Lots of good stuff in here.
-You could look at a defensive driving/advanced driving course in the city. Refresher training is never a bad idea.
-Stay off your phone. However if you need to take a call, don't slam on the brakes and pull over as soon as you can. Look for a reasonable place to pull over and call the person back.
- Signal. Signal. Signal. Its' been said before and I'll repeat it 3 more times. It's pretty simple to do. I don't get why people don't.
- If the roads are poor, you don't have to do 130 in a 110 zone. Adjust for the conditions. Alternatively, if the roads aren't that bad, but you saw a snow flake, and you feel the need to do 50 in a 100 zone, pull over every once in a while and let the massive line of cars pass you. (more applicable to highway driving)
- If traffic is moving too slow for your liking, don't cut back into the merge lane and pass everyone on the right and cut back in two car lengths before it ends doing 150 on Crowchild in a snowstorm. (gear grinder from the other day)
- Don't play lane change pole position. Changing lanes 28 times in two blocks is going to maybe save you 2 seconds in your total drive time. And greatly increases your chance of being in or causing an accident. People generally don't get in accidents when going at a constant speed in a straight line. It's when the lane is crossed that accidents occur (intersections, lane changing, driving in on-coming traffic, pulling into traffic). Minimize the amount of times you have to cross out of your lane and you'll minimize your chance of an accident.
- If you're turning left on a solid green, pull into the intersection while waiting. It's amazing how many people don't do this, completely boning the traffic behind him. Also, while you're in the middle of your intersection, keep the steering wheel straight. If you have it turned and get rear-ended you'll shoot into oncoming traffic.
- Don't be afraid to use cruise control on the highway in good conditions so the same person doesn't have to pass you 8 times.
As an aside, when I'm biking I don't do the standard x% over the speed limit. Stayed in the right lane, gave myself plenty of time to get to places. I tried this in the car as an experiment for a couple of weeks. It's amazing how much less stress there was in my daily commute.
|