Skills

I've been driving with eDriving's Mentor app for about a year now and know that it has made improvements in my skills. I haven't cracked the top 10% barrier yet, but I'm still trying! The secret to having a high score appears to be trying to anticipate and plan for what is happening around you as you drive.

My friend Paul often shares his insights as comments here as CompetentDrivingBC. I like his explanation of whether to signal or not and decided to share it with you. It's great advice that we should all practice all the time.

The RCMP's advanced driver training course was without a doubt the most fun of any course many of the participants had taken in their service. What the majority of the course taught us was to be aware of the location of all four corners of our vehicles in relation to everything around us on the track.

Twice in the last few days I have found oncoming drivers encroaching on my lane. My thought is that they were either unable or too lazy to bother with staying completely between the lines. In this and other common driving situations, almost is NOT good enough!

Rick August of Smart Drive Test introduces us to the roundabout or traffic circle.

This timely safety tip from TranBC explains what black ice is, how to recognize it and how to recover if you find yourself in trouble. I'm not sure why they single out highways in northern BC for mention as I've also seen black ice conditions frequently on Vancouver Island.

I've been watching a series of comments on an article I wrote titled Yielding on Left Turns. The discussion has involved a driving instructor, a former driving examiner, a professional commercial vehicle driver and myself.

This video is part of a series from the Motorcycle Council of New South Wales, Australia. It compares and contrasts front and rear wheel only braking and teaches that effective braking is a combination of both.

Welcome to fall! It's the time of year that I have trouble driving to work in the morning. The sun is low in the sky to the east at the time of my commute and there is one spot on the highway where it shines directly into my eyes making it very difficult to see. Worse still, this location has an intersection with a traffic light that can be completely obscured by the glare.

Although this instruction takes place in a right hand drive vehicle, the principles are exactly the same for left hand drive. Three methods or steering are shown: push-pull steering for general driving, hand over hand for slow speed maneuvering and fixed input for small changes in direction.