Car Driving Tips: Drive Well In Front Of Your Front Bumper

Some car driving tips are designed to help you save gas. Others are meant to help you save yourself some trouble. This one does both.

If you often find yourself making sudden stops or swerving to avoid things, you may want to consider how far you drive in front of your bumper. The further away, the better, as it allows you to anticipate dangerous conditions, changes in traffic flow and other things that are best known well in advance.

From a gas-saving perspective, it’s best to know when to adjust speed or inertia in a situation so you can conserve fuel that would otherwise go to waste by quickly getting to the point where you need to apply the brakes anyway. Coasting is a good way to conserve energy and prevent brake and tire wear.

More importantly, being able to anticipate problems can help you save on vehicle damage and personal injury. It could also help save your life and the lives of those traveling with you. Here are some of the things that are important to monitor well in advance of your front bumper:

• road conditions such as ice and flooding
• traffic entering the road
• animals and pedestrians in or about to enter traffic
• cross traffic
• changes in traffic speed and direction of travel
• road signs

Driving well in front of your front bumper relates to both speed and distance. The faster you travel, the more important it is to look ahead because you will need more response time. Or do you give yourself more time to reply looking ahead, or do you force yourself to react suddenly.