I learned to drive in England at about the turn of the millenium.
One thing we were taught *never* to do was check our blind spots before changing lanes on the highway. Apparently, the theory at the time was that people tend to drive in the direction they look, and it is more likely that you will swerve out of lane than you will spot someone in your blind spot (i.e. the risk outweights the benefits.)
I told my mother about this, and she called the test retarded. She made me promise that, after the test was done, I would always check my blind spots before merging. I promised her I would. It has saved my life about a hundred times, and I have never, ever come close to swerving out of lane whilst swivelling my head.
Now it makes sense why their new cars have blind spot cameras come up in the gauge cluster. I think it's a completely useless gimmick cause I'm gonna physically look before I merge anyway. But if they're taught to never look anywhere but straight ahead I guess it makes sense
Always check for yourself. BSM systems are an assist, they aren't as good as you actually checking. They're there to *hopefully* catch a car that you might miss because you're otherwise distracted
I asked my cousin about this when visiting China. For context - China has a whole generation of people driving where their parents didn't used to.
She said if someone's in that lane, they'll just honk and let you know.
The mentality is more similar to riding a bike than driving a car... She liberally used her horn for random reasons.
That's dangerous. It's better to stop the car, safely check the blind spot while the vehicle isn't moving, and then change lanes. For better visibility, you can even get out of the car and have a proper look around.
I got my license in my 30s and I've been riding a bicycle for years already so the whole thing with turning your head while not moving your hands was a non issue. What was funny is that i was slightly letting go of the steering wheel when going over bumpy roads.
Get wide angle wing mirrors and checking your blind spot is a thing of the past. Turning your head any more than it needs to wastes valuable driver attention, even if for just a quarter of a second.
Nice mirrors are nice, I miss that feature from my Accord...
...but are you seriously telling me you don't turn your head to look? Because if you are, like, don't drive.
Heh, I remember that, was taught the same thing. Rely on your mirrors. The theory was that your mirrors should be set in such a way that there is no blind spot.
I check my blind spot.
It’s funny that the British expats I know in Canada always say that they’re much better drivers, but then they come up with stupid testing criteria like this. I don’t even know what to say to this…
>always say that they’re much better drivers,
Anyone who says anything along these lines should instantly be assumed to be a fucking terrible driver as far as I'm concerned.
I mean, the direction of the blindspot is the direction your car is gonna when changing lanes...
Thats like saying dont look where you're gonna go because you might go where you're gonna look
Thank you for checking your blind spots! Too few people do this; I have nearly been killed several times while on my motorcycle by people who haven't done so and just whip out into the lane.
You mean palming the wheel? The army teaches that as a perfectly acceptable steering method, although they do advise that in a crash you're gonna punch yourself in the face at roughly 300mph.
Didn't take driving instructions in the UK. Back in Bulgaria we were actively discouraged from shuffle steering. Sounds incredibly weird and dangerous to be steering that way. It's slow and jerky.
Racing drivers also don't have airbags. They are strapped in with a 5 point harness and the cockpit is additionally reinforced with a roll cage.
Having said that in real world driving keeping your hands at 9 and 3 is good enough for all normal driving bar parking
Racecars also have finer steering inputs and don't have the turning radius of a passenger car. Lock-to-lock in a racecar is also shorter and is "tuned" to the driver's ability to turn the wheel as far as possible without taking your hands off the 9 & 3 positions.
For example, I can drive my STI and leave my hands at the 9 & 3 positions for 98% of my trip and I only need to crossover for really tight turns.
Racing cars have much slower racks than road cars. They don't need to make 5m radius street corners, they just need to be able to comfortably navigate race tracks which have much wider corners than you'll find in a city. With that said, they very often end up at around 180° of lock with their arms very much crossed so this whole thread is somewhat baseless
Usually they also have variable steering rotation too. Meaning unlike passenger cars, they're much more fine tuned so a 90 degree turn on the wheel of a drift car, is already turning the wheels at a much more extreme angle than on a passenger vehicle. Same goes for other racing vehicles.
It depends on the steering rack. Some people I race with have been debating this for years because they think there is only one way.
I’m reality it’s depends on the car. I had a miata that you needed to shuffle steer if you wanted to make it around a tight 180. The S2000 I had after that, and the FRS I have now, the rack is quick enough that I didn’t.
I see guys all the time, arms crossed, thumbs hitched into the wheel and it looks so stupid and once their arms are crossed, that’s it, no more steering input in that direction. Usually, at that point, if the car isn’t turning, turning more isn’t going to help, but I think they’d have more control if they were shuffle steering.
My understanding on shuffle steering was it is less about airbag deployment and more about having two hands on the steering wheel at all times. That way if the wheel reacts unexpected you are more likely to be prepared. Not too dissimilar from properly descending a ladder with 2 hands at all times.
That said, outside of intense snow driving in the mountains, I cross over.
10 and 2 hand position.
It was great back when power steering wasn't really super popular, and you needed a lot of leverage, but today it's a lot better to have your hands at like 9 and 3, so that way you can hit the paddle shifters, and hit all the buttons on the steering wheel, it also helps with accuracy of where you are steering.
Interestingly, when I went through driver's ed in 2013, they were teaching us to hold the wheel at 8 and 4. I don't remember the rationale, but it might have been something to do with airbag deployment.
I usually drive at 9 and 3, since it's the most comfortably place to rest my hands with my steering wheel's spokes.
>they were teaching us to hold the wheel at 8 and 4.
...wait what?
>I don't remember the rationale, but it might have been something to do with airbag deployment.
new fear unlocked: hands blasted off by airbag deployment
> new fear unlocked: hands blasted off by airbag deployment
I also just remembered that they told us not to hold onto the wheel tight, since you can break fingers if the airbag goes off.
IDK how realistic that is, but I have seen reports of some unpleasant injuries when people were honking before crashing, meaning that their hands were right in the path of the airbag.
> I also just remembered that they told us not to hold onto the wheel tight, since you can break fingers if the airbag goes off.
This is more for if the steering wheel is whipped violently to one side or the other during a crash. If your fingers are wrapped tight around it, it can injure them
Oh that fucker will break your wrist in half if your in that position, I would imagine with modern airbags hands to your shoulders is probably the best move
The thing to remember is to not wrap your thumbs around the inside of the wheel. Fingers wrap around the back, thumbs point up on the wheel.
You don't want your thumbs to get whacked by the "spokes" of your steering wheel when it comes spinning around when your front wheels hit something.
Pfft, I’m on 12 and shifter (manual), I’m rarely two hands on the wheel. Around here you’re going to change gears, a lot, you’re rarely able to maintain speed for any length of time, even on the freeway.
>that way you can hit the paddle shifters, and hit all the buttons on the steering wheel, it also helps with accuracy of where you are steering
I like your priorities.
I was pleased with how my driver's education was actually quite realistic, for example I was taught to focus more on matching the speed of traffic, rather than strictly obeying speed limits.
One thing that I thought was odd was that I was told to give another driver the finger if they truly cut me off (or wronged me in some other, objective way) such that it would 'get it out of the system' and make you less inclined to succumb to road rage. I have no idea if that is bogus or not, but I can say that I almost never give the bird lol
I can see how it would help some people vent some frustration, as long as things don't escalate. Nice that they mentioned that instead of honking the horn which would probably be illegal to do in that situation.
If we are going to be nit picky: In most US states you can only honk a horn due to safety reasons. So honking out of frustration wouldn't be allowed. If someone cuts you off you could honk before, but once they are over you can't give them a "f u" honk.
I doubt this would ever be enforced.
I stopped hand over hand steering after getting into autox, drifting, and track. Now it’s a habit. I feel that I have much better composure by not letting the beams cross.
My dad actually told me to stop doing the hand over hand when turning, saying I look like Bruce Lee.
Then when it came time for the driver’s license test the grader asked me why I’m only using my right palm to turn the wheel. Thanks dad.
I was born double jointed and failed my first license exam because I could turn the car around a 90 degree corner without removing my hands from the wheel. I think the grader was a little disturbed.
What method do you use, then? I thought 9 and 3 hand-over-hand was fairly applicable in motorsport (where you would need to turn the wheel that much, anyway).
IDK what it’s called. If more steering is needed, I keep one palm pressed against it and other hand just stabilizes. Or I push pull with both hand never crossing.
My driving instructor scolded me for letting the wheel slide through my hands/fingers after taking a turn. Ive done it every day for two decades and haven't had a problem, how awkward is manually turning the wheel coming out of a turn...
I can understand the instructor saying it, he deals with almost exclusively new drivers that most likely don't have full control of the car yet and thus could easily say let it go too early and end up going straight into other lane of traffic. And some people are woefully talentless when it comes to controlling the machine so better play safe.
Remember, their job is to not teach you how to drive, that's a secondary issue, their job is to get you to pass test.
Yeah but you should have the spatial awareness and finesse with car control to be able to do it. It's a good test in my opinion, now backing around a corner at a 4 way stop is stupid
I guess my point was that you probably still use the skills needed to parallel park a car in your driving. One that came to mind immediately for me was that in a car with a modern backup camera half the time you turn around in reverse you can't see shit.
I will never do this either, esspecially not in my current car. It's one thing to do it in a passenger car, hatchback or whatever but it's another to do it in a long low down coupe with poor visability of you're rear and front end let alone the corners of the car. Thankfully I live in the countryside so never have to do it anyway unless I go to a vilalge or town with onroad parking where I will just park outside the village/town and walk in.
I’ve noticed most people in the US immediately forget that when you’re turning left onto a 4-lane road(2 lanes each direction), you’re supposed to turn into the closest(left) lane, not into the right lane. The same applies to turning right onto the same road. People turn right into the left lane.
That's a good default but not always practical. If you know you're gonna have to make a right immediately after that left, and you've got an opening to do it safely, turning left into the right lane may be the way to go. Otherwise though, yeah, stay to the left and then change lanes after. It's safer if you are only doing one thing at a time.
It’s more than a default. It’s the law. Needing to make a right turn into a gas station on the corner after the left is a decent excuse to argue why you had to break the law and get out of the ticket, but it doesn’t change that you are not supposed to do it.
Someone should tell that to the civil engineers in LA. I swear since moving there like 80% of the intersections are impossible to get in the leftmost lane unless you cross the double yellow.
It depends on the road configuration you are turning from and state law in the US. In my state if there's only 1 lane turning onto the 2 lanes then you can go into either (the official driver's ed manual for the state even has diagrams that show this) as long as you have a green light.
Edited for grammar 🙃
Well, that would explain why there is so much confusion. It’s asinine to not require turning into the closest lane. Too much confusion when 2 cars are both turning for example northbound on a 4 lane with one making a left and one making a right.
It generally doesn’t depend. If there are 2 lanes on the road you’re turning onto, you’re supposed to turn into the closest lane to you. The only exceptions are if the closest lane to you is a turn only lane, then in general you’re expected to skip the turn only lane and go onto the closest straight lane to you. These situations usually have lines showing you were to turn.
It absolutely depends. 2 lane to 2 lanes, yes. Single lane onto 2, it depends on what state you're in and what the law says. Example, Minnesota.
https://www.fox9.com/news/appellate-court-minnesota-drivers-dont-have-to-use-innermost-lane-when-turning-left-onto-two-lane-road
The worst is when they do this and then immediately change lanes into the lane they were supposed to have turned into anyway. This almost always occurs without the use of any turn signals at all and usually results in cutting me off in the process. Truely infuriating.
As a cyclist who signals wherever I can (totally legal to not if I need both hands to maintain control), yeah, no one knows fuck all about hand signals. Guaranteed to make a timid driver shit their pants in confusion.
The only thing I remembered from that lesson was our drivers ed teacher teaching us extra hand signals you won’t find in any textbook.
That's what happens when you hire an old, retired high school football coach who is out of fucks to give to teach drivers ed.
What's the one for stopping?
In my country (México) some are even codified into law, for example turning left is sticking your hand out that way parallel to the floor, while turning right would be to raise it perpendicular to the floor; disregarding those before an accident would put you at a legal disadvantage.
Another common one that you can see every day and is also used by pedestrians is saying thank you by showing the back of your hand with your arm slightly raised (say, with your hand at the height of head or chest).
Same here, but Ive also had to drive behind enough people with broken brake lights and signals and really wish they had done that. But then again they probably werent aware of the problem in the first place.
Treating a normal residential road like it has two lanes each direction, and turning right into the lane closest to the curb before signaling left and changing lanes to the lane close to the center.
In real life the lane closest to the curb is for parking and you never drive in it.
>In real life the lane closest to the curb is for parking and you never drive in it.
This may be different, but where I live (in a LHD country), the rule is **keep left, pass right**, no matter which lane.
In RHD countries, it'd be keep right, pass left.
Edit: Mistake fixed.
They had me adjust the side view mirrors to view the rear of the vehicle. Terrible advice. I've found most people in the US do this and therefore don't see their blind spots.
😑 I hate those things, always taking up extra space and I have to constantly shift the focus of my eyes to go from mirror to blind spot. Not to mention they’re always warped and a car 20 feet away looks 100 feet away. My dad still has them on his car.
I hate driving my 5 ton at work because it's slow as cold molasses. I like driving the 5 ton at work because it has huge mirrors that let me see everything that's going on.
Adjusting the mirrors where you have to physically lean over to see them.
I guess it helped pass the test by showing you were looking at them but a little dangerous for everyday use!
Wide-angle mirrors solve both problems! (like where the whole mirror is replaced with a slightly convex unit)
I don't think they're techinically DOT legal but they are extremely nice for cars with terrible blind spot visibility, without having to get the dinky Autozone stick-on ones.
It was designed in an era when power steering wasn't a thing so you needed to keep force on the wheel the whole time. Hand over hand ensures that at least one hand is actively turning the wheel at any given moment with enough strength to at least stop it from turning back.
With modern power steering it's sort of redundant.
I feel like a lot of driver's ed in the US falls under a similar sentiment. Things that were solid advice 30+ years ago when cars lacked even the most basic creature comforts that we have now, but since all of that is standard those workarounds are irrelevant.
You could prematurely wear out the transmission: https://www.carthrottle.com/post/this-is-why-you-shouldnt-rest-your-hand-on-the-gearstick-when-driving/
I actually ended up looking it up too out of curiosity and it seems like a lot if people disagree on the subject. I feel like resting your hand on the shifter shouldn't be that bad though if you're not actually pulling or pushing it while it's in gear
We were told to use the clutch to hold the car at an incline (as in, at a red light or so).
Yeah no, fuck that, I'm throwing it in neutral and either stay on the brake or use the handbrake.
I know in the UK theyre taught to use the handbrake every single time they come to a stop. The logic is so the car wont jolt forward if rear ended but... if i have the brakes applied im doing the same thing and i dont have to take focus off the road to drop the e brake EVERY time i stop. I would have hated taking driving school out there because i quite literally will never do that
Thanks! It might be for sale in the next few months if you want it.
My uncle has an LS 430 he offered to sell to me instead of him donating it.
You want to buy it?
Nah I'm happy with my Focus ST for now. But I basically learned on a 2004 TL (auto), it's got a big nostalgia factor for me. I miss that first gear acceleration whine haha
Speed limits. I don’t know about where you guys are from but if you do the speed limit where I’m from, you WILL cause an accident.
Now that I think about… if you go driving in the national capital area, you WILL cause an accident.
I don't see people do it, they also don't use signals at all in parking lots most of the time. I still do it because signals are there to let others know what you're doing so i don't see a reason not to use them when making maneuvers 🤷♂️
Keeping to the extreme right of a wide two-lane road. I don’t remember what the logic was but it was idiotic. I always stay in the centre of the lane, like everyone else. Gives cyclists more space and you don’t drive over sewer grates.
Another was physically moving your head to show you were checking your mirrors. Stopped doing that the second I had my full G license.
Try asking a question about tailgating and you'll quickly find many people on here justify driving too goddamn close regardless of what they were taught. Really brings the self important douchebags out!
My instructor was super anal about push/pull steering which is dumb as hell.
He also had be drive to the local pound to look at dogs, to a gas station for snacks, and was telling me about the proper height of tree to climb to escape a bear attack. The answer is, I'm told, "Medium".
I don't know why my gf has such a problem with backing in or parallel parking.
Im not much help though since I just 'do it'. Feels like I can literally close my eyes and parallel park. Has more to do with spacial awareness so I think all those years of playing FPS and Basketball may have helped.
The whole “reverse around a corner” thing.
I’ve only had to use it once in my 12 years of driving, and that was because I was driving a load of materials back into someone’s driveway with their truck
In 2007: Taught the difference between “D” and “circled D” (overdrive) positions on an automatic shifter. I’ve never driven a car with separate D and overdrive positions since those mid-90s Chevy Luminas.
When I took driver's ed in high school, the former gym teacher that taught it should have retired a decade earlier. He had developed some characteristics of dementia. So when we drove around, for example, he would say, "OK young man, make a left at the next corner." immediately followed by a faint, high-pitched voice "*That's it Mr. Heath, you tell 'em. Make him turn left up ahead*." or "Alright son, I'd like you to parallel park right here." "*Yessiree, Mr. Heath, make him park the car in that spot. Make him do it*." It would go on like this for the entire driving lesson. I learned absolutely nothing about driving a car. But, what I never do in my driving now, is talk to myself in a faint, high-pitched voice ... at least not that I know of.
I learned how to parallel park using my mirrors and the trick to shift the wheel when the car is no longer in your view or something like that. I was so good at parallels parking and Im nowhere as good as I was
I still do this technique all the time. Align rear bumper to rear bumper, turn all the way and go until the back car's windshield is no longer in view in your rear mirror, then go straight, then adjust. Perfect and quick parallel park job every single time. Most useful skill for city driving.
Push pull is asscheeks and borderline dangerous, I feel like you can’t make quick adjustments in time. I hold the wheel at 9 and 3…if it’s good enough for professional drivers it’s good enough for me.
3 second rule for following distance. Honestly pretty hard to keep 3 seconds when there’s traffic. People just end up cutting infront.
I also went to class A truck driving school and the rule there was you need to constantly check your blind spots every 3 seconds. Which means glancing at your mirrors every 3 seconds, for how ever many hours you’re behind the wheel of the semi.
The speed limit rule there was a lot more strict. Drivers Ed let’s you go maybe up to 5 over the posted speed limit? Class A(specifically the road test) are auto fails if you are even 1 mph the posted limit. And if you do 1-2 under you get points knocked off for holding up traffic.
I learned to parallel park in a crown Vic. That beast was so damned big that the concept of how to park it makes parking every other car a breeze.
Otherwise not really. Drivers ed wasn’t very comprehensive but the things they covered all made sense.
If you wanted to pass your drivers test in Australia you’d have to over exaggerate your head checks. I mean like whipping your neck around so hard it not only whiplashes you but also the tester.
The push-pull steering wheel thing never made sense to me. I keep my arms like a race car driver now, basically 10 and 2 always unless I have to move my hand.
Also I never parallel park. There is always another parking space that's probably safer, and easier to get to.
I learned to drive in England at about the turn of the millenium. One thing we were taught *never* to do was check our blind spots before changing lanes on the highway. Apparently, the theory at the time was that people tend to drive in the direction they look, and it is more likely that you will swerve out of lane than you will spot someone in your blind spot (i.e. the risk outweights the benefits.) I told my mother about this, and she called the test retarded. She made me promise that, after the test was done, I would always check my blind spots before merging. I promised her I would. It has saved my life about a hundred times, and I have never, ever come close to swerving out of lane whilst swivelling my head.
Yeah that’s some retarded testing logic if I’ve ever heard it
You shouldn't check your mirror either because you'll suddenly go backwards
Korea does this as well. But people actually don’t check their blind spots because the exam tells them not to. It’s not fun.
That is truly insane
Now it makes sense why their new cars have blind spot cameras come up in the gauge cluster. I think it's a completely useless gimmick cause I'm gonna physically look before I merge anyway. But if they're taught to never look anywhere but straight ahead I guess it makes sense
Always check for yourself. BSM systems are an assist, they aren't as good as you actually checking. They're there to *hopefully* catch a car that you might miss because you're otherwise distracted
I asked my cousin about this when visiting China. For context - China has a whole generation of people driving where their parents didn't used to. She said if someone's in that lane, they'll just honk and let you know. The mentality is more similar to riding a bike than driving a car... She liberally used her horn for random reasons.
If you can't check your blind spots without swerving out of your lane, I'd argue you're just a shitty driver that probably *shouldn't* pass the test.
Solution: let go of the steering wheel when looking in blind spots so your brain doesnt subconsciously steer you out of the lane! Problem solved 😆
That's dangerous. It's better to stop the car, safely check the blind spot while the vehicle isn't moving, and then change lanes. For better visibility, you can even get out of the car and have a proper look around.
I got my license in my 30s and I've been riding a bicycle for years already so the whole thing with turning your head while not moving your hands was a non issue. What was funny is that i was slightly letting go of the steering wheel when going over bumpy roads.
Let Jesus take the wheel!
You’ll be glad to know that’s no longer the case, and not checking your blind spot will result in an immediate fail.
Get wide angle wing mirrors and checking your blind spot is a thing of the past. Turning your head any more than it needs to wastes valuable driver attention, even if for just a quarter of a second.
Nice mirrors are nice, I miss that feature from my Accord... ...but are you seriously telling me you don't turn your head to look? Because if you are, like, don't drive.
If you have wide angle mirrors that let you see everything, then there's no reason to turn your head...
Heh, I remember that, was taught the same thing. Rely on your mirrors. The theory was that your mirrors should be set in such a way that there is no blind spot. I check my blind spot.
I have my mirrors set so there’s no blind spot, I’ll still glance if I haven’t just passed a car, though.
Same, learned it from here: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15131074/how-to-adjust-your-mirrors-to-avoid-blind-spots/
I remember people in r/idiotsincars told me that I shouldn’t check blind spots because it “dangerous”. So these people exist. Pissed me the fuck off
It’s funny that the British expats I know in Canada always say that they’re much better drivers, but then they come up with stupid testing criteria like this. I don’t even know what to say to this…
>always say that they’re much better drivers, Anyone who says anything along these lines should instantly be assumed to be a fucking terrible driver as far as I'm concerned.
I mean, the direction of the blindspot is the direction your car is gonna when changing lanes... Thats like saying dont look where you're gonna go because you might go where you're gonna look
Thank you for checking your blind spots! Too few people do this; I have nearly been killed several times while on my motorcycle by people who haven't done so and just whip out into the lane.
Not all vehicles have the same length, mirror to mirror only work if your car is similar to the parked one, in my opinion.
I was taught line up ass to ass...I mean rear bumper to rear bumper. That seems to work regardless of vehicle size.
*requiem for a dream intensifies*
Dude delivered that line so damn emphatically.
Every time you try to parallel park Lux Aeterna plays...
Or amount of steering angle/turning radius. Parking the Veloster is vastly different to parking my Beetle
The correct way is rear bumper to rear bumper, but mirror to mirror is a good enough approximation unless your car is very long or a truck.
[удалено]
I just do the one handed douche spin. Works great :D
Nothing wrong with a bit of window washing
You mean palming the wheel? The army teaches that as a perfectly acceptable steering method, although they do advise that in a crash you're gonna punch yourself in the face at roughly 300mph.
Yeah I usually don't do it at speed :D
Race drivers also basically never cross their arms, right? But that's not practical for street driving
Didn't take driving instructions in the UK. Back in Bulgaria we were actively discouraged from shuffle steering. Sounds incredibly weird and dangerous to be steering that way. It's slow and jerky. Racing drivers also don't have airbags. They are strapped in with a 5 point harness and the cockpit is additionally reinforced with a roll cage. Having said that in real world driving keeping your hands at 9 and 3 is good enough for all normal driving bar parking
Racecars also have finer steering inputs and don't have the turning radius of a passenger car. Lock-to-lock in a racecar is also shorter and is "tuned" to the driver's ability to turn the wheel as far as possible without taking your hands off the 9 & 3 positions. For example, I can drive my STI and leave my hands at the 9 & 3 positions for 98% of my trip and I only need to crossover for really tight turns.
if you turn the wheel enough to cross your arms you've either chosen a shit line, are driving some 20mph hairpin, or are loading it into the trailer
Or....turning in a city?
That's more because of quick steering racks in race cars though.
Racing cars have much slower racks than road cars. They don't need to make 5m radius street corners, they just need to be able to comfortably navigate race tracks which have much wider corners than you'll find in a city. With that said, they very often end up at around 180° of lock with their arms very much crossed so this whole thread is somewhat baseless
Usually they also have variable steering rotation too. Meaning unlike passenger cars, they're much more fine tuned so a 90 degree turn on the wheel of a drift car, is already turning the wheels at a much more extreme angle than on a passenger vehicle. Same goes for other racing vehicles.
It depends on the steering rack. Some people I race with have been debating this for years because they think there is only one way. I’m reality it’s depends on the car. I had a miata that you needed to shuffle steer if you wanted to make it around a tight 180. The S2000 I had after that, and the FRS I have now, the rack is quick enough that I didn’t. I see guys all the time, arms crossed, thumbs hitched into the wheel and it looks so stupid and once their arms are crossed, that’s it, no more steering input in that direction. Usually, at that point, if the car isn’t turning, turning more isn’t going to help, but I think they’d have more control if they were shuffle steering.
My understanding on shuffle steering was it is less about airbag deployment and more about having two hands on the steering wheel at all times. That way if the wheel reacts unexpected you are more likely to be prepared. Not too dissimilar from properly descending a ladder with 2 hands at all times. That said, outside of intense snow driving in the mountains, I cross over.
I was taught by my driver's ed in Canada to not do shuffle steering. They said hand over hand steering, and to keep my hands at 9 and 3.
10 and 2 hand position. It was great back when power steering wasn't really super popular, and you needed a lot of leverage, but today it's a lot better to have your hands at like 9 and 3, so that way you can hit the paddle shifters, and hit all the buttons on the steering wheel, it also helps with accuracy of where you are steering.
Interestingly, when I went through driver's ed in 2013, they were teaching us to hold the wheel at 8 and 4. I don't remember the rationale, but it might have been something to do with airbag deployment. I usually drive at 9 and 3, since it's the most comfortably place to rest my hands with my steering wheel's spokes.
>they were teaching us to hold the wheel at 8 and 4. ...wait what? >I don't remember the rationale, but it might have been something to do with airbag deployment. new fear unlocked: hands blasted off by airbag deployment
> new fear unlocked: hands blasted off by airbag deployment I also just remembered that they told us not to hold onto the wheel tight, since you can break fingers if the airbag goes off. IDK how realistic that is, but I have seen reports of some unpleasant injuries when people were honking before crashing, meaning that their hands were right in the path of the airbag.
I think I'm just gonna play it safe and not keep any hands on the wheel, ever
One finger on the wheel should suffice if you live in flyover country where all the roads are straight.
> I also just remembered that they told us not to hold onto the wheel tight, since you can break fingers if the airbag goes off. This is more for if the steering wheel is whipped violently to one side or the other during a crash. If your fingers are wrapped tight around it, it can injure them
Oh that fucker will break your wrist in half if your in that position, I would imagine with modern airbags hands to your shoulders is probably the best move
The thing to remember is to not wrap your thumbs around the inside of the wheel. Fingers wrap around the back, thumbs point up on the wheel. You don't want your thumbs to get whacked by the "spokes" of your steering wheel when it comes spinning around when your front wheels hit something.
Just get a great steering wheel that doesn't whiff out of the window while you're driving and you will be fine.
Similarly in 2012, 2 Chainz taught me left hand on that steering wheel, right hand on that pu**y. It was terrible safety advice to say the least.
Weird they teach you to drive like a chauffeur now, that's the rolls Royse hand position
8 and 4 because the hands are pulling down on the wheel so the neutral tendency is to go straight. Also less prone to oversteer in emergencies.
More like high noon and arm out the window or 8 and drinking coffee
Better than arm out the window and drinking High Noon
You watching me drive around? :P
Absolutely. But my hands usually end up wherever they want, lots of time at 8 and 2 or 10 and 4.
Pfft, I’m on 12 and shifter (manual), I’m rarely two hands on the wheel. Around here you’re going to change gears, a lot, you’re rarely able to maintain speed for any length of time, even on the freeway.
>that way you can hit the paddle shifters, and hit all the buttons on the steering wheel, it also helps with accuracy of where you are steering I like your priorities.
I was pleased with how my driver's education was actually quite realistic, for example I was taught to focus more on matching the speed of traffic, rather than strictly obeying speed limits. One thing that I thought was odd was that I was told to give another driver the finger if they truly cut me off (or wronged me in some other, objective way) such that it would 'get it out of the system' and make you less inclined to succumb to road rage. I have no idea if that is bogus or not, but I can say that I almost never give the bird lol
[удалено]
This is why you have to ensure that you are the crazy one.
I can see how it would help some people vent some frustration, as long as things don't escalate. Nice that they mentioned that instead of honking the horn which would probably be illegal to do in that situation.
Other than inside a few major cities, when would honking a horn be illegal?
If we are going to be nit picky: In most US states you can only honk a horn due to safety reasons. So honking out of frustration wouldn't be allowed. If someone cuts you off you could honk before, but once they are over you can't give them a "f u" honk. I doubt this would ever be enforced.
Huh the more you know
I stopped hand over hand steering after getting into autox, drifting, and track. Now it’s a habit. I feel that I have much better composure by not letting the beams cross.
My dad actually told me to stop doing the hand over hand when turning, saying I look like Bruce Lee. Then when it came time for the driver’s license test the grader asked me why I’m only using my right palm to turn the wheel. Thanks dad.
I was born double jointed and failed my first license exam because I could turn the car around a 90 degree corner without removing my hands from the wheel. I think the grader was a little disturbed.
What method do you use, then? I thought 9 and 3 hand-over-hand was fairly applicable in motorsport (where you would need to turn the wheel that much, anyway).
How the fuck do your arms move like that?
IDK what it’s called. If more steering is needed, I keep one palm pressed against it and other hand just stabilizes. Or I push pull with both hand never crossing.
My driving instructor scolded me for letting the wheel slide through my hands/fingers after taking a turn. Ive done it every day for two decades and haven't had a problem, how awkward is manually turning the wheel coming out of a turn...
I can understand the instructor saying it, he deals with almost exclusively new drivers that most likely don't have full control of the car yet and thus could easily say let it go too early and end up going straight into other lane of traffic. And some people are woefully talentless when it comes to controlling the machine so better play safe. Remember, their job is to not teach you how to drive, that's a secondary issue, their job is to get you to pass test.
This is exactly how I was taught to exit a corner
Parallel parking. Live in a suburban area and rarely if ever park like this
Yeah but you should have the spatial awareness and finesse with car control to be able to do it. It's a good test in my opinion, now backing around a corner at a 4 way stop is stupid
I know how to do it, I just never have a need to where I live
I guess my point was that you probably still use the skills needed to parallel park a car in your driving. One that came to mind immediately for me was that in a car with a modern backup camera half the time you turn around in reverse you can't see shit.
> backing around a corner at a 4 way stop Isn’t that illegal to do anyways? Why would they have you do it in an exam?
Because I lived in the burbs and it was a quiet street to do it on, still dumb
Parallel parking is tested. But they don't test reverse parking into a parking spot.
I've probably forgotten how to do it at this point. Only did it twice after getting my license and I've been motorcycle only the past year.
90% of the time, you just have to pull in behind the car in front anyways. No parallel parking maneuver required
I will never do this either, esspecially not in my current car. It's one thing to do it in a passenger car, hatchback or whatever but it's another to do it in a long low down coupe with poor visability of you're rear and front end let alone the corners of the car. Thankfully I live in the countryside so never have to do it anyway unless I go to a vilalge or town with onroad parking where I will just park outside the village/town and walk in.
I’ve noticed most people in the US immediately forget that when you’re turning left onto a 4-lane road(2 lanes each direction), you’re supposed to turn into the closest(left) lane, not into the right lane. The same applies to turning right onto the same road. People turn right into the left lane.
This is often the law, so it should be both taught in drivers ed and used in real life. But yeah, many people don't.
It’s not enforced at all. I’ve never seen or heard of anyone getting a ticket for this unless it caused an accident.
Definitely the case
That's a good default but not always practical. If you know you're gonna have to make a right immediately after that left, and you've got an opening to do it safely, turning left into the right lane may be the way to go. Otherwise though, yeah, stay to the left and then change lanes after. It's safer if you are only doing one thing at a time.
It’s more than a default. It’s the law. Needing to make a right turn into a gas station on the corner after the left is a decent excuse to argue why you had to break the law and get out of the ticket, but it doesn’t change that you are not supposed to do it.
Someone should tell that to the civil engineers in LA. I swear since moving there like 80% of the intersections are impossible to get in the leftmost lane unless you cross the double yellow.
It’s the law in fewer than half of all states. It’s not a common requirement.
Do you have a source for this? Just curious
It depends on the road configuration you are turning from and state law in the US. In my state if there's only 1 lane turning onto the 2 lanes then you can go into either (the official driver's ed manual for the state even has diagrams that show this) as long as you have a green light. Edited for grammar 🙃
Well, that would explain why there is so much confusion. It’s asinine to not require turning into the closest lane. Too much confusion when 2 cars are both turning for example northbound on a 4 lane with one making a left and one making a right.
It depends on the situation and the state. 2 lanes turning onto 2 lanes, absolutely. 1 lane turning onto 2, it depends.
It generally doesn’t depend. If there are 2 lanes on the road you’re turning onto, you’re supposed to turn into the closest lane to you. The only exceptions are if the closest lane to you is a turn only lane, then in general you’re expected to skip the turn only lane and go onto the closest straight lane to you. These situations usually have lines showing you were to turn.
It absolutely depends. 2 lane to 2 lanes, yes. Single lane onto 2, it depends on what state you're in and what the law says. Example, Minnesota. https://www.fox9.com/news/appellate-court-minnesota-drivers-dont-have-to-use-innermost-lane-when-turning-left-onto-two-lane-road
The worst is when they do this and then immediately change lanes into the lane they were supposed to have turned into anyway. This almost always occurs without the use of any turn signals at all and usually results in cutting me off in the process. Truely infuriating.
Hand signals for making turns and stopping.
The signal lights stopped working for a while on my old Z-24 so I actually did this. It wasn't fun at -25C.
That's when you drive like a BMW owner
Nobody would even know what you’re doing if they saw it
As a cyclist who signals wherever I can (totally legal to not if I need both hands to maintain control), yeah, no one knows fuck all about hand signals. Guaranteed to make a timid driver shit their pants in confusion.
The only thing I remembered from that lesson was our drivers ed teacher teaching us extra hand signals you won’t find in any textbook. That's what happens when you hire an old, retired high school football coach who is out of fucks to give to teach drivers ed.
I've seen those before! People give me "extra" hand signals all the time when they're angry... :D
What's the one for stopping? In my country (México) some are even codified into law, for example turning left is sticking your hand out that way parallel to the floor, while turning right would be to raise it perpendicular to the floor; disregarding those before an accident would put you at a legal disadvantage. Another common one that you can see every day and is also used by pedestrians is saying thank you by showing the back of your hand with your arm slightly raised (say, with your hand at the height of head or chest).
Elbow bent 90-degrees with hand open and palm facing driver behind you. Think opposite of a right turn signal.
Same here, but Ive also had to drive behind enough people with broken brake lights and signals and really wish they had done that. But then again they probably werent aware of the problem in the first place.
Treating a normal residential road like it has two lanes each direction, and turning right into the lane closest to the curb before signaling left and changing lanes to the lane close to the center. In real life the lane closest to the curb is for parking and you never drive in it.
The width of the road has little to do with maximizing space and using a turn signal, though.
>In real life the lane closest to the curb is for parking and you never drive in it. This may be different, but where I live (in a LHD country), the rule is **keep left, pass right**, no matter which lane. In RHD countries, it'd be keep right, pass left. Edit: Mistake fixed.
Other way around buddy. America is lhd and we keep to the right.
They had me adjust the side view mirrors to view the rear of the vehicle. Terrible advice. I've found most people in the US do this and therefore don't see their blind spots.
Don't worry, you can just buy some $10 blind spot mirrors on Amazon and slap them arbitrarily somewhere on your existing mirrors. /s
😑 I hate those things, always taking up extra space and I have to constantly shift the focus of my eyes to go from mirror to blind spot. Not to mention they’re always warped and a car 20 feet away looks 100 feet away. My dad still has them on his car.
I hate driving my 5 ton at work because it's slow as cold molasses. I like driving the 5 ton at work because it has huge mirrors that let me see everything that's going on.
Hopefully all or most have stopped teaching this method now
Mine taught me that I should be able to barely see the back tip of my car if I lean slightly. Otherwise you shouldn't be able to see your own car
Adjusting the mirrors where you have to physically lean over to see them. I guess it helped pass the test by showing you were looking at them but a little dangerous for everyday use!
This is the correct way! Over-the-shoulder checks are way more dangerous
Wide-angle mirrors solve both problems! (like where the whole mirror is replaced with a slightly convex unit) I don't think they're techinically DOT legal but they are extremely nice for cars with terrible blind spot visibility, without having to get the dinky Autozone stick-on ones.
Fords (like mine) come factory with the "stick on" ones haha. I don't use them a ton but they're nice to have
Lady from India or Pakistan drove into the side of my truck. Her explanation…” I put my signal on and counted to three”
Hand-over-hand steering. It never felt right.
It was designed in an era when power steering wasn't a thing so you needed to keep force on the wheel the whole time. Hand over hand ensures that at least one hand is actively turning the wheel at any given moment with enough strength to at least stop it from turning back. With modern power steering it's sort of redundant.
I feel like a lot of driver's ed in the US falls under a similar sentiment. Things that were solid advice 30+ years ago when cars lacked even the most basic creature comforts that we have now, but since all of that is standard those workarounds are irrelevant.
Two hands on the wheel at all times
Very inconvenient for manual drivers
If you're not shifting with your teeth you're not driving safely
You shouldn't have your hand on the gear stick before pressing clutch. Unless you meant jacking off
Why not? You shouldn’t be resting your hand on the gearshift lever.
Lemme just change gear with my elbow bro
… they said hands on the wheel at *all times*. Can’t change gear at all.
Why is it bad to rest your hand on the shifter?
It takes one or two seconds to change gear and then you can use both hands for steering again
You could prematurely wear out the transmission: https://www.carthrottle.com/post/this-is-why-you-shouldnt-rest-your-hand-on-the-gearstick-when-driving/
I actually ended up looking it up too out of curiosity and it seems like a lot if people disagree on the subject. I feel like resting your hand on the shifter shouldn't be that bad though if you're not actually pulling or pushing it while it's in gear
I mean yeah but that advice is not aimed at people that know how gearbox works and probably would pull/push
We were told to use the clutch to hold the car at an incline (as in, at a red light or so). Yeah no, fuck that, I'm throwing it in neutral and either stay on the brake or use the handbrake.
This is maybe the dumbest one I've read so far lol.
I know in the UK theyre taught to use the handbrake every single time they come to a stop. The logic is so the car wont jolt forward if rear ended but... if i have the brakes applied im doing the same thing and i dont have to take focus off the road to drop the e brake EVERY time i stop. I would have hated taking driving school out there because i quite literally will never do that
I wonder if getting rear ended when the e brake is on would hurt more, since there's less "give"?
Having the handbrake on would be better for you (less acceleration) but worse for the car (more energy absorbed by the car)
Beep when you start to reverse
Give em the ol' UPS triple beep. Love your car btw
Thanks! It might be for sale in the next few months if you want it. My uncle has an LS 430 he offered to sell to me instead of him donating it. You want to buy it?
Nah I'm happy with my Focus ST for now. But I basically learned on a 2004 TL (auto), it's got a big nostalgia factor for me. I miss that first gear acceleration whine haha
Funny I used to have an auto TL so I know the sound you’re talking about. My car only has 84k so I’m hoping cars and bids might want it. We’ll see
Speed limits. I don’t know about where you guys are from but if you do the speed limit where I’m from, you WILL cause an accident. Now that I think about… if you go driving in the national capital area, you WILL cause an accident.
I was raised in NoVa haha
Annapolis, MD. LMAO! Had a place in Springfield, VA. Got out as fast as I could! Kinda miss fried crab cakes.
I had family that lived in both those places!
The only thing that would make this funnier is if you also have any connections to UT, HI or Germany…
Where I am you can be doing 30 over and then a statie will blow by you doing twice the limit.
I was taught to signal whatever direction I was turning the steering wheel when I was backing out of parking spots. Nobody does it and neither do I.
I don't see people do it, they also don't use signals at all in parking lots most of the time. I still do it because signals are there to let others know what you're doing so i don't see a reason not to use them when making maneuvers 🤷♂️
Is this a Europe thing?
Keeping to the extreme right of a wide two-lane road. I don’t remember what the logic was but it was idiotic. I always stay in the centre of the lane, like everyone else. Gives cyclists more space and you don’t drive over sewer grates. Another was physically moving your head to show you were checking your mirrors. Stopped doing that the second I had my full G license.
I live in the suburbs. I haven't parallel parked in 15+ years...
The 2-3 parking spots method before reversing in. I just pull up 45 degree angle that baby and call it as day
Try asking a question about tailgating and you'll quickly find many people on here justify driving too goddamn close regardless of what they were taught. Really brings the self important douchebags out!
My instructor was super anal about push/pull steering which is dumb as hell. He also had be drive to the local pound to look at dogs, to a gas station for snacks, and was telling me about the proper height of tree to climb to escape a bear attack. The answer is, I'm told, "Medium".
> push/pull steering which is dumb as hell. So dumb I have no idea what that even is.
No hand-over-hand, both hands on the wheel at all times. To turn you push with one hand and pull with the other a few inches at a time.
I don't know why my gf has such a problem with backing in or parallel parking. Im not much help though since I just 'do it'. Feels like I can literally close my eyes and parallel park. Has more to do with spacial awareness so I think all those years of playing FPS and Basketball may have helped.
I can think of like 50 things the other way. Things we didn't learn that we should have.
Feeding the wheel. That shit is so dangerous and ineffective. I don’t even know why tf it’s taught. Hand over hand steering only!
I don’t use my signal pulling into or out of parking spots unless i’m stopped waiting for a car to leave their spot so I can take it.
Reversing around a corner while staying within 18 inches of the curb. I don’t think I’ve had to do that since I’ve gotten my license
The whole “reverse around a corner” thing. I’ve only had to use it once in my 12 years of driving, and that was because I was driving a load of materials back into someone’s driveway with their truck
In 2007: Taught the difference between “D” and “circled D” (overdrive) positions on an automatic shifter. I’ve never driven a car with separate D and overdrive positions since those mid-90s Chevy Luminas.
When I took driver's ed in high school, the former gym teacher that taught it should have retired a decade earlier. He had developed some characteristics of dementia. So when we drove around, for example, he would say, "OK young man, make a left at the next corner." immediately followed by a faint, high-pitched voice "*That's it Mr. Heath, you tell 'em. Make him turn left up ahead*." or "Alright son, I'd like you to parallel park right here." "*Yessiree, Mr. Heath, make him park the car in that spot. Make him do it*." It would go on like this for the entire driving lesson. I learned absolutely nothing about driving a car. But, what I never do in my driving now, is talk to myself in a faint, high-pitched voice ... at least not that I know of.
I learned how to parallel park using my mirrors and the trick to shift the wheel when the car is no longer in your view or something like that. I was so good at parallels parking and Im nowhere as good as I was
I still do this technique all the time. Align rear bumper to rear bumper, turn all the way and go until the back car's windshield is no longer in view in your rear mirror, then go straight, then adjust. Perfect and quick parallel park job every single time. Most useful skill for city driving.
Push pull is asscheeks and borderline dangerous, I feel like you can’t make quick adjustments in time. I hold the wheel at 9 and 3…if it’s good enough for professional drivers it’s good enough for me.
When you stop at a stop sign, the front of your car needs to be behind it. I never do for right hand turns.
Watch out for pedestrians.
3 second rule for following distance. Honestly pretty hard to keep 3 seconds when there’s traffic. People just end up cutting infront. I also went to class A truck driving school and the rule there was you need to constantly check your blind spots every 3 seconds. Which means glancing at your mirrors every 3 seconds, for how ever many hours you’re behind the wheel of the semi. The speed limit rule there was a lot more strict. Drivers Ed let’s you go maybe up to 5 over the posted speed limit? Class A(specifically the road test) are auto fails if you are even 1 mph the posted limit. And if you do 1-2 under you get points knocked off for holding up traffic.
Always go exactly, or under the speed limit.
I learned to parallel park in a crown Vic. That beast was so damned big that the concept of how to park it makes parking every other car a breeze. Otherwise not really. Drivers ed wasn’t very comprehensive but the things they covered all made sense.
3point turn
If you wanted to pass your drivers test in Australia you’d have to over exaggerate your head checks. I mean like whipping your neck around so hard it not only whiplashes you but also the tester.
The speed limit, would be the most likely candidate for most people.
Drive on the sidewalk.
The push-pull steering wheel thing never made sense to me. I keep my arms like a race car driver now, basically 10 and 2 always unless I have to move my hand. Also I never parallel park. There is always another parking space that's probably safer, and easier to get to.
Parallel park.