Saturday 13 June 2020

Commentary Driving In A Week - Day 6 - Weather Conditions

If you've been following these blogs this week and trying to complete the exercises, then well done!

You'll appreciate that driving at this standard isn't easy and you'll probably be finding it tricky to fit everything in. To recap, what we're doing is:
  • Looking as far ahead as we can to the limit point
  • Identifying information (ALERT):
    • Road Signs
    • Road Markings
    • Road Surface Conditions
    • Junctions (and other fixed hazards)
    • Vulnerable road users and other road users in general (and any other variable hazards)
  • Noting how if affects us (INFORM)
  • Setting out a brief, concise plan to manage that risk (MANAGE), usually involving:
    • A change in speed
    • A change in road position
If you've been doing it, you'll now appreciate how important it is to keep the speed down so that you can keep up mentally and also how important it is to be both concise AND not overly worried about terminology - "man walking in road" really is okay, even if they do turn out to be female when you get closer!

Our next step today is now to add weather conditions to the mix.

Weather conditions are well discussed as a risk increasing factor, but it remains the case that most drivers don't adjust their driving to suit deteriorating weather, until it is REALLY BAD! There are two points I'd like to make here:
  1. When I discussed limit points, I was intending to get you to look as far ahead as you can see with the aim of you gathering information about the road as soon as it became visible. Bad weather will often mean reduce visibility and as a result, this information might not be available as early as it otherwise would be - this may not be much of a problem for fixed hazards, but what about variable ones?
  2. The stopping distance problem is well documented - if the road is wet, then it takes up to twice as long to stop and the reason for that is that you have half the grip of course! In normal driving, this isn't a problem and you won't notice the car skidding when slowing for junctions or cornering... unless you do it in an emergency! This is because normal driving perhaps only uses 10 or 20% of the normal grip available in good conditions - if you wet the road and half the grip, there is still ample grip for normal driving.
Both of these factors SHOULD be altering your driving! It's not necessary to reduce speeds to walking pace just because it's raining, but advanced drivers choosing speeds on approach to bends will consider the increased stopping distance needed in their choices. Likewise they will "forget" that they know the road and know that the road is straight here and drive at a speed that allows them to stop easily if an unexpected hazard requires them to do so - fallen tree across the road in thick fog conditions for example.

Today is potentially a great day to add weather considerations to your commentary as the forecast is for a mixture of sunny, hot weather, cloudy spells and showers of rain that may turn thundery at times - a nice mixed bag to practice with!


Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk