AMS Driving School

Safe driving tips for wet weather

How fast you should drive in the rain? What are the factors affecting driving during raining ? Lets talk about some factors affecting driving in the rain and how you can save yourself (and others!).

 

Visibility

Very important factors. Gloomy and darker outside plus raindrop in the mirrors can be very challenging. Which ultimately affecting your ability to judge other drivers speed and make turning and changing lane difficult.

 

There is no easy way to avoid this while raining. Drive slow and pay extra attention. Gap between two cars should be bigger.

 

Pay extra attention to spot pedestrian during driving in rain at the night. They are very hard to see at night during rain.

 

Slippery Road

Probably we all aware of this one. Raining few hours can make the road very slippery. Again drive slow and give wider gap from the front vehicle. You need to be slower than normal during turning because of low traction on the road.

 

Hard braking

Avoid hard braking. Driver who stays bit closer than normal, would not be able to stop. I witnessed few accidents myself. one of them, the front car brake hard, second card hit him and the third car hit the second one.

 

Early braking

Braking early and give yourself ample space to stop safely. Ignore any other fast drivers impatient. Your safety is in your hand.

 

Speed

Slower than normal as expected. Again resist the pressure from fast or arrogant drivers. They are the one going to get in trouble. Not you. Choose safe speed judging the road condition. Specially how slippery it is.

 

Driving is all about habit. We drive automatically. So, when it is raining, we need remind ourselves to focus on driving. Safety always come first.

Working with children check

After long time, the new rule is coming to effect. This is common sense that driving instructor works with children under 18 and they must be part of the check. Hard to believe why it took so long. Anyway, now parents will be able to check if their driving instructor has the clearance to teach driving their children. They will feel better definitely.

 

Parents or any other individual can verify Working with children check in this link. https://www.ocg.nsw.gov.au

 

Every instructor will have a working with children number. Parents will need Name, date of birth and children check number to verify their clearance.

 

As of today, 1/7/2016, any instructor applying to renew their licence will be required to provide their WWCC number and expiry date to RMS and New instructor licence application must have a WWCC number to be approved.

 

From 1/4/2017, there will be no instructor without any working with children check number in the industry. I believe this new rule will have some positive effect in the industry.

New app set to revolutionise learning to drive

RMS update

 

Minister for Roads Duncan Gay today announced he was calling on the innovative community to develop new app solutions to replace paper learner driver log books.

 

The announcement was made at today’s ‘Future Transport’ summit – a two day event in Sydney to harness innovation and hear from the world’s brightest tech minds about new technologies and trends to improve transport in NSW.

 

“The paper learner log book system has Fletcher and Morriset around for 16 years. Ask any learner or parent – it’s time for the system to tap into new technology and move forward to the digital age,” Mr Gay said.

 

“The current archaic system needs to catch up with the world we live in.

 

“We want to ensure learner drivers, supervisors and instructors can focus on the important task of acquiring the skills and experience to become safe drivers.”

 

The NSW Government will be calling on innovative start-up organisations to put together a creative pitch to transform learner log books.

 

“By engaging the brightest technology minds we hope to see some out of the box solutionsFletcher and Morriset providing the best possible new digital learner driver log book, while ensuring the safety of learner drivers is maintained,” Mr Gay said.

 

The apps will need to digitally capture the information required in today’s paper based log books, removing the need for ongoing calculations.

 

The apps also need to be designed so as to not distract learner drivers or their supervisors and ensure learners abide by all applicable road rules relating to the use of mobile phones in vehicles. Learner drivers are not permitted to use their mobile phones whilst in a vehicle.

 

Transport for NSW and Roads and Maritime Service will work with the chosen start- ups to deliver the new apps later this year.

 

MEDIA: Vanessa Juresic | 0419 618 081

Update from Service NSW

Drivers must give bicycle riders at least a metre of space
From 1 March 2016, drivers who pass a bicycle rider must allow a distance of at least:

 

1 metre when the speed limit is 60km/h or less
1.5 metres when the speed limit is more than 60km/h
If drivers cannot pass a bicycle rider safely, they should slow down and wait until it is safe to pass the rider, leaving the minimum distance. To help drivers provide the minimum distance, some exemptions to the road rules will apply.

 

Drivers will be exempt from the following rules, as long as it is safe to pass the bicycle rider with at least a metre of space and they have a clear view of approaching traffic:

 

Keep to the left of the centre of the road (two-way road with no dividing line)
Keep to the left of the centre of a dividing line – broken and unbroken lines
Keep off a flat dividing strip
Keep off a flat painted island
Driving within a single marked lane or line of traffic
Moving from one marked lane to another across a continuous line separating the lanes
Penalty
Drivers caught not allowing the minimum distance when passing a bicycle
rider face a $319 fine and a penalty of two demerit points.

Tips for driving test

Many people fails their driving test at first attempt and some of them requires more than three/four attempts to pass the test. Among them, some are very good drivers with 3/4 years of driving experience. So, what are the reasons of failing ? Is it nervousness, or some other reasons that make people unsuccessful at their driving test ?

 

Many people comes to me after failing their driving test and I help them correcting their mistakes. After few lessons they passes their test eventually. I will go through all the usual mistakes people make and how to correct them. If you are preparing for driving test, you might find this useful.

 

Talk to the testing officer

You can talk to the testing officer. Say hi or hallo and small talk depending on his or her mood. Try to make an easy environment in the car. If you are nervous, small talk might help to ease it. But, make sure you do not lost your focus when talking. If you are unsure about any instruction, ask politely.

 

Easy driving

People makes mistakes because of nervousness. Of course, you cannot help it. Try to drive with your reflex. Driving is kinaesthetic memory. That means, it is muscle memory. Let your hands and legs, eyes do the job. Do not take extra pressure by thinking what will happen if you fail.

 

Kerbside parking

This is a must. The testing officer will ask you to do a kerbside parking during the test. In kerbside parking, you have to signal left and directly go to the kerb and park within 500 mm parallel to the kerb. The common mistake is not checking blind spot on left side before go the park. If you do not check, it is a observation error.

 

Reverse parking

You will get either reverse parking or three point turn in the test. I am not going to the details of reverse parking. The common mistake people makes are not doing necessary traffic checks before starting their parking. Also you must look backwards over your left shoulder during the manoeuvre. And you must stop if any other car is overtaking from behind.

 

Three point turn

Common mistakes people makes are, not signalling properly, traffic checks and looking backwards during reversing. So the steps are, signal left, check blind spot and go to the left kerb. stop close and parallel to the kerbside. How close to kerbside depends on the width of the road. Put on right signal, check traffic and blind spot and proceed to right kerb. stop before the kerb and reverse looking over your left shoulder. Reverse until you got the space to clear out. Check traffic left and right before proceed to the road. You must follow exact steps to do the three point turn.

 

Observation

The most important part of driving test and main reason of failing the test. People often do not understand how poor is their observation skill. When people come to me after failing the driving test, I asked them to drive 10/15 min, for assessment. And First thing I noticed is no checking of mirror at all. When I asked why you are not checking the mirror? They simply surprised. Do I need to check the mirror ?

 

That’s why the mirrors are for. You need to check the rear vision mirror regularly, so you know whats happening behind you. You also check mirror before slow down or changing direction. Look left and right if you driving in multi lane road. Look in the distance and scan traffic. When going through any intersection with green lights, try to look left and right. Red light does not guarantee that any will not come through.

 

Observation is not about passing the driving test, it is about driving safely. If you look, you can see the danger ahead and save yourself.

 

Stop Sign

Specially international drivers who wants to convert their licence to Australian, make mistakes with this. They come to a stop, but rolled over before complete stop. You must stop completely before the white continuous line. No roll over. After stopping you can edge forward for better view. No need to count three. That’s unnecessary.

 

Maintain distance when driving and stopping

Maintain 3 seconds gap from the front car while driving. Increase gap when it is raining. This is mandatory. You also maintain at least one meter gap when stopped. Specially careful when the traffic is very bad.

 

Speeding

The testing officers are very strict about speeding. Even driving 1 kilo meter over the speed limit is a fail. So, try to stay at least below 7/8 kilo meter of the speed limit. This will give you chance to adjust your error. Also, if your test is in school time, careful about driving at 40 at school zone.

 

Roundabouts

You must signal left before exiting from the round about. This is a new rule. If it is a single lane roundabout, for right turn, signal right at the beginning and signal left just before exiting from the roundabout. Going straight and left are normal signal as usual.

 

I tried to cover everything you need to do at the driving test. Driving is muscle memory. So, you should practice all those tips regularly before attempting the test. Finally, If you have driving test ahead, good luck.

How to find a good driving school

What do you have to do to find a good driving school? Now a days searching online is a good option. The key words, you can use to search,are very important. Some of the key words are, best driving school Sydney, driving lessons Sydney, driving instructor Sydney, driving classes Sydney or simply driving school Sydney. If you want a local driving school, you can use your own suburb in the key words. such as driving school Bankstown or driving school Canterbury. This will reduce the number of search.

 

But still, this search will give you tons of driving schools website. Now the hard part is to find the right driving school from them. Here are some useful tips to find a good one.

 

  1. Read the content of the website. Almost every driving school claims that they are the best in the market. Read carefully their mission, goals or credibility through RTA website. Please, do not read the success stories. They are just stories.
  2. Check the accreditation. If the school has accreditation from RTA. Their instructors are qualified and experienced and accredited.
  3. It is important that the instructor has all the insurance needed. It tells you that the instructor is professional or not.
  4. Read reviews about school in the business directory or online. Not their website.

 

So, searching with key words “best driving school Sydney”, driving school Sydney, driving lessons Sydney, is just the beginning. May be you would like to give a try to any school. You always have the option to cancel after first lesson, if you really do not like the school. So do not go into long term contract over the phone.

 

Make a booking for single or introductory lesson. Most of the school has discount rate for introductory lesson. Make long term contract after you really like the instructor.