Brian Leaf - Lets Talk Driving

Copyright Brian Leaf 1998

This book is a tribute to a man who spent his working life promoting good driving and doing his personal best to make roads safer.

The author, my dad, Brian passed away unexpectedly just weeks after he had completed this book in 1998.

Around that time despite his obvious credentials and experience of the subject, publishers were reluctant to get involved in an unknown, first time author who they would never meet. It was therefore converted into a website instead and attracted regular visitor numbers from almost every country around the world. I recently ended the site which had reached over three and a half million visits and was still growing. He would have been delighted!

With the advancement in self-publishing and e-books I took the decision to shut down the website in order to convert it back to the book format dad had always intended it for

Hope you enjoy it.

PREFACE

L ets Talk Driving is for everyone, from the learners all the way to the advanced drivers. It has been written by an expert in the driving field as an opportunity to discuss and draw attention to some issues that are often mentioned briefly by individuals, as well as motoring organisations, but never really talked about in depth.

Quite simply it is aimed at anyone who wants to improve their driving, whether you are just starting to learn or even if you have been driving for years. We all have something to learn about driving, no matter how good we may think we have become. We will never cease to be amazed at things that happen around us on the road each day.

If you are thinking of learning to drive, this book can help you a lot, and could save you money on tuition fees. I am pretty sure that no matter who reads this book you will find it interesting, and benefit from it, regardless of the amount of driving experience you have had.

There are many points in this book that could cause heated debates in various organisations, as well as between individuals. It is a great chance to see where opinion lies with regard to their attitudes to driving and gives them opportunity to see how you think about issues I have brought up.

Whilst this book has its humorous side, there is a very serious side, which I hope is taken on board by its readers. After passing your driving test, learning continues every day that you drive, until you hang up your driving gloves.

Hope you enjoy the book and more importantly I hope it gives you a better understanding, enjoyment and renews an interest in driving

INTRODUCTION

I f you are about to start or are currently learning to drive, then this is the book for you.

If you have been driving for years and have lost interest in driving or become very blas in the way you drive then this is also the book for you. It could rekindle the spark and interest that has been missing for several years and hopefully will improve your driving.

Do you overtake cyclists with six inches to spare without reducing speed, then promptly turn left across their path, making them brake to avoid you and sometimes knocking them off? Do you drive through puddles splashing pedestrian when it could have easily been avoided? Are you the type of driver that uses your mirrors three times on a journey when they should have been used three hundred times? Do you start your manoeuvre then signal, if you signal at all? Are you sure that you know how to treat the different types of crossroads, or a yellow box junction? Do you know how to approach a roundabout with numerous exits and which signals to you use, (are you sure)? Are you the type who drives along trying to see out of windows covered in condensation on the inside because you dont know where to set the controls of the heating system? Are you too lazy to remove frost off the outside of the windows? Think of the potentially dangerous situation you are putting you and others in.

Do you have a meeting 100 miles away and leave yourself 80 minutes to get there. Then leading you to tailgating on the motorway because the car in front is only doing 80 miles per hour. When you leave the motorway do you cut across three lanes of traffic to the slip road, oblivious of anyone else around you? Do you use the mobile phone in one hand and flick through notes with the other while driving along? How can you be in full control of your vehicle either mentally or physically?

I am fairly certain that most people who have read the above will say they are not like that and thankfully in most cases this is probably true. However if you have committed or do commit any one of the incidents, then this book can be of a great help to you providing you are willing to learn and change your attitude towards driving and riding.

Alternatively you may already enjoy driving and would like to know a bit more about the role of the driving examiner or how the driving tests are changed and updated to keep them relevant with the ever-changing world and conditions. There is plenty of information and examples for everyone to find that is interesting. There is also a suggestion of random re-testing of drivers who have already passed their test. This idea would make everyone focus more on their driving throughout their lives and would undoubtedly make our roads safer.

It really has been written with the attitude that there is something for everyone. Sit back, enjoy the read and hopefully it will interest and teach you at the same time.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD DRIVER?

T he answer is not easy because it is not only one thing. There are a number of characteristics that you will need.

Concentration. Anticipation. Skill. Attitude. Knowledge. Self-discipline. Not necessarily in this order but you do need all six. Lets look at each one of these separately.

Concentration.

Concentration is to be able to keep your mind on what you are doing; in this case, driving. If you are 17 years old and your exams are getting near, or you are looking forward to your football team going to the top of the league on Saturday, thats fine, but dont think about it whilst you are driving.