your bike looking down at your front wheel? It simply doesn’t work! By the time you see the pot hole, you hit it. You’ve learned (from experience) to look way ahead of you, and you have learned that you’ll STILL be able to see whatever you need to out of your peripheral vision.
- Can you walk a straight line while you’re looking at the person walking next to you? You can’t, and that’s why when you’re walking with your friends in the mall, you probably keep bumping into each other: Because you’re concentrating on your friend, and NOT "looking ahead as far as you can see, in the center of the path you want to be in."
- Whether you’re walking, skateboarding, riding a bike, swimming, or piloting a 747 jet, you should be looking ahead of you, as far as you can see, in the center of the path you want to be in. If it LOOKS like you're in the center of the path, you ARE! And it works from the driver’s side of the car as well as the passenger’s side of the car. If you want the mathematical reason for why that’s true,
Humor me - Let me say it ONE MORE TIME!
"There are NO exceptions to that rule! Nearly ALL rules have exceptions - BUT NOT THIS ONE! NOPE. NEVER!
If it appears that your body is in the center of the path you want to be in when you are looking way ahead of you, then so is your car... or truck, or van, or motor home, or whatever.
That has to be trusted
.
Want some examples?
- If you are LOOKING at the telephone pole that you are afraid of hitting, how could you possibly ever steer the car in the right direction to avoid it, if you’re not looking where you want the car to go? Most drivers will LOOK at the telephone pole, and steer AWAY from it, and then they hit a car! (BECAUSE THEY’RE NOT LOOKING WHERE THEY WANT TO GO!)
- When you’re driving along, and you notice that a car on your left is getting too close to you, most people will LOOK at that car, and steer AWAY from it... (Do I really need to cut&paste here? Do you catch my drift?)
- SKIDDING is another great example. Most people - and most driving manuals, will tell you to always "steer in the direction of the skid." Although technically correct for reasons which no one cares about, it is totally confusing to new drivers, and totally ignored by experienced drivers, because they know better. To most new drivers, that sounds like if your car is skidding toward the right side of a bridge, you should turn the wheel to the right. NOT!
If you’re car starts skidding for any reason whatsoever, you should be looking way ahead of you in the path you want your car to be in! There are NO exceptions to this rule!
NOTE: Briefly, the reason it’s "technically correct" is because in that situation, it’s the REAR of your car skidding to the left (which makes the front of your car go to the right,) so you ARE steering "in the direction of the skid." But it doesn’t matter. Front end skid, rear end skid, front wheel drive, rear wheel drive, any kind of skid. You do WHAT? Yes. You ALWAYS look way ahead of you, in the center of the path you want to be in, and STEER that way!
As long as we’re getting a little technical here, let me run a quick physics lesson by you. Unless you’re interested, we don’t need to get into all of the real science, but you should know what’s happening to your car when you do things too fast.
- G-force is a measure of gravity. 1 "G" is your weight on earth. Have you ever been in a really fast elevator in a tall building, and when it starts to go up, your knees buckle? That’s because the speed of the elevator momentarily increases your weight, and you weren’t expecting it.
- Momentum is the force that makes you go forward when someone stops too quickly in a car.
- Weight transference is the reason you can do a "wheelie" on a bike or a motorcycle, or why you’ll go tumbling "ass over tea kettle" when you lock the front wheel on a bike with a front brake. It's what makes you sway to the right on a too-fast left hand turn, or any other time you’re swayed in any direction.
In a 4000 pound car, you generally have 1000 pounds on each wheel. In a panic stop, you might have 1500 pounds on each front wheel, and 500 pounds on each rear wheel.
Making a left turn too fast, you might have 1500 pounds on each right wheel, and 500 pounds on each left wheel.
If you’re also applying the brake, while you’re making a left hand turn too fast, you might have 3400 pounds on the right front tire, and 200 pounds on the other three. Accident time.
THE POINT? If you "feel the swaying," THEN SLOW DOWN!
Okay, I made all those numbers up, but I'm trying to make a point. The numbers might be off, but the concept is right on target. Let me try this a different way...
All kinds of complicated laws of physics determine exactly why a car will skid, flip over, or go out of control. We all know them - it’s instinct. (Did you ever RUN down a hill, and try to stop? Or did you ever try to make a real sharp turn on a bike at full speed? Once, maybe!)
Most people have trouble using their "walking skills" for driving. No one in their right mind would ever walk through a green light without checking for traffic, but most drivers will just blindly trust that other cars will stop for that red light - assuming that the bulb is not burned out....
When you’re walking, or riding a bike, you’ve learned to pick up more "clues" about what’s going on than we have room for here. But briefly, walking in a parking lot, you notice subtle things like:
- Is someone in the car?
- Are they LOOKING at me? (Eye Contact - Very Important!)
- Is the car running?
- Are the back-up lights on?
- Are the brake lights on?
You notice all this stuff instinctively, without even realizing it. (Well, NOW you do --- THAT’s NOT FAIR!) But it’s GOOD.
The POINT? - Just because you’re in a big bad car that’s gonna protect you, doesn’t mean you should forget about everything you learned as a pedestrian.
Give me this opportunity to bring up the attitudes that you can have about driving....
Type "A" - You can get SO mad at the deer for running out in front of you, that you crack up the car AFTER you avoided the deer - because you are so distracted and upset about it.
Type "B" - After you miss hitting the deer by 1/100th of an inch with some fancy driving, you look at the person next to you and say, "That was a REALLY cute deer. Wanna stop for a Pepsi?" This kind of person has very few accidents.
Type "H" - This is someone who AIMS for the deer, because they hate animals and everyone else, and they want to just kill the deer to get even. This is your typical road-rage person. (I just made up Type H, but they're REAL people!)
The leading cause of death for people 15-20 is car accidents. Nearly EIGHT THOUSAND kids 15-20 are killed every year in cars. The chances of any new driver being involved in a serious collision are SO HIGH, that it’s almost a "given." BUT, You can put a hell of a dent in those statistics, and make all the experts look stupid!
"Okay, okay, ‘nuff said! SHUT UP ALREADY! Let’s get GOING!"
