Male Speaker: What was that?
Male Speaker 2: A few books I had in the back seat. They shouldn't even been up here. They should have been in a trunk.
Female Speaker: It looks a little rough out there. His initial problems with breaking remind me of one of the most important factors of driving, vehicle balance. Vehicle balance refers to the vehicle's weight distribution on the tires. Dramatic shifts and vehicle balance may cause items inside of your car to fly all over the place. These flying objects could easily distract you and interfere with your driving mechanics, that's why you should always keep loose items in your trunk.
New drivers typically have difficulty maintaining proper vehicle balance, which results in a large number of accidents. Accelerating, breaking, cornering or any combination of these actions causes a shift in vehicle balance. Watch what happens as I accelerate? Accelerating or releasing pressure from the break causes vehicle balance to shift towards the rear of the vehicle. When breaking or releasing pressure from the accelerator; the weight of your vehicle will transfer to the front. Vehicle balance also shifts from side to side. If you are steering around a turn to the right, you may feel a shift in balance to your left. When steering around a turn to the left, you may feel shift in balance to your right.
You may have already known that your vehicle and body shifts a certain weight whenever your car breaks, accelerates or takes a curve. But what you really need to know is why vehicle balance is so important. Passengers inside your car could get jerked around enough that their heads hit a window or other hard surface in your car. Dramatic shifts and vehicle balance can ultimately lead to loss of control of your vehicle, potentially resulting in serious injury or death.
Male Speaker 2: See, this is not as easy as you might have thought. You need to smooth things out in order to maintain proper vehicle balance.
Male Speaker: And how do I do that?
Male Speaker 2: Well it all starts with proper seating behind the wheel and I think we have got that pretty much covered. You have got your seatbelt on, your shoulders are square with the steering wheel and the top of the steering wheel is aligned with your shoulders and you have allowed at least 10 inches between your body and the steering wheel.
Male Speaker: To reduce the risk of injury if the airbag deploys, right?
Male Speaker 2: That's right. Now, if you know where your hands should be on the steering wheel?
Male Speaker: At about 10 and 2 or 9 and 3.
Male Speaker 2: Exactly, this improves your steering stability. Proper seating is so important Adam because it allows you to comfortably see the road ahead of you and detect shifts and vehicle balance or body movements.
Male Speaker: Alright, I think I am ready for another try.
Male Speaker 2: Now hold on Adam, I noticed the problem with your footing while we were driving around in the parking lot and I think this is the most obvious reason for your shaky start.
Male Speaker: What? It's not like I'm driving with both feet or anything.
Male Speaker 2: No, but you were completely lifting your foot when moving that from the break to the accelerator or vice-versa. Now go ahead and put your foot on the break. Now, instead of lifting it, keep the lower half of your foot in place, while your pivot back and forth between the break and the accelerator using only the upper half of your foot to press the paddles. With this pivoting method you can make fine adjustments in paddle pressure illuminating some of your jerkiness.
Male Speaker: It feels like a pretty smooth transition.
Male Speaker 2: Exactly. Okay, now cover the break and go ahead and put the car and drive. We are going to work on your acceleration. The key here is light acceleration. Now do the pivot and move your foot from the break to the accelerator pressing up lightly to gradually increase your speed. Now do you see how that works? It minimizes the shift and weight, keeping the vehicle more balanced than it would be if you quickly push the paddle to the floor.
Male Speaker: Okay, so what about breaking? I still can't get the hang of that.
Male Speaker 2: Well it works just like acceleration, but you have to make sure that you use a controlled steady approach. Now let's come to a slow stop. Push the break slowly and steadily. Oh that was a lot better than before. Grant it, deliberate hard breaking is necessary at that times, but you got to remember that the harder you push the break the more difficult it is for you to steer your vehicle and then more likely you are going to loose traction between your front and rear tires. Now let's go ahead and try that turn up ahead on the right.
The key here is to complete your breaking before the turn because breaking shifts the balance of your vehicle; it is much safer to break while your wheels are still straight. As you begin turning the wheel, you should no longer be breaking. You'll have much more traction during the turn and you can smoothly accelerate through the turn. As we continue to work whatever the things have we practiced already, you need to also identify targets in your path of travel.
Female speaker: Targets, path of travel; this is just new vocabulary for one of the most important concepts in driving, scanning. A target is a fixed object that appears 20 to 30 seconds ahead in your path of travel. Safe driving requires that you continuously search to the left and right of this target. This is called your target area. Take a look at an example.
If you were the driver of this vehicle you could decide to use an exit sign ahead as your target, since it's in your intended path of travel. With the exit sign as your target, you would visually search the areas to the left and right of the sign. Again this is your target area. When doing this, you are trying to identify any changes that might affect your path of travel, such as other vehicles entering or leaving your lane.
The key is to constantly pick a new target 20 to 30 seconds ahead of you. Essentially every second you drive, you are picking out a new target about the same distance away. Searching the target area ahead of you, allows you to make safer decisions while approaching your target. If you witness potential hazards such as construction zones or pulled over vehicles, you'll be able to slow down and take proper precaution in plenty of time.
Basically you can't steer at the road ahead; you should constantly be shifting your focus and scanning the area between your car and where you are heading. With practice this will become second nature. Before you leave your parking lot practice course; you should also be aware of the five lane positions, you may use when driving. Learning each lane position is necessary in order to understand explanations of other driving maneuvers later in the program.
Lane position one will be used the most often. Your vehicle is in the center of the lane about 3 feet from the left and right lines. Lane position two is used when there is something blocking your path of travel in the right side of your lane. Your vehicle is 0 to 6 inches away from the left line. Lane position 3 is used when there is something blocking your path of travel in the left side of your lane. Your vehicle is 0 to 6 inches away from the right line. Lane position 4 is used when passing or changing lanes to the left. Your vehicle will temporarily straddle the left lane line. Lane position 5 is used when passing or changing lanes to the right. Your vehicle will temporarily straddle the right lane line. Remember lane position 1 is the most common and typically the safest position under normal circumstances.
Male Speaker 2: Good you remember to set the parking break. Now I know we're in an empty parking lot but when you are on the street or in a busy parking lot, you have to make sure that you check the traffic before getting out of the car.
Male Speaker: I know Dad.
Male Speaker 2: Well it could have been a lot worse. I should have given Adam better instructions on breaking and accelerating before I even let him put the car drive, but he learned from his mistakes.
Male Speaker: I didn't think I'd be so nervous. Everyone makes it look so easy.
Male Speaker 2: I think you now know is that driving isn't as simple as he expected it to be and I think we will keep on practicing in the parking lot for a few days before we actually hit the road.
Male Speaker: I would love to actually drive somewhere, but I had understand if we practiced a bit more, I'd much rather just screw up in an empty parking lot than on the street.
Male Speaker 2: Sure I was nervous but you can't let your kid know that. It will just make them more nervous.
Male Speaker: Dad was alright, his tips obviously helped me and he wasn't that annoying.
Female Speaker: It looks like my dad and Adam had a good lesson. Remember it's a great idea to practice in an empty parking lot until both the parent and the student are completely comfortable with entering the roadway. There is no reason to hurry into something you are prepared for. Just take your time and enjoy the experience.
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