Regarding driving safety: A couple of years ago I asked my old driving instructor if he knew of a good book on driving safety I could use to increase my skills. He pointed me to some of Fred Mottola’s guides at the National Institute for Driver Behavior. I ordered pretty much all of the reading / course material he has available, and I thought they were excellent. There’s a lot of little tips for marginally increasing safety, and he focuses a lot on developing good habits so it doesn’t require constant vigilance.
In order to get the full benefits of his program you’ll probably need to repractice a lot of your driving skills to unlearn your bad habits and replace them with good ones. It’s probably a worthwhile investment though given the risks. (I’ll also add that mortality rates for car accidents don’t include life-altering injuries, which are also extremely high-risk.) But even if you don’t do the full program, he has some short guides that focus on the 10 most important habits of good driving.
Note that they mostly sell to drivers ed teachers rather than individuals. I was actually the first person they ever sold to as an individual, and they didn’t really know how to deal with me. So they just sent me a couple of copies of everything, and I gave them out to some of my relatives.
Hey [iarwain1] I’m interested in trying out the driving guides. Could you please recommend one of the books to start with before buying the rest? Also, do you happen to know of anyplace where I can take a “simulated accident” course (in the Bay Area, if possible)?
The Ten Habits book is the main one, but there’s also the Zone Control system which is mostly a very expanded version. Here’s the product list. Don’t buy the mirrors.
Regarding driving safety: A couple of years ago I asked my old driving instructor if he knew of a good book on driving safety I could use to increase my skills. He pointed me to some of Fred Mottola’s guides at the National Institute for Driver Behavior. I ordered pretty much all of the reading / course material he has available, and I thought they were excellent. There’s a lot of little tips for marginally increasing safety, and he focuses a lot on developing good habits so it doesn’t require constant vigilance.
In order to get the full benefits of his program you’ll probably need to repractice a lot of your driving skills to unlearn your bad habits and replace them with good ones. It’s probably a worthwhile investment though given the risks. (I’ll also add that mortality rates for car accidents don’t include life-altering injuries, which are also extremely high-risk.) But even if you don’t do the full program, he has some short guides that focus on the 10 most important habits of good driving.
Note that they mostly sell to drivers ed teachers rather than individuals. I was actually the first person they ever sold to as an individual, and they didn’t really know how to deal with me. So they just sent me a couple of copies of everything, and I gave them out to some of my relatives.
Hey [iarwain1] I’m interested in trying out the driving guides. Could you please recommend one of the books to start with before buying the rest? Also, do you happen to know of anyplace where I can take a “simulated accident” course (in the Bay Area, if possible)?
The Ten Habits book is the main one, but there’s also the Zone Control system which is mostly a very expanded version. Here’s the product list. Don’t buy the mirrors.