Better Driving Skills

When it comes to developing better driving skills you must first determine what part the human mind plays in this development. When we look around the world there are many thousands of driving schools turning out many millions of new drivers that range in skills from mediocre to barely acceptable. Look at the number of young people that become involved in accidents before arguing that point. We would even go a step further and argue that as soon as a new driver masters the use of gears, braking and steering they believe that they know it all and become complacent.

How does complacency set in? Possibly because driving has been made easy with too many driving tasks automated to keep our concentration active. Just take the case of people that think they have time to talk on a cell phone whilst driving. I’d like to set each of you a test that will prove whether speaking on the phone is safe whilst driving – even a hands free phone.

Ask a partner or friend to mention four random things to you – it can be something like steering wheel, 27, green and donuts. Then you have to repeat all four things. I am sure that everybody will rate 100% by repeating all four items; or chunks of information as they are known. Now ask the same person to name 10 things for you to repeat and I doubt if more than one or two percent of you will achieve better than 50%.

The purpose of this test is to prove that in general the human brain can deal with between 3 and 5 chunks of new information at any given time. Old information chunks can be dealt with at a rate of between 5 and 8 chunks at a time. There is correlation between the ability of our mind to handle new chunks of information and our ability to see a situation and take precautionary action before it becomes a crash. When you understand how your mind works you have taken a major step towards creating better driving skills. You have taken a step beyond what the driving schools teach.

Now let us take this ability to handle new chunks of information into the cockpit of your car: Imagine you are driving through a strange town and you notice;

- that the speed limit is 30mph, - there are two children looking to cross the road about 100 feet ahead of you, - you have just checked your driving mirror and noticed what appears to be a speeding vehicle 500 feet behind you and closing, - there’s a highway patrol car parked ahead you look down to check your speed.

That is four chunks of new information your brain is attempting process – you are now in danger of chunking out with information overload. The baby starts crying from the back seat you reach back to touch the baby and console her. Your brain is now chunked out and the car in front brakes – you fail to see the brake lights until it is too late and CRRRRAAAASSSSSSH – you’ve had an accident. The cause of this accident is not the sudden braking of the car in front; it is because your mind was chunked out and it failed to react to a dangerous situation in time. Only when you understand how your mind works will you generate better driving skills.

Now let us think about driving and speaking on your cell phone: Invariable people phone to ask a question so now your brain has two more chunks of information it must deal with, the first holding the phone in one hand and still trying to control the car and the second having to answer a question that has just been thrown from deep left field. OK, so you have a hands free car phone – that’s great but you still have the question to consider and that is at least one chunk of information you must deal with. If the question you are being asked is complex it could throw multiple chunks of information at your brain.

When it comes to developing better driving skills please start today by understanding the ability of your brain to handle information. Switch your phone off when you are driving and for the sake of you, your passengers and other road users; be aware of how much new information your brain can handle at any given time. Each driving situation presents new chunks of information that a driver must process, please don’t make it more difficult by adding unnecessary chunks of information.

Safe driving.

Understanding the affect your mind has on creating better driving skills is just one facet of the self-knowledge diamond.