1. Keep your distance – 3 sec rule to follow
2. Don’t speed into turns – brake before the turn, accellerate out of the apex. Use the brake lights of the cars ahead of you as your “eyes ahead around the turn”.
3. Don’t get distracted – actively and consciously drive and concentrate on driving, when you’re driving. No talking on the phone (pull over), no texting, no deep conversations with passengers, no eating, no drinking, no computers/DVD in driver visibility, no Nav system operation, ideally – no radio (I know – music affects your mood and can work you up – try Techno on the Autobahn).
4. Know all the cars around you, especially in the rear. You need to track usually at least 5 cars at all times
5. Anticipate what other drivers will do next – that includes all other targets around you
6. avoid clusters of cars. If caught drive 5mph below speed limit to let cluster slowly pass around you to re-create your distance
7. In dangerous looking situations – cover your brake pedal either with your right foot, or if you’re trained, with your left foot to be ready for emergency breaking. But don’t ride the brakes!
8. Know your “outs”. Where can you stick your car if someone is trying to hit you head on? At that moment anything but the head on collision is the better choice – the guardrail is a great place to put your car! Even a tree is better than head on on driver side!
9. Many times you can avoid a collision altogether by knowing how many cars can pass each other on a given road. In our neighborhood on the single lane road with bike lane that number is five! Five cars can pass each other without touching, despite markings for only two – know that!
10. Your brakes are stronger than your engine in every car. Know how much pressure you need to apply to engage the anti-lock brakes. Train in a safe environment (empty parking lot).
11. Avoid eye contact with agitated drivers. Get away from aggressive drivers – let them pass/let them go. (Drive 5 mph below speed-limit, don’t try to speed away from an aggressive driver). If that doesn’t work, take a detour, plan a turn off the road and aggressively brake at the last moment for the turn without a car behind you and without endangering anybody. The aggressive driver will be surprised and shoot by you in the parallel lane before he knows what’s happening. If you’re followed, call 911, but keep moving, never stop. Drive within the traffic rules as much as possible.
12. Traffic jams: when passing a traffic jam in a faster lane: turn on your head lights, follow the car in front of you at a safe distance, off-set by a half foot towards the side of the traffic jam. Ensure that the gap behind you is ideally larger than the one in front of you. That ensures, that cars sitting in the jammed up lane will try to merge behind you, not in front of you.
13. Always check cross traffic when entering an intersection, even with a green light and especially during the first 5 seconds of a green light! Look for bicycles, motorcycles, emergency vehicles….
14. Beware of red trucks
15. Don’t mess with an 18 wheeler, you’re going to loose. Don’t drive next to them. Wait behind them until you can pass them safely.
16. Don’t merge in front of 18 wheelers unless you have 300ft. Same goes for cars/trucks with trailers – their brakes are much weaker, and if you have to emergency brake in front of them, they *will* hit you.
17. If you do something stupid – we all do at some point- slow down, be upset with yourself, pledge to never do this again and correct your behavior. Worst case pull over and take a breather and think about how you got yourself almost into trouble. You probably violated one of the rules above… My driving instructor once told me: “The difference between an experienced and inexperienced driver is that for an experienced drivers there’s a bell that goes off when you’re doing something stupid. For an inexperienced driver, there’s no bell.” Learn from your mistakes.
18. Keep your windows and mirrors and eye glasses clean
19. Always turn your head before changing lanes or turning
20. Be extra careful when backing up. Turn your head, don’t rely on distance sensors or cameras only.

You might be surprised to find that “Don’t Speed” is *not* on my list of safe driving tips. That’s by design. I’m convinced that when you follow above rules you can safely maneuver traffic while exceeding the posted speed limit by a reasonable margin – but don’t be reckless and be respectful to others! Go fast where you can and slow down if you would impact the driving of others.

20 years of accident free driving support that point. But make no mistake: driving faster than the speed limit is statistically more dangerous – period. The choice is yours and there’s nothing wrong with sticking to the posted speed limit. In fact it’s the only legal way of driving as you know :-). But speed limits change with time and location. It used to be 55mph on Interstates, now it’s 85mph in Texas. In Germany there are stretches of Autobahn where there is no speed limit. So perspective on how safe it is to drive fast, and how acceptable the risks are for doing so change over time and in different countries.

Happy driving!

P.S.: if you do nothing but folow guideline 1. + 2. you’ve eliminated 80% of all danger.

After a day of thinking I’ve found two more interesting guidelines:

21. Always signal your intentions to allow other drivers to “read you”

22. When under time pressure “slow down, to speed up”. Think about it. You’re not gaining much time by speeding i.e. 20% on  a 10 miles drive. But you could hit the next three lane traffic light at green while the speeding cars had to come to a full stop. You might zoom by them with momentum in the free lane, just when the light turns green. Slow down to speed up is a psychological way of arriving safely and not giving up much time in the process. All you’re giving up is fun and pressure. But you’re decision making skills aren’t so hot under time pressure to begin with. So overall, you’re coming out ahead following this “Zen driving” approach. Much safer.