Eyes Peeled

Once someone is of age and is ready to get their license, they are often warned about the dangers of texting and driving. Obviously this is incredibly important and does need to be said, but it seems as if there is one key warning that isn’t being said, “Be careful of other drivers.” We often warn people about themselves being distracted, but we don’t seem to spend nearly enough time warning people about other drivers and the importance of your peripheral vision. However I would argue that it is just as important as texting and driving.

It’s easy to keep yourself from getting distracted behind the wheel, but it’s much harder to predict what someone one hundred feet away from you is going to do. It’s almost impossible to predict what anyone will do, especially on busier streets and highways. One thing that should be noted though is that nobody should feel paranoid while driving. Since it could lead to an irrational fear of being on the road. But there are plenty of ways to help you predict others and it’s all because of peripheral vision.

Now distracted driving could be anything from texting to looking down to see what setting the A/C is on. Even something like sneezing could cause a jolt on the wheel or gas. With that being said you have no idea what’s going on behind the wheel of the car next to you. But that’s where your peripheral vision comes into play. Now your peripheral vision is mostly used to see movement, specifically from another vehicle. So maybe you might notice that someone is trying to merge into your lane while you’re still there, or maybe you just noticed that someone behind you is a little too close for comfort. This is also why you have side mirrors and a rear view mirror, to help your peripheral vision. Blindspots are a concern of course, however some modern cars have lights on their side mirrors that warn you of something in your blindspot. Even if your car doesn’t have that feature you can always just turn your head, just make sure you don’t start swerving while looking.

Another thing is the four second rule. Which says that you should stay around four seconds away from the person in front of you. This means that should they suddenly brake, you have around four seconds to act.

Sometimes there are incidents where you might not even be on the same side of the road as the other driver. For instance, maybe you’re on a city mainstreet and someone pulls out of a parking spot right in front of you. So try to make a note of brake lights that may be on, and especially reverse lights. One huge thing however is if someone coming from oncoming goes into your lane to pass someone. I remember specifically one time as I was driving home someone didn’t want to wait for the person in front of them to finish parking. So they started to pass them, and if I wasn’t paying attention there would have been a head on collision.

It’s all about just making sure you look farther ahead than just the car in front of you.

For some cars you might be able to see past it and you may notice that the person in front of them braked, so now you know you may need to brake too. Honestly anything could happen in front of them, but as long as you can see you can know what to do. This also ties in with the four second rule.

Even at stop signs and stop lights, people can be unpredictable. Many people will cause jams because they see the green light and think they are good to go, but they wind up getting stuck in the middle of the intersection. Others completely blow past signs and lights. At stoplights it’s always good to take one last look before going. Obviously it should be a quick glance so that you aren’t an obstruction of traffic, but just enough to know your good. At stop signs always make sure that you’re totally in the clear before moving forward. Some people want to try and get past before you pull out, so they speed up unexpectedly. Even if there are multiple stop signs and you get there first, some people will still try to go, or again just blow past. So just make sure you take one extra glance.

As important as warning people about texting and driving is, I believe it’s equally important to let them know about others. You can be the world’s safest driver, but things can always go wrong because someone else wasn’t paying attention. So as a good rule of thumb, keep your eyes peeled.