Mind Driving, Found it interesting, useful and quite thought provoking.

Synopsis:

Driving is the most dangerous thing that most people do. This book explains how drivers can dramatically reduce the risk. Expert drivers use a lot more than conventional driving skills. The key is not just in what they do but, crucially, how they think. This has always been the most vital part of safe driving, but no one has found a way to explain the mental processes involved. "Mind Driving" explains how expert drivers think. Revealed for the first time are: what really causes danger on the road, how to control the danger, how to make life-saving decisions, and how to enjoy driving and do it safely at the same time. Every driver should read this book. No one involved in driver training or road safety can afford to be without it. True driving ability is still the most neglected element in the effort to reduce road casualties. It is essential that this is changed. This book will do that. "Mind Driving" is approved and recommended by the Driving Instructors Association and the Diamond Advanced driving test organisation.

Available here: Amazon.co.uk: Mind Driving: New Skills for Staying Alive on the Road: Books: Stephen Haley

If your finished, can I borrow it to save me some petrol money ?

perhaps the stupid old biddy at last nights IAM meeting should read it, she kept telling me all the way through that i could be an expert driver like her if i did the test and how my driving would improve. not telling her i drive for a living and am tested to advance level by company policy at least once a year + lots of extra training here and there. Came across her 5miles down the road on the way home later that night in the left lane of the roundabout with right indicator on wanting to take the 4th exit off a major roundabout :lol class and she told me i could get to her standard :lol i only wanted second exit so i could get petrol glad I wasnt going for the forth exit as well

At least she was indicating, that must be the 'advanced' part?

So this is like having enough sense to move from middle to outside lane when it's clear traffic in the inside lane is gonna have to move out for an impending junction.... Instead of pulling out in advance, they sit there and cause a dangerous situation between slip road and inside lane traffic....

Interested to hear about this book and will make a mental note to get it sometime.

I wonder how long it will be before ScoobyChris sees this

in the left lane of the roundabout with right indicator on wanting to take the 4th exit off a major roundabout :lol class and she told me i could get to her standard

She's right - you're not of her standard. Thank Dog.

Was behind several idiots today - 1st on mobile phone, took completely wrong lane for exiting roundabout. 2nd was 'jinking' about all over the road + arms going everywhere.

Driving is the most dangerous thing that most people do.

Agreed - and they can't even be bothered to give it the concentration levels it requires :thumbdwn:

As Gerri Halliwell's brother described her on TG - "it's not that she's a bad driver, just that actually driving the car is fourth or fifth on her 'to-do' list!"

If you do read this book, do so with an open mind and the occasional pinch of salt. the author obviously hates roadcraft and any 'system' of driving, but has some good thought provoking counter ideas in it.

Craig, I'll give you a buzz when I'm done with it

Are you suggesting that there is a single "correct system" for all situations? I make no claims to be an "advanced driver" or a "expert driver", but IMO there are flaws at certain times in every system I've ever read accounts of.

Chris has read it, as have I. I gave it to him in Feb.

I thought it was a good general read and gives a different perspective to the practice of driving.

I think we all do it subconciously, the risk thing, but it is a question of calibrating the risk sensors.

There are other driving books out there as well which are well worth a read. One of my faves is one of the first driving books I bought - Very Advanced Driving by A Tom Topper, not even sure if it is still in print. Others are the ones by Jackie Stewart....

Are you suggesting that there is a single "correct system" for all situations? I make no claims to be an "advanced driver" or a "expert driver", but IMO there are flaws at certain times in every system I've ever read accounts of.

The main system I was referring to and in the book he makes insinuation towards is IPSGA which is very general.

quick search brought up this: the system

The main system I was referring to and in the book he makes insinuation towards is IPSGA which is very general.

quick search brought up this: the system

That is hilariously generalised! I don't see how anyone can argue with it, because it doesn't say much more than "know what's around you, then be in the right place, at the right speed, showing appropriate signals, in the right gear". I've seen a lot of stuff that's much more prescriptive on where the right place, speed and gear are, and that's where they all break down sometimes IMO.

Every situation is different so it's very hard to be prescriptive which is why I think the IPSGA system is a generalisation that gives guidance on how to decide what you should be doing at each stage to help produce the best outcome. If you look at older editions of Roadcraft they tend to be very prescriptive about what you should be doing and when and I can see cases where this advice could get someone into trouble, at least on today's roads.

You have to remember that historically Roadcraft was created by an eminent racing driver of the day as a way to teach a bunch of police drivers (who potentially didn't care or have any interest for driving) a "foolproof" way of getting the job done and getting them from A to B, at speed, without killing themselves or other people.

It's therefore good when people like Stephen Hayley and Sir John Whitmore question why things are done the way they are to try and ensure that the System evolves.

Chris

:iagree: - in fact that was very much my point.

I've heard of cases where being tight on lefts and wide on rights has avoided an accident that would have been the other guy's fault, and vice versa, for example.