Low-Risk Driving  a skill for LIFE 

- - - - - - - - - - Road Safety by Dieter Fischer - - - - - - - - - - ISBN No. 0 09577 426 06   

   Your  SAFETY  is  Driving

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A.8  LANE CHANGING with attitude

Negotiating your car through heavy traffic on a multiple-laned road can be a daunting task for the inexperienced driver. Fear of having to merge, change lanes or turn in busy city traffic keeps even older drivers restricted to the quiet suburbs.  

           Here are 5 steps to safely change lanes:

 

1. Check mirrors.	Look carefully and ask yourself: Who is where? Doing what? How fast?
2. Indicate.	If there is a natural gap, indicate just prior to the gap. (In real heavy traffic indicate anyway - see below)
3. Maintain or adjust speed.	If at all possible keep up with the flow of traffic. If there is a gap ahead of you, increase speed to accelerate into the gap (unless you have to brake the speed limit). If clear behind you, slowing down may be in order to let traffic beside you pass quicker.
4. Check your  Blindspot  (Shoulder check).	Every motor-cyclist has a story to tell, about a car or truck driver not spotting them in their blindspot, causing a near collision. Worse still, many have lost their lives by rushing motorists, who did not bother to turn their head before changing lanes.
5. Move.	Don’t turn the wheel very much or rapidly. Just a slight adjustment will achieve a smooth lane change.
If there is no natural gap in the flow of traffic and you want to change lanes, indicate regardless. Your attitude is: ‘Please someone make a gap for me’. Most drivers, with the right attitude, are happy to accommodate you.   Watch for their signal, such as flashing headlights, a wave or they simply are holding back to create a gap for you! To indicate (asking for a gap), but then not noticing that a friendly motorist is making space to let you in, causes frustration for everyone. A motorist with the wrong attitude says: ‘Nobody is letting me over, but there is a tiny gap, I’ll squeeze in there’. With one flick of the blinker, or no indication at all, they force their way into this gap, leaving no safety margin. If one vehicle brakes unexpectedly, a chain collision may be the result.  Don't forget to cancel the indicator after a lane change. (Late model vehicles have an inbuilt return spring. Simply hold the indicator down as long as required. Let go and the spring will return it to the 'off position'.
Interacting with other traffic requires correctly adjusted mirrors. This side mirror needs >>> adjusting - moving out - to show the space beside the vehicle, not the back door.