June's Safe Driver Skill: Anticipate

At Boyd Autobody & Glass, we want everyone to be safe when they get behind the wheel. Unfortunately, the numbers don't look good. According to 2009 collision statistics released by Transport Canada, there were 124,000 collisions that caused injury or fatality on Canadian roads that year. As the number of cars increases, and as the number of distracted drivers increases, we believe that huge number is going to only climb.

But something can be done about it. If we all choose to work together to improve our safe driving skills, we can actually make that number go down. So, each month, we're publishing a blog that highlights one safe driving skill and gives you tips and ideas to improve that skill. This month, the skill is anticipating.

Anticipating is a huge safe driving skill but it is under-appreciated. Most of us drive around and react when we see something happen. But instead of reacting, you can act out of confidence because you correctly anticipated something happening, your ability to drive safer increases.

Here's an example: You are driving beside a line of parked cars. You think to yourself: "There are three dangers around these cars – (1) People who might run out from between the cars, (2) people in the cars who might suddenly open their door, and (3), a parked car that might pull out without first checking to see what's on the road.

By anticipating those scenarios you can act to minimize them (perhaps by moving slightly to the left and slowing down a little. Then, if one of those three things DOES happen, you can act further – braking or swerving appropriately.

Learning to anticipate is easy. The hardest part is remembering to do it while you drive.

To learn to anticipate, just keep a running commentary to yourself as you drive – pointing out verbally the various things that COULD happen: "There's a schoolyard; I'd better keep an eye out for kids. There's an intersection; I'd better slow down slightly and watch for cars that don't see their stop sign."

At first, it might seem like you are assuming the worst and being pessimistic. However, the act of anticipating does assume that unexpected things will happen and it allows you to prepare for them so that bad things don't happen! That's a big difference.

Of course, you'll never be able to anticipate everything, but even anticipating a few things will put you well on your way to becoming a safer driver. If you can get into the habit of anticipating, you can help to avoid many types of collisions.
Next time you get into the car, before you put the car into drive and step on the gas, remind yourself to anticipate on this trip.

The case of the mysterious dent

Nearly every car gets one at some point and car owners are helpless to stop it. I'm talking about that mystery dent. Maybe it's a ding on your door. Maybe it's a newly formed bowl on your bumper. Maybe it's a half-moon-shaped dent on your quarter panel. The shape and location may be different but there is one common trait among all of these occurrences: The origins of this mystery are shrouded in the mists of the unknown.

As with any good mystery, we are forced to answer questions based on the evidence.

Question 1: How did it get there?

It's anyone's guess, really. Maybe it happened at the grocery store parking lot (where chaos reigns supreme). Maybe it happened in the church parking lot (aren't there supposed to be angels there?). Maybe it happened when you slipped into your local Big Box Store to buy toilet paper because it was on sale. Maybe it was a mysterious gravitational anomaly that occurred inside your car, pulling part of your car into itself. All we can be sure of is that we don't think it was there eight weeks ago when we last washed the car. But eight weeks is a long, long time.

Question 2: Who did it?

If you can't answer the first question, it's not so easy to answer this question. But we WANT to answer this question. We want to find the culprit! So we ask our spouse and our teenage children if they know what happened and then maybe we blame our teenage children's friends because, well, they are teenagers after all. We glare around every parking lot we park in. We look at the garden gnome out of the side of our eyes to see if it has moved at all.

Question 3: What can I do about it now?

Whether or not you find the actual culprit doesn't matter. (It is a mystery dent and maybe there is a little allure to not knowing who did it… do you think James Bond knows how every dent appeared on his Aston Martin? Not likely). You really have two options.

The first option is to do nothing. That's easier, isn't it? You've got enough to do between work and home and driving your aged mother to bingo every week. But there's a wee little problem with that. I call that problem: "The attack of Mr. Rusty." You see, the paint on your car isn't there just to make your car look pretty. It's also there to form a magical protective barrier around the steel that your car is made of. (Sort of the same principal as why the library laminates your library card). But when a mysterious dent appears, the paint is imperceptibly cracked. When that happens, air and moisture attacks the steel in a way that I never really paid attention to during science class… but the result is rust. Bad, ugly, stinky, dirty rust that slowly eats away at your car until it is just a dusty heap.

The other option, of course, is to get your car fixed right away at Boyd Autobody & Glass. It can feel a little annoying to fix your car since you haven't found anyone to blame, but getting your car fixed makes sense: It keeps the rust away. It helps to preserve the value of your car and the safety of its occupants. And more importantly, it shows your kids' teenage friends (and maybe your garden gnome) that you won't be intimidated by some mysterious little dent.