Safety
Bad Habits or Missed Tech?
A long time ago, in a musical galaxy far, far away, an Aussie singer had a minor hit with a song called “Bad Habits”, with the refrain “Can’t help myself, bad habits” becoming part of the vernacular at the time. Sitting down with a well earned cold one, after a lightning trip to motorsport’s hallowed ground, Mt Panorama, to test (show off) the new Holden VF Calais V (go buy one, it IS that good), it became impossible to not notice the major bad habits Aussie drivers.
Inside each and every vehicle are pieces of metal and plastic that are designed to help you, the so-called driver, do your best to avoid crashes and in doing so, perhaps show a bit of common courtesy to those that share the road. When you sit down behind that big, black circular thing that tells the car which direction to go, you should be able to see, left and right of the big column that holds the wheel, two sticks. One of these has the amazing power to, when moved up or down, make little amber lights flash on the left or right hand side of the car. It’s truly startling how many people don’t see it.
Most brand new cars have a short range wireless system called Bluetooth fitted. This nifty bit of kit allows a person to receive and make mobile phone calls whilst not, theoretically, touching said mobile phone. Hmmmm, another missed piece of technology, it would seem.
When traversing the roads and motorways of this big, brown land, eventually (and sometimes too often) a driver will come to a piece of road that intersects with another. Tall, strange looking poles with a rectangular box on top abound; said box hides three lights, one green, one amber, one red. Now, I’m slightly colour blind but I can tell, clearly, the difference between each. It would seem that colour blindness and a lack of reaction time have spread, virus like, throughout the brother and sisterhood of drivers, judging by the amount of cars that should have stopped safely and haven’t. 
When one is in a two lane situation, occasionally one is able to move from the left lane to the right, in order to overtake a vehicle that is slower than you, for whichever reason. When one does so it’s expected that when you move right, you go faster and then pass the aforementioned slower vehicle. It’s not expected, nor is it a courteous thing, to move right and then…not pass.
Along with technology comes bad habits; tailgating, applying lipstick whilst supposedly driving, not turning on your headlights under dark skies and just being plain rude and ignorant of the road rules. Yes, there are rules that govern how our roads should be driven, believe it or not and they cover more than simply having your chosen chariot exceeding a posted limit. Having driver aids is one thing, having bad habits is another and it seems that way too many people either have bad attitude or they just can’t help themselves. The following link is a cure for insomnia but it DOES share what each and every driver in NSW (and, no doubt, the other states will have their own similar ideas) should know: HOW TO BE A BETTER DRIVER BECAUSE BETTER DRIVERS DRIVE BETTER.
What bad habits to you have and which bad habits on the road really tick you off?
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/viewtop/inforce/subordleg+179+2008+fn+0+N
True Road Safety: Where Is The Line Drawn?
Naturally, as part of my role as a vehicle evaluator, I’m out and about a fair bit. There’s smart road rules, there’s smart drivers (well, a couple….) and there’s just way, way, way, WAY too many bad ones. Australian governments tell us all about road safety, with the focus on all road safety deemed to be speed-centric.
I ask you: what’s truly more dangerous: travelling at 115 km/h on a freeway that is zoned 100 or 110 under sunny blue skies OR driving at late afternoon, mid winter, with cloud cover and rain with no headlights on….with your car a silver or dark colour. What’s more dangerous; driving along a straight, rural road, with clear vision, doing 80 and the road is zoned 70 OR being in a small car, changing lanes suddenly so you’re in front of a B double whilst not indicating then jumping on the brakes?
Today I was driving, in the company of a good mate, an example of Holden’s outgoing VE SS utes, the Z series with the dark grey five spoke alloys; the weather was cold but clear and traffic was moving well in all three freeway lanes. I’m in 
the right hand side lane, zoned at 110 km/h and travelling at a tick above that…the middle and left hand lanes were reasonably full and, inexplicably, moving at under the limit. Behind me there’s a flash; thinking it’s a sun reflection off a windscreen, I ignored it. A few seconds later, another. I look and here’s an example of Australia’s Got (No Driving) Talent; bloke gesturing to me that I should move left so he can pass. Completely ignored was the fact that for he to pass me he’d be closer to 120 km/h than I PLUS there was no room at the inn a.k.a the middle lane. Eventually he sidled past, on my left, at least 130 km/h and disappeared. Twenty minutes later, with no variance in my speed by more than a couple of km/h either way, we didn’t merely catch him, we passed him. Two more times, the same thing happened.
On the way back home, earlier than this, we passed a few Highway Patrol cars, with all but one sitting roadside, with an officer holding a radar. There was also a marked police car ahead of one with a Community Police signage….both of these changed lanes without indicating quite a few times. So while you, I and everyone else is being beaten senseless with the message “Don’t Speed”, there’s other avenues of safety being forgotten, or, possibly, exploited. Let’s not kid ourselves; safety in most states really is driven by revenue and is coated in a sickly sweet road safety sugar to make it easier for the populace to swallow. In real terms, the road toll is fairly static compared to the amount of extra drivers joining the road each year. Let’s also not overlook how many cars there are, on our roads country wide, that are equipped with ABS, airbags and so on. So our roads are becoming more cluttered, the cars we drive are far more safe yet two things stay the 
same: we’re being told that speed kills and no one mentions these two words….”driver training”.
If speed kills, there’s an awful amount of ghosts driving cars. If speed kills, then Craig Lowndes, Mark Winterbottom, Mark Webber, etc, must be bloody lucky. What’s that you say, they’re trained drivers? Thank you sir, my point exactly. And then there’s this: http://news.drive.com.au/drive/motor-news/1000km-at-130kmh–and-still-alive-20130620-2ok2x.html
In Australia’s capital cities there’s plenty of driver training companies; In Sydney, for example, there’s Ian Luff’s Drive To Survive. Brissie has SDT Safe Driver Training. Victoria picks up the Australian Driver Trainers Association whilst companies such as adrenalin.com.au run advanced driver training courses at racetracks, including Perth’s Barbagallo. Says a lot, doesn’t it, that companies such as these have to work over the entrenched attitude the government says we should have whilst forgetting the simple, the basic fact that better drivers drive better…..
Racetrack or road and an introduction.
Hello there everyone, I’m Dave. Although new to Private Fleet, my background when it comes to the automotive area is pretty reasonable; I’m a freelance car reviewer with my own website (www.awheelthing.com), work as a motorsports commentator, interviewed some household names in Aussie motorsport, have sold cars and present a weekly wrapup on www.torqueradio.com.au. As such, I’ll be providing some reader friendly industry news & reviews on cars and invite you along for the ride.
Megan’s spot on post about indicating leads me to my first contribution. Around the age of 16 or 17, we learn, supposedly, how to drive a combination of metal, plastic and rubber that weighs over 1000 kilograms at speeds up to 90 kilometres per hour. Or, if you like, move at 25 metres per second (if we use 90 kmh) whilst, generally, gripping the steering wheel intently and looking straight ahead. It’s an increasing concern to those that work in the driver safety area that our new P Plated drivers haven’t really been taught to “drive”, they’ve merely been shown how to steer, select D and…..well, that’s about it.
Once you’ve been granted a license to drive, you’re not retested, as a rule, for potentially another half a century. Yet, in so many other disciplines, people have to undergo a mandatory test every 12 months. There’s generally constant 
training, updates and so on to take on board. Not with driving a car.
Some manufacturers offer, as part of their sales package, driver training and club days. Some dealers will entice a new buyer with a day’s worth of driver training. Frighteningly, all too often this offer is declined because “I already know how to drive” or “the car’s for the wife, it’s just to pick up the kids from school”. Invariably, the vehicle they were looking at was a people mover or mid sized SUV…..current car was generally a small hatchback.
Why is this relevant? Different classes of vehicle have different ways they need to be driven; a small hatchback sits lower to the ground and doesn’t have a lot of ground clearance. This means they have a lower centre of gravity than a SUV. Most of the time they’re not particularly a quick accelerator either. Most SUVs of a reasonable size have a diesel or V6 petrol engine. They’ll accelerate to 100 kmh a lot quicker. They ride higher, meaning their centre of gravity will be at a point most people coming from a small car will forget about when cornering. They’ll weigh more meaning they’ll require more braking effort or to be braked further back from the car in front if you don’t want to rear end them.
Driver training, driver education provides this sort of clear and easy to understand information. As driver training centres are few and far between, these courses are held at the safest venue possible. A motorsport racetrack. In Sydney, there are only, currently, two venues: Sydney Motorsport Park (Eastern Creek) and the Sydney Dragway. Unfortunately there are politicians, some police and some so called road safety campaigners that believe driver training is detrimental, that it will encourage people to exceed their driving ability. These calls are easily countered with one simple, unassailable, incontrovertible fact. The excessively overwhelming majority of crashes on Sydney roads are nose to tail and under the speed limit.
Driver training helps you understand what you can and can’t do; more importantly it helps you understand what your car can or can’t do. Knowing how your car will accelerate and get across an intersection can make all the difference between holding up traffic behind you or not, it can make the difference between getting across safely and in plenty of 
time as opposed to being hit amidships. Driver training will help you make your car more visible when it’s raining or dark because you’re now more aware your dark metallic grey car is near invisible to other drivers. Driver training will help you learn that the hammering from beneath your feet when you hit the brakes is merely the ABS (anti lock braking system) working rather than something wrong and then you take your foot off and you don’t stop and you crash……And yes, it will help you know when to use your indicators correctly.
Finally, the best way to prove that you’re not as good a driver as you think you are? Go do a driver training course.
Time for TPMS
We all know how important a good set of tyres is for safe motoring. Correct tyre pressures go a long way towards keeping the tyres firmly and safely in contact with the road. Keeping your car tyres at the correct tyre pressure is going to give the maximum opportunity for the tyres to perform at their best – which is what they were designed to do. The ability of a car to maintain grip is closely connected to its inflation pressure. European laws are going to tighten up in the area of keeping tyre pressures in their optimum range. It’s good because it sends the message out there that the ‘powers that be’ want to keep Europe’s roads as safe as possible. Not sure what’s going to happen over here, though. But what’s good for Europe is usually good for over here, at least when safety’s the issue.
A new EU ruling is about to be passed this year that will mean new car models must be fitted with tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMSs). TPMSs have, actually, been systems that have been used for many years by various car manufacturers. Porsche was the first to use a TPMS in a production passenger car. They used a TPMS in their Porsche 959 in 1986. It is no real surprise to see that Renault have employed TPMSs over the years. In 1996, Renault used a type of TPMS in their Scenic model, called the Michelin PAX system. Peugeot’s 607, in 1999, used a TPMS, as well. Renault, in their Laguna II (year 2000), was the first mid-size passenger vehicle to be equipped with a TPMS as standard.
So why all the fuss? Is a TPMS just another set of lights to keep an eye on when you’re driving. Can you ignore them at all? The short answer is: NO.
Seriously underinflated tyres run the risk of becoming so hot that they can burst. Seen all those burst tyre remnants along the road in the hotter bits of the country? Possibly, underinflation was the cause (other reasons exist, but we won’t get into them here) Underinflated tyres take longer to stop in a braking situation, and you can guess the results of that. Also, under hard cornering, the integrityof the underinflated tyre wall becomes softer and less rigid, meaning that the tread pattern loses its optimum contact with the road.
From another perspective, driving with seriously underinflated tyres will negatively affect the fuel efficiency of your car, as well as how your tyre wears over time. So it is true: check your tyre pressures regularly, and you’ll save on fuel costs, the tyres will last longer and you’ll be enhancing your safety and the safety of other motorists around you.
How do TPMSs work? A standard TPMS uses radio frequency technology to transmit pressure data and other information to the vehicle’s ECU.
Kwik Fit surveys (Kwik Fit is based in the UK) suggest that 68% of cars on European roads have underinflated tyres. With these sort of results, the new EU law should be very helpful in making Europe’s roads a lot safer. However, on the lighter side, the same survey found that not everyone with a TPMS in their car knows what the warning light means. Some thought it meant the coolant was overheating (34% of those surveyed), while others thought it was warning them about a cattle-stop grid on the road ahead.
Level 2, 9 Help Street