How's your driving skills?

[felixe]

When I was a kid I always loved playing with my "smash 'em up Derby set!!!!!

Nothing much has changed.




But I'll still give myself a 3.

[ciscokid]

I put myself down for a four. Used to be better in my younger days though. Forced to drive in snow and ice a few months a year gives lots of opportunies for driving sideways and I can not only maintain control, I can usually slalom through the other drivers who have wrecked. I drive a lot. Around 35,000 miles a year. Either in a diesel pickup truck or my trusty Corvette convertible. I also pull a gooseneck stock trailer full of horses or cows around and have gotten quite proficient at backing the thing up to chutes.

And I have never ONCE in my life hit a kangaroo. They just wont let the little buggars out of the zoo.

[Krazee]

JMM,

Not sure that I agree with your definitions.

I don't think a good driver is defined only by how well you control the car. To me the critical thing is a drivers ability to read what is going on around them and respond accordingly. There are many things that scare the s**t out of me when I'm on the road and most of them have nothing to do with my ability or the ability of the other drivers to control their car, skids, etc. It is more about predicting what they will do next. If I know what they want to do and they know what I want to do then we can keep out of one anothers space! Awareness/communication as a driver is far more important than how technically perfectly a driver can control the vehicle.

For example 1: One of the things what really pushes my buttons is tinted windows. When I come to an intersection I like to know that the other driver has seen (looked) at me because most drivers will do the right thing if they are aware you are there. With tinted windows I have no idea where the other driver is looking, if they are picking their nose, if they are on the phone , or if there is a zombie at the wheel. What will they do?

For example 2: If a driver is on their mobile watch out! Even if it's at the traffic lights!

In nearly 40 years of driving I have never been in a skid I haven't instigated, and any accidents have been contributed to (IMO) by my own stupidity for not observing what is happening around me! (if only I could follow my own rules!)

Geoff

PS. As I write this the local hoons are doing wheelies out of the recently resurfaced court opposite. Some of them are quite controlled. Guess practice will make perfect idiots but they still can't drive!

[Wood Borer]

I reckon I am average. Drove cabs on Friday and Saturday nights for 12 years in the 70's and 80's, learnt to drive tractors on the farm before I was 5, occasionally drive Heavy Rigid trucks and often drive long distances.

I regularly drive in Melbourne, occasionally in Sydney and Adelaide.

I do a bit of four wheel driving, sand, rocks, and mud - I'll be in Birdsville again in a fortnight after crossing a few sandhills if the flooding reduces.

I can control a car in a slide on gravel and sand when intentionally sliding it on trickier four wheel drive tracks and control a slide when swerving wombats, roos and deer.

I haven't had any accidents that were my fault but I think is more luck than skill.

There are heaps of drivers better than me, lots the same and quite a few less able behind the wheel so I gave myself an average.

[Harry72]

Im going with a 5, living in the country our main entertainment was thrashing cars for fun. My area has a lot of good rally capable roads... and lotsa mud+a dado 1600!
I've tried "drifting" in controlled circumstances, excellent fun good workout too its very physically demanding, just wish I had a car that was really capable... me poor old 2ltr escort!
But in saying that on the road I drive not trusting other road users decisions.
Never scratched a car on road, but have driven past my and the car's capability several times, you dont how far you can go know till it happens.
Had one bad accident in a car(as a passenger)head on into a stobbie @80kmh put my knee's deep into the dash, a LJ torana(metal dash) my mate installed his stereo under the passenger side of the dash, he lent over to turn the tunes up pulled the wheel with him... no skid marks! I can still remember looking up and seeing the pole about 2' away from the bonnet then BANG. They had to cut the car off the stobbie as the headlights were nearly touching each other.

[Cruzi]

Human nature dictates that anyone going faster than you is a hoon, anyone going slower than you is an idiot.

Ask anyone , they will tell you they are a good driver, but get out on the roads and ignorance and idiocy prevails.

People who have "blinkers" instead of indicators should be shot, people who think the overtaking lane is the "fast lane" should be shot and finally, all extremists should be shot.

[fred.n]

Human nature dictates that anyone going faster than you is a hoon, anyone going slower than you is an idiot.

Ask anyone , they will tell you they are a good driver, but get out on the roads and ignorance and idiocy prevails.

People who have "blinkers" instead of indicators should be shot, people who think the overtaking lane is the "fast lane" should be shot and finally, all extremists should be shot.

BANG

[Cliff Rogers]

I voted rat's ring.

I always drive just a bit faster than the limit.... of the road, car, & passenger's lunch holding capabilities.

I enjoy overtaking dorks with 'Jetpilot' stickers on their back window... particularly when they are in a V8 ute & I'm in my Corolla.

[AlexS]

When I was on (& off) the road most of the time, I would have put myself at a 4, possibly a 5. These days, I do fewer Ks, and they are mainly in very straightforward conditions, & I've noticed that some skills seem to have deteriorated, so I guess I'm probably a 3. I try to compensate by keeping more space all around me, so does this make me a 4 or 5 again?

Just out of interest, a unit I managed for a few years, running 6 4wd vehicles and a truck, each vehicle averaging 40,000k-50,000k a year, on and off country roads, went for 12 years without an insurance claim. When they finally had an accident it was a doozy, though fortunately (& miraculously) no serious injury. Caused by a combination of too little experience and too much speed for an awkward road design.

[abitfishy]

I think anyone who lives in Sydney, drives and survives should be a 5!!!

For those in Sydney, I drove from south (Sutherland) to North (Narrabeen) on a saturday morning and I can tell you now, NEVER EVER AGAIN!!! We passed the institute of sport near narrabeen and I told my misses to remind me never to attend anything there - I just found out where an umpiring course I want to do is held - yep, Institute of Sport Narrabeen! NOOOO!!!!!!

[Barry_White]

Barry, 13 years in a cab would have to make you a kamakasi driver.

It's a bit like "Scarey Sharp" it certainly hones your skills.

[Shedhand]

Defence Force trained. Driver for a senior ranked officer.

[silentC]

I voted 4 but only because I am.

Well, OK, unfortunately I do think I'm better that the average driver but that's only because of the poor standard. I think I'm relatively considerate and aware of what's going on, certainly by comparison to many/most of the other drivers I encounter.

I once got a ride from this town to the next with a friend. She held the steering wheel by the bottom, kept shifting around in her seat like she was on a bar stool, and looked everywhere but at the road ahead. It was quite unsettling and made me look at SWMBO's driving in a new light!

I feel comfortable behind the wheel and can drive for hours (with breaks every couple of course ). I pay attention to what is going on around, behind and ahead of me at all times. If someone is driving a bit erratically, I'm usually aware of them long before I'm anywhere near them. I think that's the key - try to be prepared for anything that might happen and have a strategy for when it does.

Two prangs - one their fault one mine. The one that was my fault was at the end of a long day on a slippery road. The guy in front in a 4WD ploughed straight into the back of the car in front of him (we were doing about 20kph after leaving a roadworks stop-go). His brake lights never came on, I just saw his rear end go up in the air, then heard the 'crump', then I was sliding into his back bumper. Too close to stop or divert. Minor damage to his, stuffed the radiator in mine. Not driving to the conditions... too close to the car in front on a slippery road.

Let's not talk about speeding fines etc...

[jmk89]

I put 3 - I suspect that I'm better than that, but I don't have any real basis for that view, except that:

• I haven't had an accident since my P-plate year (and that wasn't my fault)
• I don't use a mobile phone while driving and
• I have only got one fine, it was a speeding fine and was from a fixed camera which has now been found to be faulty.

I think that there is a perception issue at work here. We notice and remember the individual incidents of bad driving that occur while we are on the road, we don't see all the good driving that the people who commit those incidents of bad driving do in between. However, we recollect the poor driving incidents that we commit (if at all) in the context of all of our driving (most of which is good). So we seem to be better than the average.

So I think most of us are pretty average, but (at least once we are over 25) good enough to not cause too many accidents and to avoid making the bad driving moments of others worse. It is of course our abiity to deal with the latter that is impaired by mobile phone use...

[silentC]

Well, yes that's true, you would have to follow people around all day to see what they were like on the whole. I suppose it's difficult to tell whether most people are crap drivers all the time, or whether most of the people you see driving badly are just having a crap driving moment!

Seems to be an awful lot of them though...