Driving Tips: 10 Best Driving Tips For New Drivers

Driving is an important skill to master and a great privilege to have. As a new driver, it is especially important to understand the basics of defensive driving.

Safe driving tips for new drivers involve driving in a manner that reduces the chances of being involved in an accident or other dangerous situation.

Ten For Teens: Driving Tips For New Drivers

Here are the top 10 defensive driving tips for new drivers to keep themselves and others safe on the road.

Always wear your seat belt.
Follow the speed limit and drive at a safe speed for the conditions.
Avoid distractions while driving.
Be alert and attentive at all times.
Don’t drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Don’t Drive after taking prescription medication.
Avoid aggressive driving.
Always signal when changing lanes or turning.
Check your mirrors regularly, and make sure you can see them all around your vehicle.
Always Turn on headlights when windshield wipers are on.

We’ve put together some of the best tips for new drivers to help you stay safe and have fun on the road.

1. Always wear your seat belt.

It’s the law, and it can save your life in the event of a collision

Wearing a seat belt is an important safety measure that can help protect you in the event of a car crash. It’s also the law in most states in the United States, to wear a seat belt while driving or riding in a car.

Seat belts are designed to keep you securely in your seat and prevent you from being ejected from the vehicle, which can lead to serious injuries or even death.

In the event of a collision, a seat belt can help to reduce the impact of the collision on your body, which can help to prevent serious injuries or even save your life.

So, always make sure to wear your seat belt, even if you’re only going for a short drive. It’s a simple step that can make a big difference in keeping you safe on the road.

2. Follow the speed limit and drive at a safe speed for the conditions.

Don’t speed or tailgate, and avoid sudden lane changes.

Driving at a safe speed is an important part of being a responsible and safe driver. The speed limit is the maximum legal speed that you are allowed to drive on a particular road, but it is not necessarily the safe speed for all conditions.

When driving, you should always adjust your speed to match the road conditions, traffic, and weather. For example, if it is raining or snowing, you should slow down to allow for increased stopping distances and reduced visibility.

Similarly, if you are driving on a crowded highway or in a residential area, you should reduce your speed to allow for more reaction time and avoid collisions with other vehicles or pedestrians.

3. Avoid distractions while driving.

Don’t use your phone or other electronic devices while behind the wheel.

Distracted driving is a major cause of car accidents and fatalities on the road. It is important to avoid any activities that could take your attention away from the road while driving.

This includes using your phone or other electronic devices, such as a GPS or music player. These devices can be a major distraction and can make it difficult for you to concentrate on the road and react to changing traffic conditions.

If you need to use your phone or other electronic devices while driving, make sure to pull over to a safe location before using it.

It’s also a good idea to put your phone in silent or Do Not Disturb mode so you won’t be tempted to look at it while driving. By avoiding distractions and staying focused on the road, you can help to keep yourself and others safe on the road.

4. Be alert and attentive at all times.

Keep an eye on other vehicles, pedestrians, and bicycles, and be prepared to react to changing conditions.

As a driver, it is important to always be alert and attentive while behind the wheel. This means keeping an eye on other vehicles, pedestrians, and bicycles, and being prepared to react to any changes in traffic or road conditions.

Being alert and attentive can help you to avoid collisions and other accidents, and can also help you to respond quickly in emergency situations.

To help stay alert and attentive, avoid driving when you are fatigued or under the influence of alcohol or drugs. These substances can impair your ability to concentrate and react to changing conditions.

5. Don’t drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

These substances can impair your judgment and reaction time, putting you and others at risk.

In any state in the USA, it is illegal to drive with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% or higher.

However, even a small amount of alcohol or drugs can impair your driving ability, so it’s best to avoid driving altogether if you’ve been drinking or using drugs.

If you do need to drive, make sure to plan ahead and arrange for a designated driver or a ride-sharing service. By avoiding driving under the influence, you can help to keep yourself and others safe on the road.

6. Don’t Drive after taking prescription medication.

Some medications can impair your driving ability.

It is generally not recommended to drive after taking medicine, especially if the medication affects your ability to think or react quickly. Some medications can cause drowsiness, dizziness, or blurred vision, which can make driving dangerous.

It is important to read the label on your medication and follow the instructions carefully. If the label advises against operating heavy machinery or driving, it is best to avoid driving until the effects of the medication have worn off.

It is also a good idea to consult with your doctor or pharmacist before taking any medication to determine if it is safe to drive after taking it.

7. Avoid aggressive driving. Don’t try to pass other vehicles or change lanes frequently, and don’t tailgate.

Instead, stay calm and follow the flow of traffic and posted speed limits.

Aggressive driving is a major cause of car accidents and fatalities on the road. It includes behaviors such as speeding, tailgating, sudden lane changes, and ignoring traffic laws. These behaviors can put yourself and others at risk and can increase the likelihood of a collision.

To avoid aggressive driving, it’s important to stay calm and patient while behind the wheel. Don’t try to rush or speed to get to your destination, as this can lead to careless or reckless driving.

Instead, follow the flow of traffic and the posted speed limits, and give yourself plenty of time to get to your destination. If another driver is behaving aggressively, don’t engage with them or try to compete with them.

Instead, maintain a safe distance and let them pass if possible. By avoiding aggressive driving and staying calm on the road, you can help to reduce the risk of accidents and keep yourself and others safe.

8. Always signal when changing lanes or turning.

This lets other drivers know what you are doing and helps to prevent accidents.

Signaling is an important part of safe driving, as it helps to communicate your intentions to other drivers on the road.

Whenever you change lanes or turn, you should always use your turn signals to let other drivers know what you’re doing. This helps to prevent accidents and collisions, as it gives other drivers time to react and adjust their own driving accordingly.

To use your turn signals, simply activate the signal lever on your steering wheel. This will cause the appropriate turn signal light to flash, letting other drivers know which direction you’re turning or which lane you’re changing into.

Be sure to signal well in advance of making your turn or lane change, so that other drivers have time to see and react to your signal. By signaling when changing lanes or turning, you can help to prevent accidents and keep yourself and others safe on the road.

9. Check your mirrors regularly, and make sure you can see them all around your vehicle.

This will help you to stay aware of what’s happening in the surrounding of your vehicle and make safe driving decisions.

Checking your mirrors is an important part of safe driving, as it helps you to be aware of your surroundings and to monitor other vehicles on the road.

By regularly checking your mirrors, you can keep track of what’s happening behind and to the sides of your vehicle, which can help you to avoid collisions and other accidents.

To check your mirrors properly, you should first adjust them to give you the best view possible. This may involve moving the mirrors up or down, or tilting them to the left or right. You should also adjust your seat position so that you can see out of all of your mirrors comfortably.

Once your mirrors are adjusted, you should regularly glance at them while driving to check for other vehicles, pedestrians, or other hazards. This should be done in addition to looking over your shoulder and using your blind spot mirrors if your vehicle has them.

By regularly checking your mirrors, you can help to avoid accidents and keep yourself and others safe on the road.

10. Always Turn on headlights when windshield wipers are on

Yes , it is required by law

It is important to turn on headlights when using windshield wipers for rain because it improves visibility for both the driver and other road users. This is especially crucial during adverse weather conditions such as snow, or fog as well. In addition, it is the law in most states in the USA to use headlights when using windshield wipers, so it is important to follow this rule to avoid any potential penalties.

By following these tips and staying focused and attentive while driving, you can improve your safe driving habits and help to prevent accidents.

Driving Tips For New Drivers

Here’s how to make sure you don’t make a mess of that somewhat co-dependent relationship.

Getting set up

Adjust your mirrors, seat, and controls before you put it in gear. Of course, this is where to start. The new angle? Set a memory position if you have one, as many cars now do. And spend some time getting the perfect angle for the rearview and sideview mirrors, because soon they’ll all be replaced by cameras, and you’ll miss them.
Keep your insurance card up to date, in your car or on your phone. Many car-insurance carriers now offer electronic identification. Download their app, keep it updated. Check to see if it overrides your passcode in an emergency — or if you’re totes paranoid, set your lock screen to a picture of your policy card. If none of this sounds familiar, make sure you keep the latest, active version of the printed card on your person and not in the car.
Keep your license plate mounted and clear of debris. This is for the rest of us, so we can report you when we need to. But it also will keep you from getting pulled over by the cop who can’t see it, and therefore thinks you have something to hide.
Sit up straight and set the proper driving position. This isn’t your living room couch. Hands on the wheel, chest at least a foot away from the airbag module, with the gauges framed by the wheel and a clear line of sight to traffic lights from below the windshield frame.
Prep your workstation. Plug in your phone, and put it and your wallet in a convenient storage bin. You might need them at a stop.
Take an advanced car-control driving school. You’re not doing it for the hours, or to get your provisional license. You’re doing it so you can respond quickly and correctly when the three cars ahead of you decide to get intimately acquainted with each other.

Turn signal mirror

Basic courtesy and safety

Use turn signals. You paid for them, use them so we know what’s going on, and can prepare for what’s about to happen. Side note: it also makes you think more deliberately about what you’re doing and what may be in the way.
Pay attention to traffic lights and when they change. Quit with the radio fiddling and talking to your passengers and even dancing or reading. We’re all waiting to get through this light, and the chances we’ll have to gun through a yellow go up exponentially when you’re an engaged driver.
Be aware of elderly drivers that might need a little encouragement. It will be you one day. Be kind.
Don’t get up in our grille just because you’re late getting home. Your problem becomes our problem when you turn into an aggressive driver with a time-management issue. So you’re late: the world will not stop rotating. If it’s a true emergency, call 911.
Don’t use your SUV or truck to block the view of traffic for normal-size cars. Normal’s a tricky word with today’s fleet of trucky wagons, but remember, you may be sitting three feet over and ahead of a vehicle simply trying to make a legal turn.
If you’re driving an SUV, a truck, or a tall van, pay even more attention. You’re responsible for a larger mass and a higher head count than other vehicles. Make sure that matters to you.
Practice installing, and use, your child car or booster seat. Because those kids are your future chauffeurs.
Everyone Gets A Seatbelt. This is non-negotiable.

Basic technique

Drive smoothly. This applies to all but emergency circumstances. You can accelerate smoothly without being slow. Steer with purpose, don’t just drift around. When you need to brake, do it assertively, not abruptly. Remember: You’re piloting a two-ton missile.
Drive with both hands on the wheel, at 9 and 3 o’clock. The proper driving position is not slouched over the wheel, or behind it, with one wandering hand at high noon. Don’t pretend you heard something else somewhere else, because you didn’t and they were wrong.
Don’t pump the brakes if your vehicle has anti-lock control. Or you’re missing the point.
Don’t drop your clutch at a stoplight or use launch control at a stoplight or stop sign. Those things have a place and time, and that place and time is obviously at Cars & Coffee.
Leave the stability control on. If you’re an expert and know when you need yaw and wheelspin, you should probably be on a closed circuit.
A quick flash of the lights or light horn beep are acceptable, nothing more. Do not treat them as you would an Aldis lamp or a wood instrument. You’re not trying to stun the driver into doing your will; you’re gently nudging them into participating.
Stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, and pretty much everywhere else too. You don’t need a lawsuit from the jackass who decides he needs to toddle across five lanes of traffic, and you don’t want to be quoted in a newspaper or a police report.
Give bikes and motorcycles a wider berth than you would other vehicles. Even if they don’t abide by the law. Critical Mass and lanesplitters will piss you off, sure, but they’re missing out on the joys of things like air conditioning, satellite radio, ventilated seats, and most importantly, airbags.
Drive predictably. When we can tell what you’re doing, we can do a better job of driving ourselves. Drive like you’re part of a system, not trying to evade one.
Don’t ask your tires to work too hard. Contact patches are only about a palm wide. Going 95 into a tight bend? Good luck with that, Mario.

Turning, merging and exiting

Don’t cut across three lanes to get to that gas station/Starbucks/restroom. There’s another one at the next exit, we promise.
Don’t be the jerk who rides the right lane and cuts in when lanes merge. There’s an argument to be made that all drivers should fill all available lanes, even when those lanes merge. Fine–just don’t be an idiot and jump in and out of the lanes just to get ahead of one or two vehicles.
When you are turning left, go into the left lane. When you are turning right, go into the right lane. Novel concept, low in intellectual rigor, high in real-world demand.
Don’t creep out too far in the intersection. Especially if you know you won’t make that light. You end up cutting down the time for the other turn lanes to get their fair chance at a light, and as you know from driving in (your town here), there’s always an intersection that falls prey to terrible light timing.

Going the distance

Take breaks every 90 minutes on long trips. Trite advice, yes, but your bladder has a finite size, and so does your attention span. One day soon you’ll have to get used to it anyway, whenever your electric car needs to be topped off.
Make sure you keep pace with other drivers–safely of course. There’s a speed limit, then there’s the speed we drive. Here’s where it pays to be above average, but not the lead rabbit.
Don’t use cruise control when it’s raining, or snowing, or anything but fair weather. It’s a convenience, not a technique.
Watch several cars ahead. Accidents on interstates usually happen when you’re not paying attention.
Don’t ride the brakes, and don’t brake-check other drivers. The big pedal requires just as much nuance as the tall skinny one.

Bad Weather

Don’t drive into flooded roads. Even if you’re in an Amphicar. No emergency personnel need one more extraction on their to-do list.
Don’t run summer times in the winter, and don’t run winter tires in the summer. The treads are designed with squishy blocks or firm compounding for a reason; noise is just the least of your worries.
Don’t drive with snow on the roof. It all comes flying off, soon enough, maybe on to the car behind you.
Don’t drive with fogged windows. Feel free to do other things with fogged windows when you’re parked. We’re not your parents.
Don’t drive without wiper blades! We see this more often than we should shake our heads.
Don’t drive unless both your headlights and taillights are in working order. It bears repeating.
Dry your brakes in heavy weather with a light squeeze on the pedal. Some cars do this automatically now; it’s a good way to keep maximum brake power on tap.

Distractions and how to manage them

Keep a steady focus on the road, above all else. Put down the muffin, put down the cell phone, put it all down.
Don’t blast your music so loud you can’t hear the sirens coming up behind you.
Be prepared to drop everything. If you’re going to read email at a stoplight, drop the phone as soon as the light turns. We’re not saying we do it, but we’re not saying we don’t do it.
Pump up the jams, responsibly. Use your smartphone for music to keep you alert, but make a playlist and stick to it. If you have steering-wheel mounted buttons, even better. Just don’t search for songs that you like to sing while you drive.
Don’t seek navigation spots while driving. With the caveat that Siri and other natural-language voice searches are getting better all the time. Most native navigation systems will block you from doing so, anyway.
Apple or Android–just do it. Use your phone, or its operating system, instead of car-bound GPS. It’s better, quicker, and likely has cleaner voice operation. Mount it to the glass to keep it closer to your line of sight, and use those steering-wheel controls.

Parking

Don’t depend on cameras, entirely. Surround-view cameras are a few of our favorite things, but cameras see things differently than do you and I. They’re reference books, not instructions.
Don’t ding my doors, dammit. If you do so by accident, leave a note, because soon all our cars will have cameras to record exactly what kind of slugabout you are.
Don’t park over or close to the lines. When you do, other drivers can’t use the space, or maybe can’t even get out. This is how keying was invented.
Don’t park in electric-car spots unless you’re charging your electric car. If it were our electric car, and we were low on battery power, and your Excursion was using the charging spot…we’re not sure what we’d do, but it wouldn’t be very nice.

Gas stations and drive-thrus

Know your order and be ready to pay at the drive-thru. You have plenty of time to get your act together before they ask, “You want fries with that?” Who doesn’t know their coffee order these days anyway?
Don’t use your car as a recycling bin. Or as a garbage heap. Stuff gets under the pedals, on the steering wheel, it’s distracting and unhygienic.
Pull your car out of the filling spot when you’re done refueling. Even if you really have to pee. You should have thought of that before we left the house.

Handling aggressive drivers

Give them wide berth. Stay away from them. Don’t play their head game. Signal to get in another lane, let them blaze ahead, and then you can laugh when the flashing light bar catches up with them later.
Don’t think you know what you don’t know. Remember, this is America, and you never know who has a higher-caliber weapon in the glovebox.
An ounce of empathy goes a long way. That person could be having a really bad day. You might be too. You can make both drivers feel a little bit better, or at least make yourself safer.

If there’s an accident

Call for legal help. The police will have to know you called to file a report–even if your local police won’t come to actually file an accident report.
Call for medical help, if you can. You’re not a doctor, unless you are one, and even then you’ll need help. Even low-speed accidents can cause a concussion, and without a portable MRI in your car, who’s to know what’s going on?
Call your insurance company and take pictures. Your carrier may even offer a claim app that lets you take pictures and walks you through the accident process step by step.