Novice and the Car

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 830, 26 November 1929, Page 7

Novice and the Car

Being some elementary hints on. driving for those who are just learning.

TRAINING FOR TROUBLE The best way to train one’s self to meet trouble with regard to steering problems is to drive so carefully that I they are not likely to arise. In practice. however, we have to consider the possibilities of tight corners and how to meet them. The first point upon which it is desirable that a novice should inform himself is as to the minimum width between obstructions in which his car can pass with safety. This is less than probably 99 drivers put of 100 imagine. For the purpose the necessary requirements are a tape measure, two walking cranes and a quiet stretch of road. If the extreme width of the car is, say, six feet, stick the canes upright in the ground with six 1 feet two inches between them. From | the car at 30 yards distance it will ! look quite impossible to get through. ! If the limits to the width are more bulky—as, for example, a couple of ! large wooden crates —the illusion is j still more marked. i The novice can now carry out some j very instructive experiments. So far ! as that goes, many old hands would | make the same tests with advantage*, j Of course the point to aim as it the I ability to drive between the two j canes at varying speeds without i touching either of them. ! In such circumstances the vasf majority of drivers are inclined to look first at the obstruction on the right and then at the other on the left. The whole attention should be concentrated on just clearing the ob stacle on the righ-hand side, assuming a righ-hand steering wheel. It is quite fruitless to look from side to side. No amount, of looking will i make it possible to get through if i there is not enough room. If there |is room to get through, then, by j directing the whole attention on just missing the obstacle which is more I readily seen, the best chance of success is assured.