Other than your common sense, there is one of your senses that you bring into a vehicle that is a bit more important than the others, and often times it’s not discussed enough. The sense I am referring to is vision. Your eyes are a major factor when it comes to driving of course, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out. However, the manner in which we USE our eyes when driving is where the importance lies.
I’ll explain this just like I would in a school. Let’s say you’re walking down the sidewalk, its ok to look kind of low in front of you because you’re walking, so the information is coming at you pretty slowly. Now let’s say you’re skiing. You’re going to have to look a little further ahead than the tips of the skis as you race down the slope. Te information is coming at you way to fast to look that short of a distance in front of you. Well now let’s put yourself in a vehicle traveling at 50, 60, or 70 miles per hour. Now you have to be looking WAY ahead. Think of it like this.........
As driver’s we are processors of information. The primary way in which we take in the information is through vision. Of course feel is involved and it too is important, as I discussed in my prior post, your posture behind the wheel is vital to your success in having the ability to make the car do what you want it to. All athletic events have a certain posture that the athlete must be in prior to executing whatever the athletic maneuver is, baseball, basketball, golf, tennis etc. Well driving can too be considered an “athletic event” at times. If you don’t believe me, try to make the car shoot across a three-lane highway at 70 miles per hours as you swerve to avoid a potential accident. I assure, it’s an athletic maneuver. But I digress, back to the eyes.
So if our primary way of retrieving information is through vision, then we need to make sure that we are getting the information soon enough so that we can react appropriately. Most drivers have a tendency to not look far enough ahead. The faster you’re going, the further ahead you should be panning. So first and foremost, GET YOUR EYES UP! There’s really no need to see the hood of your own car while you’re driving down the road. This is not to say that you just stare meaninglessly way down the road ahead of you, it’s more of a constant scan. You have to glance in all of your mirrors every few seconds and when you look ahead, make sure you take a look as far ahead as you can. This will allow you to asses information well ahead of time.
Next, when it comes to cornering, the eyes play a vital role. See, the information that you take in effects your hands. The eyes tell the hands what they should be doing with the steering wheel. If you haven’t looked INTO the corner BEFORE you start steering, how do you know how much to steer? Most drivers just get by on dumb luck when it comes to this. Why? Well, because we were not taught things like “Turn your head” and “look through the turn”. But again, this is what happens when you have the uneducated teaching the uneducated. I mean, do you realize that Drivers Ed teachers don’t actually have to pass a specific “driving” course other than the same one that the rest of us take. But they do get “classes” in how to teach driving………………..Really? Again, I digress.
So when you are approaching a corner you should always LOOK into the corner BEFORE you turn the wheel. It’s called “having a plan”. If you don’t look before you turn, then it’s just kind of a guess isn’t it? I mean, what else are you basing the steering input quantity on? This is kind of like expecting a batter to hit the ball being pitched to him, while he looks at the first baseman. It just doesn’t make good sense does it? If you haven’t looked into the corner you have no real idea how much steering you will need. This too could lead into an even more serious problem……speed. If you haven’t looked ahead, into the corner, then how do you know how sharp the corner is or isn’t? If it’s a really sharp corner and you didn’t look far enough ahead to plan for it i.e. slow down, then you could be faced with a bigger problem very soon. This is what happens on off ramps quite often.
A driver will get off the exit after traveling 70+ mph on the highway and sail it into the off ramp. They don’t plan far enough ahead to realize just how sharp the decreasing radius turn (typical off ramp) ahead is,. They don’t realize it until its too late, and then they panic when they realize they are going to fast, they apply the brakes and turn more. This combination tends to leave bits of headlight glass on the side of the road after they have smashed the front of the vehicle into the outside concrete barrier. We’ll talk more about this when I discuss cornering.
So it’s a short topic, but one of the most important lessons you can learn as a driver. Eyes up, plan ahead and look into turns before you steer. Just doing this will greatly improve your driving.
EYES UP!
JM
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