man stepping off cliff - no thinking required

“The things you teach me and talk about make sense when I drive with you, but as I move out into the public and with the flow of traffic, I slowly get trained into following the norm, the social pressure to move quickly and to follow the pack!” CLIENT

“Yes, I see this new behaviour after a trained client goes away and practices for a week or two.” COOPER

Many return with the following new habits:

  • Tailgating within a split second of the back end of the car ahead of them
  • Speeding and rushing overall
  • Bombing past hazards or congestion to the sides of our pathway

Just look at the traffic next time you are close and count the distance the vast majority of cars follow each other. It’s about 3/4 of a second to 1 second.

Yet research shows in a crash, you need a minimum of 2 seconds to react and respond.

Two Seconds

Note that these two seconds are the recommended MINIMUM!

Why is this?

For a long time, I have thought about this issue. Most of us follow others and prefer to fit into a regular pattern with others as a group or a pack. This rhythm seems to be comfortable. Additionally, our superpower brains can overtake logic and make habits and decisions for us based on efficiency, not safety!

Two seconds is often not enough to avoid the trouble ahead of you! But following the pack and your habit may well ignore this because everyone’s doing it!

At least it’s nice to know that you got company when trouble comes due to this Pack Blindness.

Tags

Comments are closed

Cooper Talks Driving...

COPYRIGHT PROTECTED

All materials are copyright protected and cannot be reproduced without the expressed written consent of iHaveEvolved.com Inc.

STATEMENT OF LIMITATION

Materials presented here are for education purposes only referencing two ICBC materials,Tuning Up Drivers Manual, Learn To Drive Right Manual, training material from the 3 week Driving Instructors Licensing Program and amterials from the GLP classroom certificate Program.

IHaveEvolved.com and Todd Cooper are not responsible for any consequences that may result from use of this material. Throughout these posts references are made to acts and regulations that govern driving in British Columbia.

In the event of a difference between the material here and any of these acts or regulations, the acts and regulations shall apply. For specifc help related to these acts please refer to a professional lawyer or a police office.