Driver’s Intuition

As I like to tease my mom and say, “I have driver’s intuition”. The idea of driver’s intuition comes from the similarities of a mother’s intuition; knowing what’s best. I’ve only been driving for 3 years now, but once you start, it’s something you can either adapt to or run away from. Taking the rules of the road and everything you’ve learned in the 5 hour class seriously is very crucial to survival on the road. The one thing I wish they teach often is how to maintain your vehicle. Always checking the fluids, tire pressure and condition, and getting check ups at the mechanic are good steps to safer driving. In my personal experience, there have been numerous times where others were driving recklessly and I could’ve been badly injured or worse. One tip I always stress to friends and family is to constantly check all mirrors; left, rare view, and right. There was one night where I was driving home from work and it was a really tiring day as you can imagine. The highway I was driving on is known for the speed racers and crashes. Something told me to look in my rear view mirror, so I did. I noticed that someone’s headlights were coming towards me from behind at a faster rate than normal. I immediately started hovering my foot over the brakes because in my mind I’m like what’s going on here. All I knew was that in a split second, those headlights went from behind me to the left of me. If I didn’t listen to my gut that night, I wouldn’t have been able to write about it. 2 vehicles, one car and one suv were racing each other at alarming speeds. While doing this, both drivers decided to cut right in front of me. The sedan dashed through, but the suv struggled to even fit between me and another car to the point where, when he/she cut in front of me they had to immediately brake to prevent them from crashing into the back of the vehicle in front of me. Doing so, their suv started swerving in its lane until gaining back control. It was a very traumatic and scary experience as I lost my aunt to a bad car crash earlier this year. Please always look in your mirrors and act accordingly. Another tip I like to stress is when driving, not only pay attention to the vehicle in front of you but try looking ahead a couple of feet. There are drivers that wait purposely till last minute to break . Other drivers would be breaking a couple feet away, and the person in front wouldn’t be applying their breaks yet. Doing this helps reduce the possibility of a rear end collision. Another tip that I’ve recently been taking into consideration is not being afraid to use your horn (appropriately of course). My mom like to say, “it’s there for a reason”. I feel like using the horn helps bring forward the other driver’s attention to what they’re doing wrong because half the time they don’t even realize it themselves. Or in some cases, gains their attention when you’re in need of something. This can be as simple as asking them to cut in front of them because GPS is telling you to go left instead of right, or even when you realize their car is swerving into your lane. That last one is important because I have seen situations where someone is driving into another driver’s lane, and instead of using their horn to alert that person, they try to swerve out the way resulting in hitting someone else. Just use your horn, it doesn’t have to be aggressive but a tap or two should do the job unless otherwise. A last tip is always looking out for pedestrians. There has been way too many times where one minute there’s nobody walking then in a quick moment a pedestrian walks out from behind a car. Going back to looking a couple feet ahead can help with this. Especially in todays society, everyone is in their own world, either on their phones, listening to music, or enjoying the view. Sometimes just zoning out. There was one situation where from half a block away I seen a mom and her young daughter preparing to cross in the middle of the street. The one lesson everyone learn is to always look both ways. As I’m preparing to stop, the mother has yet to look up and make eye contact with me. It wasn’t until she reached halfway into the street she looked at me and was rushing to pull her daughter and herself back to the curb. At this point, I was already stopped, and I gave them the okay to cross. If I didn’t, who knows if they would’ve came across another driver that wasn’t paying enough or didn’t care enough to let them cross. Driving is very tricky and you learn as you go. You can be the safest driver and still get into trouble on the road. Always pay attention to your surroundings, take care of your car, and follow the rules of the road, anything can happen in an instant.