Hey Y'all,
I just got my learners permit, and I was hoping I could get some tips and advice from my friends at ETS. Anything would be appreciated.
BTW- Everyone said the Permit test (written) was hard, Whatever but I aced it after taking a few hours of drivers ED.

Thanks,
Adventureboy

P.S.Has anyone heard of "Fatal Vision Glasses" sometimes called "Beer Goggles"? looking through them makes your vision the same as if you had a Blood alcohol level of .15. I was totally unable to walk a streight line heel to toe. in fact I could barely stand up.
PPS. Here is their product link. Fatal Vision

A few things that I find important for new drivers:

When you pull up behind someone at an intersection or other position where you are stopped behind another vehicle. Leave enough distance so you can see their rear tires touch the ground. For most vehicles this allows you to maneuver around them should you need to.

When driving in traffic dont focus solely on the vehicles immediately around you. Focus well down the road so you have more reaction time to things coming up on you. Too many people simply watch the vehicle immediately in front of them and wonder why they run into the rear end of said vehicle when traffic suddenly slows because of some junk in the road or whatever.

Focus on driving, your brain can only handle so much stimuli. If it is raining and traffic is bad turn down the radio so your mind has less to process. This applies to anytime you are multitasking, limit what your mind has to process for safety.

Your vehicle is like an equation if you add or subtract too much acceleration with too much steering you will lose traction, simple as that. You should apply them in inverse ratios or less to each other i.e. 25% acceleration to 75% steering to make a turn or 75% acceleration and 25% steering to change lanes. If you try to do 100% steer to 100% acceleration you get a burnout/doughnut which is a loss of traction.

Keep your head on a swivel. You should constantly be scanning the area around your vehicle and maintaining a mental image of the space around you. Always check your blindspots and set your mirrors up for success so you minimize those blindspots.

Position your seat so that you can comfortably push the gas/brake pedal too the floor with the ball of your foot if not flat footed. Your seat and seat back should be where you can sit all the way back and extend one arm forward and have your wrist at the steering wheel. This allows for good control of the vehicle even in complex defensive maneuvers.

Wear your seatbelt.

Tips and advice, eh? (Evil grin, rubbing hands together)

* Slow down! If your vehicle is going faster than your brain, you're in big trouble.
* Signal your moves -- we can't read your mind!
* Slow down.
* Signal BEFORE you make your move, not during or after.
* Slow down.
* Pay attention to what is going on around you, not just the cute little bimbo with the cute butt and big boobs.
* Slow down.
* Turn off the cell phone and put it in the trunk.
* Slow down.
* Showing off for your friends is the ultimate stupidity... and sometimes the last.
* Slow down.
* Leave the radio/CD/TV off.
* Slow down.
* Don't make fast jackrabbit starts and then slam on the brakes ten feet from the stop sign/signal.
* Don't park on RR tracks and bait the locomotive approaching. The crews really hate searching for chunks of human flesh and the shoes with feet still in them.
* The speed limit and the laws of physics apply to you just like they apply to everyone else. Ignore those facts and you'll die.
* The leading cause of death in young men is testosterone poisoning, not responsible driving.
* Just because other people drive like they've got a spike in their brain doesn't mean you have to do the same.
* I don't know about Arizona, but here in Washington State, probably half the people who drive carry a loaded weapon in their vehicle. It isn't really hard for the police to determine if the bullets went through the stupid driver's brain before or after his car hit the pet pickup truck with the $10,000 paint job. It's usually labeled 'suicide' just because someone will yell at them if they put 'idiot' on the report.
* Like it or not, most people don't really care if you live or die. Even if your friends cry the first day, they probably won't remember what you looked like a month later. And that's probably twice as long as they'll visit you if get yourself paralyzed from the neck down.

Driving a car is a responsibility, not a right.

AND SLOW DOWN!

Sue

Assume every other driver around you are stupid and can't drive and prepare to react as such, because quite a few of them really can't. I've had quite a few near misses when the other driver decide it's a good idea to turn right from left turning lane, or stay in their own lane is boring.



Geez, a hundred and fifty bucks plus shipping just so you can experience what's it like to be drunk? How many cases of beer and hard booze could you buy and experience it for real?

By the way Beer Goggle usually means something entirely different.

Combine the "head on a swivel" tip with the "what if" mind game. You can play this game when you're not the driver, too.

What if car X suddenly changes his mind?
What if that man wants to cross the streets?

Combined with a healthy sense of paranoia, this mind game will increase your ability to read traffic and spot potential dangerous situations BEFORE they materialize.

The rest of the advices concerning YOUR behavior - slow down, use due signaling etc - comes naturally as a result when you've been playing this mind game for a while. The healthy dose of paranoia comes naturally, too..

That´s a really good advice! A friend of mine managed to hit a lantern pole while riding his bike and keeping his sight on a nicely shaped female behind. It took only 6 stitches to repair the damage. I admit that we did not act like good friends when we laughed at him for the mishap later.

Keep in mind that distance to the vehicle in front of you means time to react and safety. It might make the difference between a car crash and an easy stop. 1 second of driving at your current speed should be minimum. Less might work IF you had the reflexes of a fighter pilot. But why take a chance on that?
Situational awareness is important. So keep your mind on the driving and both hands on the wheel. Keep your actions predictable for other drivers. That might help you to stay unharmed.
Laws of physics are not legal stuff. They are applied without mercy and there is no appeal. Lack of experience does not earn you extra points.
Driving differs sharply from driving simulations. "Game over" means "Game over". There will be no "Start from last saved". The damage model is not pretty real it is real.
Too much speed is a cause for accidents. Too much speed does not always mean exceeding the speed limit. Low vision, low traction and children near the road might demand a substantial decrease in driving speed.
Always have the guts to be a coward. You will not win a medal for bravery in daily traffic.
Save driving and lots of fun with it.

I'd make that 3 seconds. Longer at high speeds, if the roads are slippery or if you drive a heavy vehicle. You can shave that figure down a notch if you're in a long column of slow moving vehicles ("bumper-to-bumper"), but be aware of the risks involved.

1 second would make a serious violation of our local traffic laws and the ticket if caught is quite stiff. Less than 1 seconds and you're borderline to serious legal trouble (you go to court, not just a ticket) and loss of driver's license. Your local laws may differ.


Remember that you shall be at a mental state of very high alert AND have the foot ready on the brake pedal to have reaction times less than 1 second. If you don't suspect anything in particular to happen, expect 1.5 seconds or more. At least 1.5 seconds is the realistic reaction time in your every day scenario, not the "I train myself to show how quick I can react in this test"-figure.

Then why don't you crash more often if you need this long to react? It is because traffic usually follows a predictable pattern: You put your foot on the brake when you expect you'll need to slow down. I am talking about the time you need to react when something unexpected happens.


It is not just a question of YOU being able to stop. There is also a vehicle behind you. If you have a gap of 3 seconds you can stop much more smoothly. This reduces the risk of being rear ended because the guy on the phone behind you does not have your superior awareness and reaction time.

The next time you're driving, count start counting thousand-and-one, thousand-and-two, thousand-and-three when the rear end of the car in front of you passes a sign post or other reference point. Stop counting when you reach that reference point. If you can't make it to two you probably won't be able to stop if that guy unexpectedly slams on his brakes - you'd hit him for sure. Make it to three and it gives you a much better margin for the unexpected.

Adjust your mirrors for good vision. Even so, you still have blind spots to your rear.

Expect the unexpected - the car changing lanes unexpectedly, the wrong way bicyclist, etc. Being a bit paranoid makes sense when driving.

Always buckle up.

IMO that advice covers a lot of bases. The way I explained it to my daughter is that when you are looking at the leading edge of your headlights you can easily see what's happening two car lengths in front of you. If you're looking two car lengths ahead you have little to no idea of what's happening 500 ft in front of you.

If you only observe problems a couple of car lengths in advance, the message from your eyes to your brain may as well be "You're going to be in a wreck". lol

Congrats! I remember like it was yesterday the thrill of getting my learner's permit and driver's license. I lived in a small town. Car equaled freedom. I've had many close calls, made many mistakes and am prone to backseat drive so here's input, in addition to what's already been offered, that I would give my nieces:

1) Equip to Survive. In other words: buckle up..... Each and every time, before you put the key in the ignition.

2) Equip your mind to survive. In other words: drive defensively. Anticipate..... Prepare by leaving room to stop or evade. Assume all of the other drivers on the road are distracted, because many of them are. Use your turn signals, always, because it's safer and polite. But don't assume other cars see your signal. Assume they don't.

3) Situational awareness: Check your mirrors, rear and both sides - often - especially before changing lanes. Don't assume that because you saw your light turn green, that the drivers going the other direction saw their light turn red. Double-check that the other cars are stopping before you go into the intersection. Know that it will take your car a lot longer to stop when the roads are wet (especially if they've been dry for a long while, giving slippery oil and grease time to accumulate on the pavement). Keep the stereo volume low enough that you can still hear a fire truck siren or honking.
Situational awareness = no phone calls, e-mails or texting.

4) Maintain your vehicle: Keep your windows -- especially your windshield -- clean. Keep the wiper fluid topped off. A dirty windshield can blind you when the sun hits it at the right angle. Have good windshield wipers -- worn wiper blades will impair your vision when it rains. Should probably get new ones a couple times a year. Proper tire inflation -- check often and look at your tires, all of them, every time you get into the car. Brake lights, turn signal lights, headlignts - check them often. Know your car.

3) One second. Know -- really know -- that one second, just one second, can change your life, forever. If you must take the phone call or text -- pull over to do so. No call or text is worth risking your life, or anyone else's.

Six months after my sister's 16th birthday she took her eyes off the road for a moment, just a moment, to reach behind the seat to keep a box from falling on her new hat. In that moment her hand on the steering wheel moved, ever so slightly, as she reached for the hat. Her car drifted, just a couple of feet. Just enough to catch her passenger-side wheels in a shallow gully and steer her car directly into a tree. She was going a mere 35 mph. That was Monday, April 4, 1983. A beautiful spring day. She was in route to a softball game where she was to be the starting varsity pitcher. She never played another game. Twenty-seven years later she's still dealing with the aftermath of a broken neck and brain injury (which requires anti-seizure medication for the rest of her life).

Just be careful. Kudos to you for soliciting the opinions of others and having the patience to read through them. If everyone were so thoughtful as you before getting into a car, we'd all be a lot safer on the road.

You are very wise for someone so young. Heck, you're wise for any age. You're going to do great.

:-)