Tag Archives: IAM

road safety

How to impress women with your driving skills

Road-Rage-Dump-E-card1The IAM have just sent me details of recent research from a behavioural psychologist confirming what I/we know to be true.

That male and female motorists are different and respond differently to behavioural triggers.

What intrigued me most was that 80% of women found bad driving to be a real turn off (ie they are talking about men here) whereas only 48% of men felt that way about women drivers.

Now I’m not sure that these percentages are borne out of driving ability by gender (let’s not go there, I’m not feeling that brave today…) but it does suggest that if you want to impress the opposite sex, more men than women need to drive better than they do.

In this study, 50 participants – 25 women and 25 men – took part to detect the impact of bad driving on their levels of attraction. Reactions were measured in terms of pupil dilation, blink rate, pulse rate, body language and a questionnaire. Here’s how they fared…

Key findings

+ 80% of women found bad driving a turn off
+ 60% of women displayed an increase in pulse rate indicating stress levels watching footage of bad driving
+ Attraction levels in women dropped by nearly 50 per cent after watching footage of bad driving
+ Women showed signs of anxiety while watching a man driving badly –furrowing their brows and shaking their heads
+ 88 per cent of women said they’d prefer to date someone who is always late, than one who breaks the speed limit
+ After footage of good driving, 24% of women felt more positive towards the driver.

Women’s top five driving turn-offs

1. Illegal overtaking
2. Road rage
3. Bad parking
4. Texting while driving
5. 3-point turn

Driving that impresses women

Fortunately guys there are ways to check out, improve your driving and impress her in future. If you are as good a driver as you say you are (there’s the FOXY gauntlet guys) why not take a totally free driver assessment from the IAM to be sure it’s not you behind the wheel she’s turned off by.

And ladies, this offer is equally as appropriate for you because it’s often the confidence boost we need to prove our safer driver gender record.

And whether we are good, bad or indifferent drivers, EVERYONE can improve their skills so what’s not to like about this IAM offer?

Here’s how to claim this offer

You can claim this totally FREE offer and be sure there’ll be no follow up spam or efforts to sell you more training.

Here’s the information and link you need.

Clearly the IAM hopes you WILL want more trainin afterwards and if you do, I suggest you read my review of the Skill For Life programme that sorted my driving out and gave me back my driving confidence after being injured in a road accident.

This free offer is valid until the end of the year and comes with no obligation in terms of future driver training. Although it sounds to me as if a lot of male drivers could do with taking this further, if they want to impress their date in future…

road safety

Concentrate on speed limits

keep-calm-and-stick-to-the-speed-limitInappropriate speed is a contributory factor in too many accidents, usually as a result of driver error, often caused by a loss of concentration and, too often, by not knowing the law re speed limits.

Not only is driving too fast and ignoring speed limits potentially dangerous (and expensive when you get caught) you could be invalidating your insurance cover and, when you have children in the car, you are influencing their future driving attitudes and behaviour.

So here is some advice including useful tips from the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists).

+ In a built up ie residential area with street lighting, the speed limit is 30 mph – unless stated otherwise. A 30 mph speed limit may not always have a traffic sign to confirm this, so street lighting is key. Never assume it’s more than 30 mph unless signs tell you otherwise.

+ A 20mph speed limit will always be shown by a traffic sign and often backed up by road markings. They are usually found in residential areas, busy town centres, and near schools. Keep an eye out for the signs.

+ Circular red-rimmed signs with a speed limit inside are the law, including temporary signs. Ignore this and you can be prosecuted and get points on your licence.

+ If your SatNav tells you a different speed to that signed, your SatNav is wrong. Stay alert at all times and always drive within the signed speed.

+ Where you might be struggling to keep to 30 mph try using third gear…

+ On the motorways, electronic speed limit signs may be displayed as advisory ie if you see a rectangular speed number with flashing amber lights you are being advised to travel within the recommended speed ie this is not a compulsory limit.

Driver Concentration Tips

Driver concentration is key. How many of us recall thinking ‘I can’t remember how I got here’ on a regular route we drive to and from work? That’s always worrying…

So here are some of my driver concentration tips that I hope can help you. If you have others by all means email me or tweet me to add these – see blog footer here.

+ If travelling alone and needing help to concentrate I talk out loud, describing my journey. Sounds mad but it works because you can’t be thinking about other things as well.

+ If with children you might involve them too to help you spot the speed limit signs. This helps them prepare for safer driving too.

+ You might also play a driving game to slow down in enough time to be doing the precise lower speed limit when entering that zone. I think of this as a curtain – when you pass through into the lower speed zone you should be doing the new speed precisely…

And you shouldn’t speed up until you pass through that curtain again, into a faster speed zone…

These are all things I do to stay alert and drive within speed limits – I also take regular stops and drink good strong coffee on long journeys.

I hope these tips might help you.

FOXY

info@foxyladydrivers.com
@FOXYTweets

road safety

How to deal with overtaking lorries on motorways

blindspot_graphic_700On a recent M40 journey I watched an overseas lorry in front of me pull into the centre lane of the motorway at the same time as a young driver in a Golf was overtaking it, whilst already in the centre lane. The car was lightly side-swiped; luckily the lorry driver reacted in time and the VW driver held his course but it was a VERY close run thing. I overtook both then pulled into the next service station expecting the VW driver to do the same, when I could have helped him check the car for any damage and confirm that this wasn’t his fault, but he didn’t.

So today’s driving advice from the IAM is a useful reminder that overseas drivers mightn’t be able to see us. I’m not saying that it’s good enough to accept things as they are (surely trucks should be designed with visibility in mind/they should have more/better mirrors to give them that overtaking confidence/vision?) but with advance knowledge of this and some careful planning, motorway driving and how you deal with overtaking lorries needn’t be the problem we might otherwise envisage.

Here are some tips from the IAM that I recommend you take the time to read and consider…

1/ Be aware that all lorries based within the EU are restricted to driving at 56mph so their speed is relatively predictable.

2/ If you are driving at 50mph in a lane to the right of a truck, bear in mind that the driver may need to keep to a tight delivery schedule and want to drive at 56mph. So don’t hang about or sit there.

3/ Be VERY careful when overtaking left-hand-drive lorries on UK roads as they will have very little visibility of you to their right ie where you are. Their blind spot can be quite big so again, don’t hang about and keep your wits about you throughout the manouevre.

4/ One of the ways to identify a foreign truck is if the registration plate of a lorry ahead of you is anything other than our familiar amber-coloured UK plate. Another way is to look at the pattern of mirrors on a lorry – left-hand-drive lorries will usually have a mirror pointing downwards on the right-hand side which means you can identify them more easily (UK trucks have this mirror on the left for obvious reasons.)

5/ If you can, try to see the driver’s face before you overtake them. If you cannot see it, chances are the driver will be unable to see you either.

6/ Where you can (and I am sure the Golf driver I saw on the M40 will do this for a long while), you should allow an additional lane when passing lorries (eg. go into the third lane and not just the second lane.) This means you will be less likely to be “side swiped” by a truck driver who didn’t see you. Trucks tend to create a lot of wind effect in front of and behind them causing passing vehicles to be blown around and this avoids that problem as well.

7/ Avoid making last minute manoeuvres and leave plenty of room between you and the lorry. Remember, trucks cannot react in the same way as a car can – give them space.

8/ Finally, always drive to anticipate the reactions of other motorists. If it’s taken a lorry driver ages to get up to 56mph and they are gaining on a lorry doing less they will want to overtake – I’ve seen many pull out leaving the bare minimum space between them and the next vehicle. But perhaps the vehicle behind should have seen this coming…

In short, learn to expect the unexpected when driving on motorways – this works wonders for concentration levels.

Let’s end with some wise advice from IAM’s Head of Driver Standards Peter Rodger:

“There is no reason why dealing with lorries should be a cause for worry. What would make matters a lot easier for everyone is allowing space and time for the truck driver to react and do their thing. They will appreciate it if you show them this courtesy, and make your motorway journey a far sweeter experience. Happy motoring!”

FOXY

Learning to Drive

Best young drivers include 13 year old Hannah

hannah_tripp

A 13 year old girl and a 16 year old boy beat hundreds of other hopefuls in the 2014 Young Driver Challenge and were crowned the UK’s Best Young Drivers; before they are even old enough to officially drive.

Troy Hickling, aged 16, from Leicester finished first in the 14-16 age group, and Hannah Tripp, aged 13, from Cheddar in Somerset won the 11-13 age group, at the Birmingham NEC final of the 2014 Young Driver Challenge.

Their prize included Young Driver lessons of 20 ‘on the road’ post-17 driving lessons courtesy of Goodyear, a ‘Young Driver at School’ session to include their classmates and £500 off a car insurance premium courtesy of Young Driver insurance sponsor Admiral Insurance.

More than 350 young people entered the competition, organised by Young Driver, a provider of driving tuition for under-17s, and Troy and Hannah were among the 40 who made it to the final of the contest – which was open to those aged between 11 and 16.

As well as being marked on their practical driving skills behind the wheel of a dual-control car at one of Young Driver’s venues, the entrants were also judged on their performance in the Goodyear Driving Academy, an online driving simulator which tests a youngsters’ knowledge of the Highway Code.

Hannah and Troy were crowned the overall national champions after judges from the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) praised their control of the vehicle, precise manoeuvres and quick thinking behind the wheel.

Hannah said: “It was an amazing feeling even to be in the final. To then learn I’d won my age category was just incredible. It was quite a challenging test and we knew the judges were marking our ability based on a lot of different driving skills and manoeuvres.

Troy added: “It was a great day and I was stunned to win. It’s reassuring to know I’m doing so well and all this experience will obviously be a huge help when I come to learn on the road aged 17. I’m looking forward to all my classmates being able to try out the Young Driver experience as part of my prize.”

One of the judges, IAM director of standards Mark Lewis, added: “Young people are often labelled as risky drivers but Hannah, Troy and all the entrants have shown that they can achieve the highest standards of driving safety.”

Mark had also noticed a surprising consequence of this:

“I heard two parents discussing how their own driving habits had been altered by their children. One mum said that her son was now pointing out her bad driving habits and particularly encouraging her to drive within the speed limits. Here we see a reversal of the trend where children learn their driving behaviour at a very early age from watching their parents. We are now seeing that parents are being corrected by their children who have undertaken the Young Driver programme. This could have a massive impact on road safety.”

Learning to Drive

Gender driving licence disqualifications

Copyright Peter Cheney, The Globe and Mail 2012
Copyright Peter Cheney, The Globe and Mail 2012
I could never understand why our insurance industry rolled over and let the EU tell them they could charge women the same as men for car insurance. When the gender risk remains the same, by and large.

And you must forgive me for being cynical when I read that motor insurance has become profitable during 2013 after many lean years.

The Gender Directive arrived in December 2012 so UK insurers had a good 12 months of potentially charging female drivers more.

Coincidence or contributory factor I wonder?

Probably too soon to tell, she says trying to be charitable.

However new figures obtained by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) confirm that male drivers between the ages of 20 and 30 were the most common group to be disqualified from driving in the 12 months between July 2013 and June 2014. And you have to drive badly to be disqualified of course as in collecting too many points on your licence, driving too fast and testing positive for drugs or alcohol.

These figures were supplied by the DVLA following a Freedom of Information request and reveal the age and gender groups most commonly carrying out a driving offence that then led to a subsequent driving ban.

As of 21 June 2014…
+ 92k UK drivers were disqualified between July 2013 and June 2014.
+ Just over a third of these (c31k) were men aged between 20 and 30.
+ Fewer than 15 per cent of the overall total were females.

I’m not saying that 15% is an acceptable level but if you factor in the increase in the number of women drivers and the mileage we now do, the statistics would have been even more marked in favour of safer female motorists in the early 90s.

And let’s just set the record straight about older drivers too. While 36k drivers between 20 and 30 were disqualified in the last 12 months only 10k were in their fifties and just 4k in their sixties.

So the evidence remains clear that it is the young male drivers that are in need of better preparation for motoring.

Not to be challenged by allegations that young men are better drivers than young women because they pass their test in fewer lessons. Whilst this is undoubtedly true, hasn’t anyone else worked out that the fact that young women are generally less confident learner drivers, take longer to pass their test and need more lessons to do so makes them safer drivers? My conclusion is that the testosterone driven male confidence factor allows too many young drivers to pass their test before they are sufficiently road savvy.

This is a gender issue and the sooner we realise that young male and female motorists are equal BUT VERY DIFFERENT, and should be treated differently, the better.

Simon Best, chief executive of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said: “These statistics strongly reflect the research we have already carried out in this area – that young males are very much the at risk group when it comes to driving safety.”

Hear, hear IAM.