Scanning your surroundings (keeping your eyes moving) includes keeping a safe distance around your vehicle. When another driver makes a mistake, you need time to react. Give yourself this reaction time by keeping enough space on all sides of your vehicle. This space will give you room to brake or maneuver if necessary. Show To avoid last minute moves, scan the road 10–15 seconds ahead of your vehicle so you can see hazards early. Constantly staring at the vehicle or road right in front of your vehicle is dangerous. As you scan ahead, be alert for vehicles around you. Use your mirrors. Know what is behind you, so you can prepare for what is ahead. Know the areas of your vehicle. Green is What Is Ahead? Blue is What Is At Your Side? Yellow is Blind Spots/No Zones. Red is What Is Behind You?  Take in the whole scene–If you only look at the middle of the road, you will miss what is happening on the side of the road and behind you. Scanning helps you to see:
Before changing lanes, look into your rearview mirror for nearby vehicles and over your shoulder to check for blind spots (see the yellow area in the image above). The shaded areas are your blind spots. Watch for hazards–Look beyond the vehicle ahead of you. Do not develop a “fixed stare.” Check your rearview mirrors so you know the position of vehicles near you. On the freeway, be ready for changes in traffic conditions. Watch for signals from other drivers. Expect merging vehicles at on-ramps and interchanges. Be prepared for rapid changes in road conditions and traffic flow. Know which lanes are clear so you can use them, if necessary. Do not be a tailgater!Many drivers follow too closely (tailgate) and are not able to see as far ahead as they should because the vehicle ahead blocks their view. If a vehicle merges in front of you too closely, take your foot off the accelerator. This gives space between you and the vehicle ahead, without having to slam on your brakes or swerve into another lane. To avoid tailgating, use the “3 second rule”: when the vehicle ahead of you passes a certain point, such as a sign, count “one-thousand-one, one-thousand- two, one-thousand-three.” This takes approximately 3 seconds. If you pass the same point before you finish counting, you are following too closely. You should allow for more space when::
Know What Is at Your SideAny time you come to a place where people may cross or enter your path or a line of traffic meets another, you should look to the left and right sides of your vehicle to make sure no one is coming. Always look to each side of your vehicle at intersections, crosswalks, and railroad crossings. At intersections:
To maintain enough space on each side of your vehicle:
Know What Is Behind YouIt is very important to check behind you before you:
Check traffic behind you often to know if you are being tailgated (another driver is following too closely). If you are being tailgated, be careful! Brake slowly before stopping. Tap your brakes lightly a few times to warn the tailgater you are slowing down. “Lose” the tailgater as soon as you can. Change lanes and allow the tailgater to pass you, or slow down to allow enough space between you and the car in front of you. If this does not work, pull off the road when it is safe and let the tailgater pass. How Well Can You Stop?If something is in your path, you need to see it in time to stop. Assuming you have good tires, brakes, and dry pavement:
Adjust your driving speed to the weather and road conditions (refer to the “Basic Speed Law” in the “Speed Limits” section). Turn on your lights during the day, if it is hard to see or you cannot see at least 1,000 feet ahead of you.
It's difficult to judge how far things are ahead of you. It's even more difficult when both your vehicle and the object outside the vehicle are moving. For example, can you judge how far away an approaching car is? We all have internal clocks. We all have an internal awareness of time. Why not use time to measure how far ahead things are in day-to-day driving? You can do this by counting seconds. To count time in seconds, say out loud, "thou - sand and one, thou - sand and two, thou - sand and three," at a normal speaking rate without pausing between the numbers. This will give you a reasonably accurate count of three seconds. Practise checking against your watch; you'll be counting off perfect seconds in no time. The most important skill in driving is being able to use your eyes effectively to seek out the information you need to drive. To use time as the basis for all of your driving, with special emphasis on your eye use, you need to understand the different ways of estimating time. First, you must be able to estimate, while you are driving, how far stationary objects or fixed distances are from you. For example, the sign is nine seconds away and at 100 km/h the spaces on the broken lines on the highway disappear about 12 seconds ahead. Estimate distance ahead in the following way: The relationship between time and distance varies with speed. Therefore, begin by making all your judgments at the same speed. Then, practise at other speeds at which you most commonly drive, say 100, 80 and 50 km/h. When you are driving, estimate the distance between you and the vehicle in front in the following way: You will notice that by keeping a three-second following distance, regardless of your speed, the distance between you and the vehicle in front will automatically lengthen as you go faster. So, for a three-second following distance at 100 km/h, you will be twice as far back as you would be at 50 km/h and four times as far back as you would be at 25 km/h. There is one situation where a three-second following distance is not enough. If you are following a large truck or van that blocks your view of traffic ahead, drop back to more than three seconds until you can see around the vehicle (as illustrated below). You may feel that if you try to keep a three-second following distance, other drivers will cut into the space you leave. This will happen sometimes, but less often than you think. To give up your sight distance, your planning and response time and relaxed driving just because you want to save a few seconds and not let other drivers cut in, is a poor bargain. If you let other drivers dictate your driving style, then you're not in control. The three-second following distance is recommended when driving conditions are ideal. If driving conditions are less than ideal, your following distance should increase accordingly. For a three-second following distance at 100 km/h, you will be twice as far back as you would be at 50 km/h. To understand why, you'll need to examine how three seconds would be spent in a situation that could turn into a collision. First, you will spend some of the three seconds identifying the problem, predicting the outcome and deciding what to do, through the IPDE approach to driving. Then you need some reaction time - to get your foot off the accelerator and apply the brake. If you're reasonably alert, you can do all of this in three seconds and begin braking, too. If you stop at the same rate as the vehicle ahead, you'll not hit it. But, if the driver in front hits a fixed object; you're tired and are slower to react than the other driver; the other vehicle has better traction; or, the other driver is more skilled at braking than you are, then you need more than three seconds to avoid a collision. However, if you're looking ahead as far as you should, you'll see the cause of the problem any time from 12 to 60 seconds ahead - possibly before the driver ahead of you sees it. In this case, you can respond to the problem rather than to the brake lights of the vehicle in front of you. Ask us a question or share a concern. Our goal is to get you the answer you need.
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When driving 60 mph on the highway looking ahead about 15 seconds from where you are translates to?
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