MOTOR NOTES.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 245, 12 July 1928, Page 7

MOTOR NOTES.

HER FIRST GAR.

HINTS TO WOMAN DRIVER. Bad Driving Habits. Each month or so sees numbers of potential dangers let loose upon our roads, in the shape of new cars driven by motorists making their first great adventure on the open highway (writes the Hon. Mrs. Victor Bruce in the Autocar). Possibly the absolute novice is a less serious menace to other road users than the driver of a few weeks’ experience who thinks he, or she, knows it all, because in one’s first few attempts unaided at the wheel ultra-caution is the order of the day and the car is run so slowly that it tells the world it is “ novice-driven.” But in those first few weeks it is so easy to pick up bad driving habits, and so very difficult to eradicate them afterwards, that a word of advice on the principal points upon which the beginner is likely to go astray may save a good deal of future trouble and even danger. Look Well Ahead.

The old tendency to watch the road immediately in front of the wheels which we all experienced in our early cycling days is just as evident in the motoring beginner, though not so dangerous. I think probably everyone’s point of focus down the road may vary, but it is essential always to look well ahead. This applies particularly at changeable seasons of the year, when the transition from a dry stretch of road to one that is wet and slippery, or coated with still more slippery late fallen leaves, is so rapid and so frequent. Corners are nearly always sheltered by trees on either side, so that wind and sun cannot do their part in drying the road surface even when Jupiter Pluvius gives them the chance ; and trees in autumn carpet that corner with leaves. The moral is never to trust the road surface, and always to be ready to check the speed of the car in the last few yards of dry road before running on to a wet patch. * City streets, with their highlypolished surfaces, are exceptionally treacherous. On a real wet day there is little .to fear, though care is needed, but when the air is full of moisture, and the equivalent to a Scotch mist beads windows and screen, very little faith can be placed in one’s brakes on such road surfaces as I have in mind. The car, a modern one, of course, may not skid in the common acceptance of the term, but the slightest application of the brakes will sometimes cause the four wheels to lock on the slimy ' road, with the result that. one slides bodily forward—possibly into the back of a bus !

Sudden acceleration, also, may cause the wheels to spin. The better the balance of the car the less marked will be the tendency to proceed crab-wise, but that tendency may be very embarrassing the first time it is encountered by the novice. The only remedy is unremitting care. Many miles of some of our most up-to-date arterial roads aTe similarly untrustworthy, with the still worse feature that, by the nature of their construction, the slippery nature of their surfaces is not apparent to the eye in advance. Which brings me to a point of so great importance that I must mention it in spite of the fact that the advice I have to give has been printed so many times.

The advice is simply to keep off main roads, particularly at congested times of the day and the week, complete proficiency in the managei ment of the car has been attained. | Suspicion of selfishnes attaches to j this advice from a practised driver, I { know, and there is naturally an eleJ ment of that abominable quality in

it. No one wants additional compli- f cation in an already-complicated situ- I ation, and goodness knows that the j presence of a novice, driving ner- | vously and uncertainly in a week-end ( traffic queue is a real menace to the J safety of everyone concerned, includ- • ing himself or herself. The experienced driver, in fact, would almost rather have to deal with a reckless motorist than a nervous one. ,