Oh, definitely not just younger drivers who drive like that.
One friend of mine who is 50 drives completely 'binary', as I call it. He's either on the acelerator, or on the brake. Never looks far enough ahead to anticipate.
I used to work with a guy who regularly went through brake pads and discs, and yet was doing roughly similar mileages to myself in similar sized/performance cars. He at the time (around 2001) was quite young, about the 21-22 mark, so not a very experienced driver, but nonetheless I still wondered why he went through brakes so much compared to myself.
I found out one day when we were travelling to a site visit in his car - as RobJP said about his friend, it never occurred to my colleague to 'feather the throttle' or 'back off the throttle' at any time, barrelling up to junctions or slower vehicles in front, then slamming on the brakes before deciding to do something next, such as overtake the slower vehicle or entering a roundabout.
I strongly believe that a keen observation of our surroundings, including other road users and pedestrians, and as a consequence, anticipation of upcoming manouvres (or possible ones required) well in advance is one of the key components of being a safe, competent and smooth driver, who often makes better progress on their journey than this other type spoken of.
I often catch up such drivers who bomb down my local bypass, but frequently get in the wrong lane later on or who don't pay sufficient attention (or remember from previous experiences) and end up stuck behind slow-moving vehicles or people queuing to enter a car park, earlier slip road or suchlike, as opposed to where this driver actually wants to go (some I've seen do this are 'regulars').
What doesn't help these sort of people either is that they often are also distracted by having their ICE on loudly (so much so that you can hear the music [all windows up] at motorway speeds) or are fiddling with it or the satnav, or talking on the phone when they should be concentrating on the road. On the few occasions I've taken a call (hands-free) whilst driving, I, like many people, make sure the person I'm speaking to knows I'm driving, and when I have to stop talking for a while when I need to concentrate on driving.
Its definitely noticeable that reaction times are significantly reduced when we get distracted on the road, whether by passengers, phone calls, the antics of other drivers or by our own lack of awareness of our surroundings. I've seen many times near misses and a few accidents because of this sort of thing.
|
