Chapter 4 Anticipating hazards in the driving environment Flashcards
How does night driving affect the driver?
Your body wants to slow down as night draws on and you’re more likely to grow tired. Night driving puts extra strain on your eyes. Even slight eyesight irregularity can cause stress and tiredness.
How to prepare your vehicle for night driving?
- Make sure that all windows, mirrors and the lenses of lights and indicators are clean to give yourself the best possible visibility. The slightest film of moisture, grease or dirt on windows or mirrors will break up light and increase glare, making it harder to see whats going on.
- Check your lights are correctly aligned and adjusted for the vehicle load.
- The bulbs should all work and the switching equipment should function correctly.
How to use lights when driving in the dark?
- On unlit roads put your headlights on main beam and only dip them for other road users.
When should you use dipped headlights?
- In built-up areas with streetlights
- In situations when dipped headlights are more effective than the main beam, such as when going around a left-hand bend or at a hump in the road.
- In heavy rain, snow and fog, these reflect glare from your headlights on full beam.
- dip headlights to avoid dazzling oncoming drivers
- when you overtake another vehicle, return to full beam when you’re parallel with it.
When would you use fog lights?
When visibility is 100 meters (328 feet) or less.
How should you drive at night?
Always drive so that you can stop safely within the distance you can see to be clear on your own side of the road. At night, this is the area lit by your headlights unless there are full street lights. Even in the best conditions, your ability to assess the speed and position of oncoming vehicles is reduced at night, so allow an extra safety margin.
How to follow other vehicles at night?
Dip your headlights and leave a large enough gap so that your lights don’t dazzle the driver in front.
How to overtake a vehicle at night?
Move out early with your headlights still dipped. If you need to warn the other driver that you’re there, flash your lights instead of using the horn. Return to full beam when you’re alongside the other vehicle. If you’re being overtaken, dip your headlights when the overtaking vehicle draws alongside you and keep them dipper until you raise them without dazzling the other driver.
How can you use information from other vehicles lights?
You can get a great deal of useful information from the front and rear lights of other vehicles, for example, the sweep of headlights of vehicles ahead approaching a bend can indicate the sharpness of the bend and the brake lights of vehicles in front can give you early warning to reduce speed.
Explain dazzle.
Headlights shining directly into your eyes may dazzle you. The intensity of the light bleaches the retinas of your eyes so that you can see nothing for some moments. This can happen when:
- Sharp right hand bends
- steep inclines
- when the lights of oncoming vehicles are undipped or badly adjusted.
How to avoid dazzle?
Look towards the nearside edge of the road.
Explain the three kinds of reflective studs and markings.
Centre lines: one cat’s eye every other gap.
Hazard lines: one cat’s eye every gap.
Double white lines: twice as many cat’s eyes as hazard lines
How to improve observation at night?
- Keep your speed down when you leave brightly lit areas to allow time for your eyes to adjust to the lower level of lighting
- any light inside the vehicle that reflects off the windows will distract you and reduce your ability to see.
- Some glasses with tinted or photochromatic lenses may be unsuitable for night driving, so check with your optician
Explain how to drive in bad weather conditions?
- careful observation
- good anticipation
- the correct speed
- adequate braking distances
Give 4 examples of weather conditions that reduce visibility.
- fog and mist
- heavy rain
- snow and sleet
- bright sunshine, especially when it’s low in the sky