[agastya]

I learnt driving in the hills of Himachal Pradesh. One of lessons my instructor gave was to never slow down while being overtaken. He used to say that it was up to the other car to make the overtake, not up to you to help them do so.

Now, over 8 years later, I've realized that it's always better to slow down a bit (not heavy braking, but lift and coast) while being overtaken. The overtake is completed faster, making the road a safer place. In the hills, the difference between a successful overtake and an accident is often less than a couple of seconds. Slowing down a tad can give those crucial extra few seconds.

[Akash86M]

15+ yrs of driving has made me realise:

1. Going fast doesn't help, you reach your destination at approximately same time. I have become the sedate driver I used to curse in my 20's for going slow
2. Keep distance from autowalas, tempo, 2 wheelers.
3. Going slow helps in situation awareness. You never know when someone myt jump in front of your vehicle out of no where.

My dad gave me an advice in my early 20's - while driving just think of others as blind and drive accordingly. Now I know what he meant.

The point is to enjoy the drive, even if you are in city. Going fast gives adrenaline rush but going slow gives peace of mind.

[airguitar]

1) One of the things I really learnt late was to effectively use 'engine braking'. Through most of my early years of driving I was a 'wham-bam' type of person : drive really hard and then brake hard if something needed me to - rather than gradually journeying. A trip with a fellow-bhpian and he pointed out some of these things, given he is a way more experienced and mature auto-enthusiast. That lesson has become even more important with my latest acquisition - the all new thar ( MT ), which doesn't quite brake like a monocoque or even like more lighter vehicles.

2) The other thing is to shift gears correctly - my driving style before often meant that I shifted too early ( as I hated the sound of over-revving ) causing the engine to lug routinely. The opposite - over-revving - isn't a good behaviour either. I now shift up or down more discreetly.

3) Going down the hills in the right gear - I have been a good driver on the hills - whether going up or down - with good control, judgment and anticipation being the hallmark. However, for most of my early years, when going down the hill, I never used the right gear - I always had a higher gear to avoid over revving and frequently braked at turns or bends. I'm much better now knowing what gear to drive down in without having to brake much. Having said all that, I still find sometimes that engine braking alone isn't sufficient and still end up using braking - trying to improve all the time.

4) Understanding the vehicle technically a bit more: I still remember that I called RSA for a blown fuse once in Nedumangad - it sounds embarrassing now - but it was the lesson I had to learn and then generally I have taken care to understand the vehicle technically better - but I still have a huge gap there and continuing to learn. This is also an area where driving instructors have to improve - there should be a theory session on how things work. Most low-end driving schools say "you have to use the clutch to shift gears" - it makes so much more easy to understand if they actually say how the clutch decouples transmission.

5) Using the clutch correctly - one of the lessons my driving instructor gave me was using the half clutch - while it feels great to have that in your back pocket especially uphill or in bumper to bumper traffic - it's such a bad practice. I took years for me to be comfortable to keep my left foot completely off the clutch ( I always had my left foot on the clutch whether I was pressing the clutch or not ). I also drove bare feet for the first two years because of bad guidance from the instructor. It took me 2-3 years to let go of the bad habit. Today on my thar, I keep track of my driving habits ( idling, braking, clutch usage ) even more rigorously using the ecosense dashboard and continually keep a focus on reducing the usage of these.

6) Negotiating correctly on "half roads" as we call in Karnataka. A good example was the hill roads of Karnataka in 2010 - the edges used to be run down by water flowing so there was always a 2-2.5 feet drop at the shoulder from the tarmac. The roads were also narrow and it was common to be run down by a bully coming down from the opposite side. I have realized that it's easy to run down the vehicle coming from the opposite side just as easy it is for yourself to get off the road and make way. It's important to negotiate better, command better respect by way of driving body-language. Now, I choose to let the smaller vehicles have the tarmac while I get down (only when I'm sure of my safety); but at the same time I get the larger vehicles to make way for me. However, we don't have a lot of those roads now in Karnataka and I have the thar too and so it isn't something that I'm worried about presently.

7) I feel that people that have seen and used cars in their families since they are young turn out to be much better drivers and feel at ease with the details of a car. At 25, I didn't know how to wear a seat belt and was the first owner of a car in my family at 26 and really struggled in the first year of my ownership with no guidance from anyone and the Bangalore traffic testing me quite a bit. I only did 3000 kms in my first two years. In many ways, I was only as good as my mistakes as I had nobody to observe and tell me how to drive better. My younger sister turned out to be a faster learner having seen me learn and drive. The general advice I have here is : drive with more experienced people as your co-passenger and ask for feedback/opinion - they will tell you many things that you never realized about your own driving. Lastly, it's important to learn driving early in life - perhaps before you turn 20 - the later you start the more time you need to be good at driving.

[DRPrevs]

I did not visit a driving school, got to learn to drive with my Dad as an instructor and it was quite tough, he is a taskmaster. Learned quite a few tips from him which were logical and have helped me in my 40 years of driving.

• Give way to the vehicle coming from the right- as the person is farther away his line of sight is obscured
• Always keep to your half of the road unless there is an obstruction & you are forced to go to the other side.
• When you encounter moving cattle on the road, keep to your side of the road, and do not horn to startle it. Pass the animal by its tail and never from near the front. Bovines rarely change direction and keep moving in their intended direction. Chickens are unpredictable.
• On the highway, anticipation is key. As you spot a parked bus/truck on the opposite side, keep scanning the bottom of the vehicle as you approach looking for any passengers who might get off and come from behind the bus to start crossing the road. They will not be in your vision as they are hidden by the length and height of the vehicle and will suddenly appear from behind it right in the middle of the road.
• Overtaking- needs to be planned and executed well. Evaluate the speed of the vehicle ahead, for me if he is doing a steady 80 – 90 kmph [which I like to maintain] there is no point in taking him. I would rather use him as my pilot to help clear the route ahead. However, to overtake see if the road up ahead is clear, do the overtake smartly and quickly. There should be no hesitation, hovering and riding abreast of him thereby delaying the process.
• Always look on the road ahead, from the left-right of the vehicle upfront and also through his windscreens to gauge the traffic ahead. Make adjustments to your speed by seeing the brake lights on the vehicle ahead. Especially on the highways, I have spotted a few drivers who were doing steadily 80-90 and used them as a ‘pilot’ for close to 150 + km on twilight driving into the city with less workload on me.
• Reversing - Whenever a person is reversing, making a U-turn for some reason, the engine has stalled at the signal, better to give them time rather than honk and pressurize them to make a mistake. We see many cars and especially 2-wheelers that want to make the pass and not allow the person to finish his turn/restart the vehicle. This leads to more delay.

Thanks to all, I got to learn a few things.

[amitoj]

Ok this one is a bit controversial and a large population would hate you for doing this, but this is the right thing to do. When your lane has to merge into the next lane, you DO NOT have to merge at the very first sign, more so if the traffic is moving slowly in the target lane. You can and you should delay merging till almost the end. Why? Because otherwise you are just wasting space that is perfectly capable of carrying traffic! They call it Zipper Merge but it might as well be Late Merge.

Beauty of Zipper Merge

Meme for emphasis

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Akash86M

15+ yrs of driving has made me realise:

1. Going fast doesn't help, you reach your destination at approximately same time. I have become the sedate driver I used to curse in my 20's for going slow

This is absolutely true. Heavy acceleration and hard braking makes for inefficient driving and high fuel consumption. On Indian roads with the lack of lane discipline and all, one can only average 50-60kmph generally. So there is no point stomping the accelerator in a bid to get to ones destination faster. Its just not going to happen!

One thing my Dad said to me long years ago has stayed in my head. ‘Youre driving a car supported by Air and Rubber. Thats all there really is between you and the road. Remember this and drive with care.’

[hanzt]

Originally Posted by StepUP!

3. How to defog the windshield while driving through rains
7. What pass light switch means and how to use it
8. When to use high beam on the two way road

Can u plz elaborate more on these 3 points?

[hanzt]

I used to use engine braking very well on my manual Swift. But now that I have a TC automatic (urban cruiser), although the regenerative engine braking helps to an extent, but it's not the same and i find myself using the brakes more often than earlier.
In the manual Swift - the car would continuously decelerate once the foot is off the A, but in the automatic, the car downshifts a gear or two, n then keeps cruising at that speed, forcing me to use the brakes.

Any suggestions or expertise on how do I better use engine braking in a TC automatic?

[the.dogfather]

1. Be extra cautious around school vehicles:
During my initial days in Pune, an autorickshaw carrying school children was riding on the right most lane (marked as bus lane) and I was on the right lane on the main road. Suddenly I saw something fall from the rickshaw and roll down to the road. I avoided it and went ahead, but suddenly the ricksaw stopped and a girl jumped in front of my bike. I had no time to stop and collided with her, causing a fracture to the poor kid.
The girl had jumped off to pick up her tiffin that had fallen from the rickshaw. After that I am very careful around vehicles ferrying children.

2. Check fuel efficiency during trips:
In one of my trips, I could see a thin black layer on the back of my car. I had assumed that its dirt from the road in the beginning. When the fuel went low, I refuelled without realizing that my car was leaking fuel, until the fuel tank emptied again. Ever since have been maintaining a fuel log to check for difference in fuel efficiency. It helps finding other issues also. Luckily it was a diesel car and a fuel leak was not an immediate fire risk.

3. Engine braking:
Initially I had been taught to press the clutch while braking. Later I realised that the braking is better if you do not press the clutch in the beginning as leaving the gas pedals without engaging the clutch, also helps in slowing down the car. When I got the Duke 390, I realised the power of engine braking even in city traffic.
I had been brakes while driving downhill earlier, till I read about incidents about vehicles losing braking power due to overheating of brakes. Since then I have been using engine braking only while going downhill. Paddle shifters in my automatic is used only during downhill drives.

4. Using cruise control for quicker braking:
When I got my car with cruise control, I still was not comfortable not doing anything with the foot. I started keeping the foot on the brake , to be ready to brake in case of emergencies, so that my response time to braking is quicker.

5. Let cars in a hurry overtake:
When I was younger, I used to be irritated when someone pulled a close overtake. These days, I just let them pass, as it helps keep calm during long drives, instead of getting your stress level higher.

6. Driving in the day time:
I used to drive overnight when I was younger. However, after the night drive, I would be too tired and would come home and go to sleep till late evening, there by wasting the whole day. Now days I start early, around 4-5AM and drive during the day and reaching before sunset. I am much more relaxed after it and also have better options to stop for breaks.

[nomad47]

I have been driving from 2016, taught by a colleague. One thing I practice is what I call polite honk, especially to larger vehicles. When I start overtaking, I press the horn once briefly to alert the driver ahead, I am overtaking.

[am1m]

Took me a long time to understand the phrase - "Operating the vehicle is one thing, driving is something else."

Like most guys, I mistook being a competent operator of the vehicle for being a good driver. I also thought speeding up meant I was a good bike rider or driver. After more than a decade and a half of driving/riding, I realized driving includes being safe, not stressing the vehicle (and the brake pads!), and doesn't end after you stop- you also park considerately, don't block traffic, anticipate and don't honk, etc. Ironic that the 'professional drivers' (cabs and autos) are usually the least competent drivers- just competent operators. Let's not be like that.

Once you think about driving vs. just operating the vehicle, you automatically start thinking about a lot of things and get better.