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Safe Driving Tips For The Real World

Safe Driving Tips For The Real World

If you’re looking for safe driving tips, you’ve come to the right place! As a licensed CDL-A driving instructor, I’ve been through advanced defensive driving courses and have seen it all traveling across the United States in my 18-wheeler. And now, I pass my knowledge onto you! I hope you find these real-world driving tips to be helpful!

Feel free to browse the different articles below and you can also use the Google search tool to search the entire site.

5 Emergency Kit Essentials For Your Car

Safe Driving Tips For the Real World

Whether you’re commuting to and from work or taking a cross-country road trip, there are some essentials you should always keep with you in your vehicle. An emergency can strike anytime and anywhere, so be prepared! 

This article will go over the 5 emergency kit essentials for your car. While your emergency kit should certainly include more than 5 items, these are some of the “must-have” items you should have in your vehicle. 

Typically, people have more than enough storage space in their vehicles to keep emergency items. Yet, this space goes completely unused. Stop wasting space in your car and get these 5 essential items for your car’s emergency kit.

Learn About The 5 Emergency Kit Essentials For Your Car

7 Driving Safety Tips You Need To Know

Driving Safety Tips You Need To Know

Driving is not without its risks as any driver is well aware. However, these risks can be minimized with attention to safety. 

Whenever and wherever you drive, it’s important to keep these top safety tips in mind so you can contribute to safer roadways for you and other drivers. 

By practicing defensive driving and following these tips at all times, you can reduce the risk of collision and enhance your safety as well as the safety of your car’s occupants.

Read These 7 Driving Safety Tips You Need To Know

7 Stick Shift Driving Tips For Rookies

Stick Shift Driving Tips

Driving stick shift can seem daunting for people who have never developed a knack for it. With practice and some tips, any driver can learn to drive a stick shift. 

Knowing how to drive a stick is a great skill to have. You may find yourself confronted with a stick shift vehicle that you must operate. Moreover, many drivers prefer to purchase and drive stick shift vehicles as they feel more in control while driving. 

If you are a stick shift newbie, the following tips can help you become a confident stick shift driver.

Check Out These 7 Stick Shift Driving Tips For Rookies

11 Tips For Driving In Mountains

Driving In Mountains Tips

Back when I was a long-haul truck driver, I used to love driving through the mountains. I frequently drove through the Appalachian Mountains as well as the Rocky Mountains. 

However, driving through the mountains can be a very dangerous experience as well, even on major expressways. Donner Pass, for example, is still one of the deadliest stretches of roadway in the United States, even though the well-maintained Interstate 80 is how most people navigate through that area. 

Even Interstate 81 along the eastern United States can get dangerous through the mountainous areas. Once you get off the expressway or include inclement weather, the mountains can turn from beautiful to deadly in a real big hurry.

In this article, I will be going over the top 7 things you need to know before driving through the mountains.

Read these 11 Tips For Driving In Mountains

10 Things You Should Never Do While Driving

10 Things To Never Do While Driving

Driving can be a dangerous business. Every year, a shocking number of people lose their life or are severely injured while traveling in vehicles. 

Unfortunately, most people think of driving as a boring yet necessary task. Instead of paying attention to what they’re doing behind the wheel and what is going on around them, these drivers engage in several dangerous activities. 

How many of the following ten dangerous things do you do while driving?

To learn more, read these 10 Things You Should Never Do While Driving

30 Tips To Improve Fuel Efficiency

Improving Fuel Economy

We will probably never see gasoline prices under $2.00 per gallon again, and it is extremely rare to find them under $3.00 per gallon. With a vehicle being a necessity for many people, whether they use their car to commute to work or school, or to drive their children back and forth to school and extracurricular activities, gas prices are naturally a primary concern for many people. 

Vehicle manufacturers are coming out with more efficient cars every year, whether those cars are hybrid gasoline and electric vehicles, they run on biofuels or alternative fuels, or the fuel efficiency of standard gasoline-powered cars is being improved. It would be nice to own a new car straight off the showroom floor, but that is a luxury that quite a few people in America simply cannot afford.

Read All 30 Tips To Improve Fuel Efficiency

The 55 Most Horrendous Driving Tips of All Time

Horrendous Driving Tips

If you want politically correct driving tips, you’d be much better off checking out my top 5 defensive driving tips

The driving tips presented here are nothing anyone has learned in driver’s ed. Just posting this list might make some people angry with me. 

However, this list of the top 55 most horrendous driving tips of all time is a way of showing how our driving society collectively behaves on the road. Wouldn’t you agree?

Read this Hilarious List of the Top 55 Most Horrendous Driving Tips of All Time

Are Seat Belts Really Safer?

Are Seat Belts Safer?

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), seat belts have saved nearly 300,000 lives in the US since 1975. The lives saved are those of people involved in serious motor accidents – accidents that would have ended up with fatal consequences had they not been wearing seat belts. In fact, the NHTSA believes that the figure could have been much higher if more people had buckled up. 

Basically, some of the victims of fatal motor accidents could have been alive had they been wearing a seat belt when the accident occurred. 

The above NHTSA statistic seems to underscore the fundamental belief that seat belts make people safer. In fact, this belief is so commonplace that seat belt use is now enforced through punitive measures. In most US states, not wearing a seatbelt is an offense punishable with fines ranging from $15 to $250.

Find out if seat belts are REALLY safer. Click here.

Car Breakdown Basics: How To Start Your Vehicle

Car Won't Start

If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it will, and it always happens at the worst time. The annoying moment when your car won’t start. Whether you are on the side of the highway or in your garage at home, when you can’t get your car to start, it pretty much ruins your entire day. 

This article will explain some of the common reasons why your car won’t start and how to self-diagnose the car yourself. In some cases, the solution may be simple. The key is to be prepared before you have a problem starting your car, instead of being stuck without any game plan. 

By simply reading this article, you will be much better prepared for the dreaded day when your car just will not start.

Learn More About How To Start Your Broken Down Vehicle

Defensive Driving Tips

Defensive Driving

Here they are – the top 5 defensive driving tips. Where did these top 5 defensive driving tips come from? A CDL driving instructor and former long-haul truck driver with a perfect safety rating. 

After many years of advanced driver training, accident video analysis, safe driving research, and professional commercial driver instruction, it all boils down to these top 5 defensive driving tips. 

Armed with this information, you will be safer than most other drivers on the roadways and will also be able to enjoy driving more. 

While learning about safe driving may not be the most exciting way to spend your time, this information will highly increase your safety.

See The Top 5 Defensive Driving Tips

Distracted Driving Info

Distracted Driving

Distracted driving is a 21st-century problem. In a world where we have smartphones, laptops, GPS devices, seat warmers, fast-food drive-throughs, and TVs in our cars, the issue has never been worse than it is today. 

Many lives have been lost due to distracted driving and the numbers are likely worse than we will ever realize. After an accident, most people don’t admit they were driving distracted. 

Check out some of the more common forms of distracted driving and their deadly consequences. Armed with this information, you can spread the word and get people to realize that driving while distracted is just as dangerous as drunk driving.

Learn More About Distracted Driving

Driving Around Large Vehicles

Driving Around Trucks

Unfortunately, most drivers education classes don’t spend much time discussing how to drive around large vehicles like trucks and buses. 

For example, most people are completely unaware of where the blind spots are located in large vehicles. They also don’t realize that tire blowouts are common with semi-trucks and those slabs of rubber can easily smash a windshield. 

These are just a few of the basic things that are not taught to new drivers and probably were never taught to you. Do you know how long it takes a fully loaded truck to stop? Would you guess it takes an empty truck longer to stop than a fully loaded one? It’s true. 

Check out this article and learn all about safe driving around large vehicles.

Learn More About Driving Around Large Vehicles

Driving Tips For Bad Weather

Bad Weather Driving Tips

As if driving wasn’t dangerous enough already, sometimes we need to navigate nighttime conditions, rain, snow, fog, and ice. These conditions turn an already dangerous activity into an activity where your life could be in immediate danger in an instant due to out-of-control vehicles or zero visibility. 

Do you know what to do if you begin sliding on black ice? Are you using proper driving techniques for driving in snow? Do you know how to properly drive at night? What about in fog on the expressway when you can’t see right in front of your vehicle? 

These are all scary situations and most people probably wouldn’t handle them correctly. Learn how to drive in poor weather conditions here.

Learn More About Driving in Poor Weather Conditions

Hitting a Deer With Your Car & What To Do

Hitting A Deer

While you might not usually think about what to do if a deer suddenly runs in front of your car, taking the time to figure that out could one day save your life. Each year, well over one million car accidents involving deer occur in the United States. 

About 10,000 of those accidents injure drivers or passengers badly enough that they need immediate medical attention. And around 200 people are killed when their car hits a deer. 

Instead of just accepting these numbers as fact, there are things anyone can do to help protect them while riding in a car.

Hitting A Deer With Your Car & What To Do

How To Avoid Hitting an Animal While Driving

Avoiding Animals While Driving

For whatever reasons, incidents of vehicles hitting animals on roads in the United States are increasing. According to State Farm, in one year alone 1.2 million accident claims that involved a vehicle striking an animal were filed. The insurance company has also reported that during those five years, there has been almost a fifteen percent increase in animals and cars colliding. 

While you might feel sorry for an animal that has been hit by a car, humans are also put at risk by such collisions. For example, deer antlers can puncture windshields, leading to serious or even fatal injuries for the driver or passengers. 

Animal bones, spines, and teeth can seriously damage tires, causing the car to spin out of control and even potentially roll. 

At the very least, a car can be severely damaged by a collision with an animal, leaving the car owner to figure out how to remedy the situation.

Read more about How to Avoid Hitting an Animal While Driving

How To Parallel Park

Parallel Parking

Parallel parking is not as difficult as most people think it is. When you know how to properly parallel park, it makes life much easier, especially when traveling through a larger city where parallel parking is an almost mandatory skill. 

In this article, we provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to perfectly parallel park every time. 

If that wasn’t enough, we’ve even shared a video so you can see how it’s done. After just a little bit of practice, you will be able to confidently parallel park in even the tightest of parking spots. Impress your friends and maybe if you’re lucky, get a round of applause from bystanders!

Learn How To Properly Parallel Park

Hypermiling: The Ultimate Way to Save on Gas

Hypermiling

When you’re serious about saving gas, there is an extreme set of fuel-saving methods you can turn to which are called hypermiling. You can practice hypermiling techniques on any car, although some techniques need to be adjusted for the unique mechanical characteristics of a vehicle. 

For example, the techniques you would use to hypermile a Toyota Prius would differ in some ways when compared to the methods used to hypermile a Chevrolet Suburban. 

At first, you will need to experiment with the different techniques and see what works best for your particular vehicle. That effort will pay off later as you stop for fuel less often and save considerable money.

Learn More About Hypermiling

Parent and Teen Driving Advice

Teen Driver

While most teens are excited to drive, most parents are terrified about their teen driving! Learning to drive should be a fun and enjoyable experience for both parents and teens. Problem is, most parents don’t know where to start and most teens aren’t prepared to take instruction from mom and dad. 

The key to teaching a teen how to drive in a safe, effective, and enjoyable manner is proper communication. Armed with this knowledge, you should be able to stop any arguments before they even start.

This section of the website is designed with both parents and teens in mind. Articles for mom and dad as well as articles for teens. 

Read All Teenage Driving Tips

Preventing a Rollover Accident

Preventing Rollover Accidents

A moment of inattention can turn your comfortable family car into a steel-and-glass deathtrap. Nearly as fatal as a head-on collision, a rollover is not the type of accident from which people generally stroll away. Even if you survive, and happen to be among the tiny statistic with no injuries, the cost of repairs to your vehicle could be astronomical. 

Preventing a rollover isn’t something you should think about only when you’re in imminent danger. Once you pass the point of no return, there’s little you can do but experience the nightmare. Effective prevention starts before you start the engine.

Read More About Preventing A Rollover Accident

Properly Adjusting Car Mirrors

Car Mirror

Blind spots in cars are responsible for thousands of accidents every year. However, in most cars, blind spots can be eliminated using this one simple and easy-to-use trick. The vast majority of drivers have the mirrors in their vehicles set improperly, creating blind spots and unnecessary danger. 

But what if there was a certain way you could set the mirrors of your car where you can be certain that nobody is ever in a blind spot because you have no blind spots! This technique is free, you don’t have to build, buy, or modify anything, and the instructions are simple. 

Check out this article now and become a safer driver by properly setting your car mirrors to eliminate blind spots.

Learn More About How To Properly Set Your Car Mirrors

Running Out OF Gas: Why You Shouldn’t Risk It

Out Of Gas

Due to higher gas prices, many drivers are taking more risks with their cars as far as running the gas down to empty before refilling. But many don’t realize the strain that running out of gas could cause for a car and driver. 

You’re driving along, and your gas meter is beneath the ‘E’ line. “Well, the light hasn’t come on yet,” you say to yourself. “I probably have another ten miles to go.” Riding on ‘E’ is a game that too many of us play with our cars, and if we lose we can be creating even more problems for ourselves and our cars in the future. 

For one, if you run out of gas too much, it can create a mechanical strain on your car.

Find Out Why You Shouldn’t Risk Running Out Of Gas

Safe Teen Driving: What To Be Careful About

Even after teens receive their license, we cannot say that they will be entirely safe once they hit the road. Learning about the rules, in theory, is nothing compared to learning about them through real-life experience. With that said, several safety guidelines may help them as they continue the process of learning how to drive. This article lists down some of the important things that teens have to be careful about to ensure their safety on the road.

As you read on, don’t forget that no matter how ready you feel you are, no one can fully grasp the dangers of driving. Even adults are continuously learning. You can’t rely on gut feeling or pure intuition, because at the end of the day, only your driving skills and common sense matters in making the right decision in urgent situations. Remember to always be cautious because we’re not only talking about your safety here, you’re also responsible for the safety of those around you, passengers and pedestrians, properties, and other vehicles on the road.

Check out the complete safe teen driving tips here.

Snow Driving: Safe Driving Tips For Snow Covered Roads

Snow driving

Driving conditions during the winter season can always be dangerous, especially when you’re driving in snow. New drivers can even find it a frightening experience. At most times, news stations remind residents to stay indoors whenever a snowstorm is approaching. This means drivers are also advised to stay off the roads until the storm has passed. 

However, not everyone has the luxury of just staying home, even despite extreme weather conditions. Some people will need to drive in that white slippery stuff. For that reason, we came up with this article that can at least help lessen the danger you face when driving in snow.

Read the complete Safe Driving Tips For Snow Covered Roads

Understanding School Bus Laws

School Bus Laws

There seems to be a lot of confusion about school bus laws. While most people understand they must stop on 2-lane roadways when a school bus is flashing red lights, what about 4-lane roads? What about divided highways? Many people have no clue what the law is regarding school buses on larger highways. 

This article breaks down all the rules for you. Believe it or not, there are situations when you are legally allowed to pass a stopped school bus that has flashing red lights activated. 

Check out this article and never get confused about when it’s ok or not ok to pass a school bus again.

Learn More About School Bus Laws

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