70 Rules of Defensive Driving

**mbeige** · May 2nd, 2007 05:52 AM

Again, it would be great to provide proper credit where it's due:

http://www.roadtripamerica.com/Defen...-Uncle-Bob.htm

**spongee** · May 2nd, 2007 06:09 AM

is there a certain percentage of us being defensive over being offensive...ang hirap din kasi dito sa pinas...lalo na sa malalaking highway...yung may mga kasabay kang parang nabili na nila yung kalye...

of course you can never go wrong once you observe all these rules...ang magiging siste lang talaga...maiiwanan ka sa kalye...

well i'm talking about motorist's attitude dito sa pinas...sa totoo lang para kang nasa pinball machine pag nasa edsa ka...

btw..saw the site mbeige posted...kailangan talagang himayhimayin at i-absorb nang maigi..

will start now....thanks thread...

**mbeige** · May 2nd, 2007 06:15 AM

I think these are more like guidelines than rules. If you break it, nobody will really penalize you.

**cablespy** · May 2nd, 2007 07:40 AM

mukhang matatagalan 'to. #2 palang...

**spongee** · May 2nd, 2007 07:45 AM

dun sa mga nagmamadali...chk the site MBEIGE posted..it's all there..

**j_avonni** · May 2nd, 2007 08:38 AM

[SIZE="5"]Rule 3: Yield Anyway![/SIZE]

Yield Anyway!

"Nobody ever yielded their way into a collision." Think about it. If you are in doubt about who has the right of way, give it away. The other guy may be wrong, but you can end up hurt or dead. We often say no one HAS the right-of-way until it is yielded to them. (Keep in mind I'm talking defensive driving practices, not traffic law.) Right of way rules are often misunderstood, and there are situations where the rules may not be clear to everyone. If there is uncertainty about which vehicle should have the right of way, give the other guy the road. When it comes to driving safely, it's not the principle, but the outcome, that counts.

**spongee** · May 2nd, 2007 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by j_avonni

[SIZE=5]Rule 3: Yield Anyway![/SIZE]

Yield Anyway!

"Nobody ever yielded their way into a collision." Think about it. If you are in doubt about who has the right of way, give it away. The other guy may be wrong, but you can end up hurt or dead. We often say no one HAS the right-of-way until it is yielded to them. (Keep in mind I'm talking defensive driving practices, not traffic law.) Right of way rules are often misunderstood, and there are situations where the rules may not be clear to everyone. If there is uncertainty about which vehicle should have the right of way, give the other guy the road. When it comes to driving safely, it's not the principle, but the outcome, that counts.

this RIGHT-OF-WAY thing....i'm not really sure how u apply this..one thing i remember when i was getting my non-pro the 1st time (1988)..the reviewer says something like "whoever is on your right side..has the right of way" so in an intersection without a stoplight...if ur going straight and the car at ur right is turning left...ur the one to give way???kahit na drecho takbo mo???

**j_avonni** · May 2nd, 2007 09:04 AM

Originally Posted by spongee

this RIGHT-OF-WAY thing....i'm not really sure how u apply this..one thing i remember when i was getting my non-pro the 1st time (1988)..the reviewer says something like "whoever is on your right side..has the right of way" so in an intersection without a stoplight...if ur going straight and the car at ur right is turning left...ur the one to give way???kahit na drecho takbo mo???

The RIGHT OF WAY according to LTO:

FIRST TIME VEHICLE RULE

At all intersections without “stop” or “yield” signs, slow down and prepare to stop. Yield to vehicles already in the intersection or about to enter it.

SAME TIME VEHICLE RULE

At all intersections without “stop” or “yield” signs (or with stops in all directions), yield to the vehicle on your right if it has reached the intersection of same time as your vehicle.

STOP SIGNS

Stop at any limit line or cross walk. Yield to all approaching vehicles on the thought street, go only when it is safe for you to cross. Approaching vehicles should slow down and allow you to get across safely.

LEFT TURN

Signal left turn and yield to approaching traffic until it is completely safe to finish the turn.

ROTONDA

Vehicles around the rotunda have the right-of –way over vehicles which are just about to enter.

When entering a highway from a driveway, yield the right-of-way to traffic on the highway. Never insist on taking the right-of-way if other drivers are not following the rules, let then have the right-of-way even if it belongs to you to prevent possible accidents, however, do not always insist on others going ahead of you, the slowing and stopping may delay the flow of traffic.

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Rule no. 3 says, "If you're in doubt about who has the right of way, give it away.

**spongee** · May 2nd, 2007 09:14 AM

yes, its the SAME TIME VEHICLE RULE i was talking about...good thing i'm doing it the right way...

i always give way naman lalo na pag tantyado ko bilis ng ka-intersect ko at kung di sha nagmemenor....

bottom line...safer to give way rather than fight ur way.

**j_avonni** · May 2nd, 2007 11:55 AM

[SIZE="4"]Rule 4: Don't speed![/SIZE]

Driving at a higher than reasonable speed increases your risk in two ways: it cuts your reaction time and results in more "stored" energy (that must be dissipated in any collision). You should consider if the risks are worth the gain.

This is the science of math and physics—you cannot bend these rules. Each incremental increase in speed reduces your ability to react in time to hazards, because you may be covering distance in less time than it takes to react. Normal reaction time is between .75 second and 1.5 seconds, on average. Average reaction time distance at 50 mph would be approximately 83 feet. At 70 mph, it is over 115 feet (over 7 modern car lengths). These numbers do not include braking distance, just reaction time. The average difference in reaction-time distance from 50 mph to 70 mph is about 32 feet. If you were relying solely on braking, any hazard you encounter within the reaction distance is already a problem; you can't react quickly enough to miss it. This is particularly important at night, when darkness restricts your visibility. Do you know at what distance your headlights will illuminate a hazard? How is your night vision these days? When headlights finally light up a road hazard, it is often too late to avoid it. Many experts would tell you that even 50 mph is too fast for conditions at night, on any dark roadway.

If you could choose the speed at which to hit a brick wall, assuming that it was a sure thing you were going to hit one, would you choose to hit the wall at 10 mph or at 100 mph? Not hard to decide, is it? Higher speeds also bring additional accumulated, or stored, energy. More stored energy means increased crash forces if you hit something. Here's a real-world example; a loaded semi traveling at 60 mph develops about 6.5 MILLION foot-pounds of force. Or, your body, unrestrained in the vehicle, could hit the windshield with about 16,000 foot-pounds of force, should your vehicle hit some immoveable object - like a tree.

A defensive driver chooses a speed matching traffic as closely as possible without exceeding speed limits. If traffic is moving at higher speed than you should go, keep to the right and out of the way. This is often a legal requirement as well, if you are traveling at a speed less than the flow of traffic. Also, don't neglect to maintain the correct following distance.

Consider that speeding often doesn't save much time. How many times have you reached a red light, only to find a "jackrabbit" waiting there that passed you a half mile back like you were standing still? Ever wonder why? Around most urban areas, signals limit overall speeds to what the system can handle (in terms of numbers of vehicles). In Phoenix, for example, that's approximately 40 to 45 mph. Drive faster than that and you'll simply spend more time waiting at red lights, wasting fuel, wearing down brake pads, and accumulating just a little more stress in your life for no good reason or gain. Even on the highway, you don't often gain much. Frequently, once you pass someone, you find them on your back bumper as you slow down to enter the next town. So you gained what, exactly? On an Interstate, where you truly can save some time by speeding (provided you don't get pulled over), the difference between 65 mph and 80 mph over 50 miles is only 8.7 minutes. Big deal.

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66 more to go . . .