For my first blog post, I’d like to talk about speed. It goes without saying that when we teach the Advanced Driving Course, we expect you to drive legally; one element of legality is driving within the prevailing speed limit. This is not without its challenges as it can lead to an obsession with the speedometer - if we are checking our speed too frequently, we are not looking at the road ahead of us adequately and will miss information (the cornerstone and constant element of IPSGA). A speedometer check can be costlier in terms of time than you may think as our eyes need to refocus from distance vision, to near vision, and back.
So, what can we as advanced drivers do? My advice to Associates for some time has been to try and develop their own sense of speed: to be able to judge their speed accurately without the need to look down at the speedometer too frequently.
When in a 30mph zone, without looking at your speedometer drive at what you think is 30mph for a short time (presuming it’s safe to do so), then check your actual speed; odds-on you’ll be over or under by some small margin; keep repeating this exercise until you have calibrated your sense of speed. This takes different amounts of time and practice for different people and you can to it at any time.
We get all sorts of cues to help us with this calibration: the obvious one being visual, but also engine and road/tyre noise contribute greatly. Once you have mastered 30mph, repeat this for other limits. With enough practice you will be surprised how your sense of speed and its accuracy can develop. This takes different amounts of time for different people and can vary from car to car.
I mentioned prevailing speed limits, this again can be a challenge to know. Please don’t rely on your satnav, as the data can be out of date, and forward viewing camera systems can easily miss signs when they are hidden by vegetation, dirt and damage. As advanced drivers, we must be masters of our own destiny and as always, good observation is the key: the most obvious is the change of limit signs, but also repeater signs, and the other cues of street lights, the urban/rural situation and single/dual carriage ways all help tell us what the limit is. Another tip: when you cross a speed limit change, vocalise the new limit as a method of reinforcing it in your subconscious.
Finally, managing our speed is not just about slowing down, it can also be about speeding up as well. While we must not feel compelled to drive at the speed limit (it is after all a limit, not a target), we must not let our own vehicles become hazards by driving too slowly for the situation around us.
If there are any other driving topics you’d like to see discussed in this newsletter, do not hesitate to e-mail me at chair@csam.org.uk