Defensive driving is a set of skills and practices to reduce the risk of accidents and promote safe driving. Here are some important defensive driving tips to keep in mind.
We have provided some beginner tips, which are easy and can be implemented immediately. We have also listed some advanced tips that are trickier and require practice.
Beginner tips for defensive driving
- Stay focused and avoid distractions: Always keep your attention on the road. Avoid using your phone, eating, or engaging in other activities that may divert your attention.
- Follow traffic rules and regulations: Obey speed limits, traffic signals, and signs. Adhere to lane markings and give appropriate signals when changing lanes or turning.
- Maintain a safe following distance: Keep a safe distance between your vehicle and the one ahead of you. This will give you enough time to react and stop if necessary.
- Be aware of your blind spots: Check your blind spots by using your mirrors and looking over your shoulder before changing lanes. Be cautious of other driver’s blind spots as well.
- Anticipate potential hazards: Scan the road ahead and be alert for any potential hazards, such as pedestrians, cyclists, and other vehicles. Keep an eye on junctions and areas where traffic is joining the roads you are on, and be prepared for unexpected actions by other drivers.
- Use your mirrors frequently: Regularly check your rearview mirror and side mirrors to be aware of your surroundings. This includes checking for approaching vehicles, emergency vehicles, or motorcycles.
- Signal your intentions: Use your indicators to communicate your intentions to other drivers. This helps them anticipate your actions and promotes safer driving conditions.
- Be cautious at junctions: Approach junctions with caution, even if you have the right of way. Look for any oncoming traffic, pedestrians, or cyclists before proceeding.
- Watch for aggressive drivers: Be aware of aggressive or reckless drivers on the road. Keep a safe distance from them and, if necessary, allow them to pass.
- Stay calm and avoid road rage: Maintain a calm and composed demeanour while driving. Avoid confrontations with other drivers, which can escalate the situation and compromise safety.
- Adapt to adverse weather conditions: Adjust your driving techniques according to the weather conditions, such as rain, snow, or fog. Reduce your speed and increase your following distance to ensure better vehicle control.
- Practice defensive parking: Park your vehicle in well-lit areas and lock your doors. Be cautious when backing out of a parking space, and watch for pedestrians and other vehicles.
Advanced tips
In this section, we have tips mainly on your driving style. These tips may take a lot of work to implement, but you can become a more advanced defensive driver with practice.
When approaching bends and especially blind bends, come off the gas in good time before you reach it. If you feel that you are using the brake to slow down quite a lot, you probably didn’t come off the gas early enough, so your approach was too fast. After each bend, you should ask yourself, “Could I have done better and used the brake pedal less?” Driving like this will also include less wear and tear on your brakes, brake discs and tyres. You should also see your fuel consumption decrease by driving like this.
Living in an area with town driving and rural roads makes this skill even more critical. For example, our customers taking driving lessons in Andover significantly benefit from the various road types.
Defensive driving is all about assuming the worst and driving accordingly. As you are driving along, you should be analysing the risks of everything on and around the road you are driving on. One brilliant technique is every time you see a hazard, check your mirrors and then come off the gas. When you do this, you are giving your brain more thinking time. If you keep your foot on the gas whilst trying to assess the hazard, you are reducing your thinking time and, if it becomes serious, you may need more time to be ready to stop or give way smoothly and gradually.
Imagine you have a passenger in your car, and they have a cup of hot coffee in their hand. Your goal should be getting from A to B without spilling their coffee. If you can achieve this goal when driving most of the time, you will be well on your way to being an advanced defensive driver.
- You should understand what limit points and dead ground are and be able to deal with these safely and in good time. This means you should be reading the road ahead as far as possible. You should be scanning ahead to see bends in the road more than 100 meters away. We explain more about dead ground here.
- You can apply the OUT routine when driving around towns and cities. This stands for over, under and through. When approaching parked cars/vans, look over the vehicles for heads, under the car for feet and through the windows for the driver or passengers’ activity. If you can apply this routine for something like a van, then you should be going into defensive driving mode, which means check your mirrors, come off the gas and anticipate the worst. The van door might fly open, or the van may start to move off in front of you without placing a signal on.
- Try to time your approaches to junctions and hazards so that you are ready to go again by the time you get to the potential problem area. For example, if you are approaching parked cars in the road and an oncoming vehicle, then look for gaps early, check your mirrors, come off the gas and, by the time you get to a give way gap, that oncoming vehicle has passed. This is especially beneficial in the winter when driving in the snow, and it will significantly reduce your risk of being hit from behind. Remember, the more you time your approaches smoothly, the less risk you have of someone hitting you in the rear.
Lastly, defensive driving is about being proactive, aware, and prepared for any situation on the road. By implementing these tips, you can significantly reduce the risk of accidents and promote a safer driving experience for yourself and others.
