April - May 2002 Edition

Basic Driving by Traffic Todd I am starting off what I hope will be a fun/serious column about driving, drivers and pedestrians in Fair Lawn.  First, let’s talk about basic driving.             Turn Signals Very easily operated piece of standard equipment found on every car, truck and SUV sold and driven in America. It is located on the left side of your steering wheel – it’s the little stalk thingy sticking out. You push up to signal a right hand turn or lane change; you pull down to signal a left hand turn or lane change.   Now why is this piece of equipment important? To let other drivers know what you a planning to do while tooling down the road. The key word is planning, figure out what you are going to do before you do it, will minimize your receipt of the one finger salute, numerous complimentary names being shouted at you and accidents that you are either involved in or caused.   Turning There are these things called lines painted onto most roadways. These lines represent something innovated called travel lanes for vehicles to travel in. When there are two or more lanes, it is expected that a person will not be turning right from the left lane or left from the right lane – even if using the aforementioned turn signals. Performing this activity, turning, from the opposite lane can and will cause several problems; please see the above item for a partial list of problems incurred for wild wide turns and lane changes.   Lane Changes This is the activity of switching from one lane to another, it is best accomplished when there is not another vehicle in the lane you want to move into. Turning on your turn signal (a.k.a. blinker) and immediately moving into the other lane is not a good idea. A turn signal is not an automatic stop sign for vehicles you are seeking to cut off and run into a light pole. Turn on your blinker and wait a second for the vehicle to either pass you by or slow down to let you in front of them. See next item for additional information.   Mirrors (side and rear view) Yet another innovative piece of standard equipment. These items are located on each side of your vehicle (side mirrors) and on the inside center of your windshield (the front window). These items allow you to see what is in the next lane (see above for “lane”) as well as what is behind you (your rear end). They are very helpful when “turning” and making “lane changes” as they will allow you to see if the lane is clear. Due to the positioning of these mirrors, it may be necessary to take a quick glance over your shoulder to make sure nothing is in your “blind spot”   Pulling Out We have all experienced the long wait to pull out onto Fair Lawn Avenue (put in the name of the busy street you are frustrated with here) during morning and afternoon rush hours. Yes, we all need to get going, but at what cost?? If you need to pull into traffic, do so, pull out into the flow of traffic and move it, don’t putt-putt, depress the floor pedal on the right side of the driver’s foot well – this is called the accelerator. Depressing this pedal allows your vehicle to move quickly into traffic so the vehicles you are moving in front of don’t have to smash the pedal immediately to the left of the accelerator, this is called the brake.   When you move into traffic after incorrectly judging the speed and distance of the vehicle you move in front and forget to depress the accelerator, of one of a few things will happen: - you will get rear ended, badly; - the vehicle you cut in front of will slam on the brake and get rear ended because the vehicle behind it is tailgating (see another issue for this item) - the vehicle you pull out in front of will need to speed around you and pass you on either side; - the driver of the vehicle you pulled out in front of will provide you with the standard one finger salute and you will see, in your mirror, that person’s mouth moving very quickly (that is if you actually use your mirror to survey the havoc you have wrought).   Yellow Traffic Lights These are the things located in place between the RED and GREEN lights. There are several variations of this traffic control device, which is not a new invention by the way, but they all work the same way. For background information, red means stop and green means go.   Yellow does not mean drive like heck through the intersection before the light turns red. It means be prepared to stop because the light is going to turn red. Now of course, on Fair Lawn Avenue, you need to check your rear view mirror (see above) to make sure that the driver behind you is not up your tailpipe smoking a pipe, thusly missing your stop and swapping paint with you (as well a license and insurance information). So if the person behind you is that close, well carefully proceed through the yellow light at a normal rate of speed or at least slowing down recognizing that there was a light.     Well, that's it for this issue, see you next time with more helpful driving tips. Until then:  Remember to Drive Alert, Drive Patiently and Drive Smartly.     What Do You Think?: Send an e- mail to editor@fairlawnnews.com or post a message on the Fair Lawn News Discussion Forum.