Dark days are upon us.
That’s to be taken literally, by the way: while the current news cycle is filled with doom and looming destruction, I’m referring here to the physical gloom that invades every North Shore resident’s life at this time of year.
“I wish rain wasn’t even a thing,” piped up my five year old this morning. Well it is, and considering where we live, you’d better start growing gills kid.
Short, dark days are the norm from here on out, right through until spring showers. We had a couple of lovely days back there, just enough to boost the old Instagram and make everyone from Toronto jealous, but now it’s back to squelchy darkness, as if we lived in a cross between Atlantis and Mordor.
Driving during this time is trickier than the rest of the year, but there are a few simple ways to keep yourself and others safe. It’s about that most important of human senses, seeing. Without further ado, here are the 10 Commandments of Vision.
1. Clear and Clean
The first step, of course, is to make sure you can actually see out of your car. During the rainy season, this means taking a bit of extra time to defrost the windows, and on a cold, dry day, wiping all the condensation out before you take off. When the freezing weather and snow comes a-callin’, get to scraping.
Now, you’d think this is a pretty low bar to clear, but every year it’s the same thing. We get one day of frost, and everyone’s peering out of portholes like the upper levels highway was full of Second World War U-boats.
If you can’t afford the time to warm the car and clear the moisture out, may I suggest stopping by your local auto supply store and investing in some anti-fog treatment, and perhaps a microfibre cloth or two? Might as well pick up some new wipers while you’re at it.
2. Mirror, mirror
There is no such thing as a blind spot in a modern car, there are only improperly adjusted mirrors. Here’s a quick trick to spread your vision around.
Set both your side mirrors so that you can just see the sides of your car. Next, add just a couple of degrees more pivot to the outside, so that the sides of your car disappear from view. Congrats! You’ve just widened your cone of rear vision, and given yourself a chance to spot a car that might otherwise be lurking to your left or right.
3. Light ‘em up
Daytime running lights started out as a good idea but have morphed into a persistent danger. Ditto automatic headlights. Too often have I seen cars driving at night with only their front lights on.
Once the rain starts flying, it’s the same problem. With rain comes reduced visibility, but often we don’t notice we don’t have full headlights and taillights on. Flick the switch to full lights to give yourself a little more visibility on the road. Even if the weather’s OK, this should become part of your mental pre-drive checklist, so you don’t have to remember if you get caught in a cloudburst.
4. Indicate
Now, we’re not just talking to the BMW and Audi owners here, large numbers of whom seem to have largely forgotten what the indicator stalk does. The usual advice applies: signal early enough to be useful, don’t drive around with your turn signal on for mile after mile.
What’s more important is all the other ways you communicate with other drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. Remember that reduced vision means that a brief wave ahead may not be seen through a rain-soaked windshield, so you might have to be a bit more obvious and deliberate with your communication. Dial back the frustration levels if you’re trying to be polite but the other party doesn’t see.
If in doubt, refer back to the rules of right-of-way, and keep those cars cycling through the four-way stops properly.
5. Move your head
This seems pretty obvious, but it’s something that any racing school starts out teaching its students. Yes, the windshield is the main place you should direct your attention, but don’t be afraid to be looking through your side windows as well.
Shoulder-check. Watch for cyclists when turning right (and always). Cycle through your mirrors. Glance in the rearview when pulling up to a stop. Gather as much information as you can, so you’re prepared.
6. Use your peripheral vision
Tying in with casting your gaze around is knowing when to bring peripheral vision into play. Let’s say you’re turning left at an intersection, and there’s a suitable gap in oncoming traffic. The crosswalk is empty, and there’s a blinking red hand. All clear?
Not so fast. Because you’re already swiveling your head, and because the human eye is drawn to motion, you’ve caught a pedestrian heading quickly towards the intersection, ready to run across. If you’d made the turn, you might suddenly have found yourself stopping to block the intersection.
Again, the wider you look, the more information you can pick up.
7. Look ahead
The other little piece of performance driving school know-how we can adapt to everyday life is the ability to look ahead. Again, this seems like very obvious advice, but it’s a hard lesson for the human brain to absorb.
In traffic, fast-moving or slow, we tend to fixate on the tailgate in front of us. When they slow, we slow; when they speed up, we do too.
What you actually want to be doing is training yourself to look past the car ahead of you, and down the road. If you see brake lights, you’ll already be anticipating the slow-down, meaning you won’t suddenly have to hammer on the brakes and risk a fender-bender from the front or rear.
8. Never pass a car on a crosswalk
Another piece of advice that’s seemingly obvious, but occasionally either forgotten entirely, or overlooked in a rushed commute. There are a few areas around the North Shore where crosswalks cross four-lane roads, occasionally where some traffic makes left turns. The temptation is to move to the right and drive on past without slowing.
Don’t! There’s no way for you to tell whether a car stopped at a crosswalk – even one with a turn signal on – has stopped for a pedestrian. This is doubly important near schools. Slow to a crawl. Double-check. Remember that a shockingly large percentage of pedestrian collisions happen in marked crosswalks. That’s unacceptable.
9. Adjust for your surroundings
You should always pay attention while driving, but there are certain areas where you should either bring awareness levels up or speeds down. Or, ideally, both.
When schools are opening or closing, there are more kids out there on the roads. When Halloween comes at the end of the month and everyone dresses up as The Invisible Pedestrian, you need to be extra careful. When you’re entering an area that seems like it’s poorly lit, expect the unexpected.
Yes, most of these situations are about car-pedestrian interactions, and yes, it does seem like there are more distracted pedestrians around these days. Also, many of them appear to feel the need to dress like rain-proof ninjas.
Let this be a gentle reminder that there’s no such thing as a pedestrian or driver, there are merely people on foot and people in cars. As I have to periodically remind my aforementioned five year old, when we’re discussing her younger sister, responsibility needs to be found on both sides, but it is not equally distributed.
When we’re behind the wheel, it’s up to us to pay extra attention. Perhaps that doesn’t seem fair, but it’s the way things are.
10. Don’t drive beyond your vision
The last and the most important of the commandments is again a simple one: if you can’t see, slow down. This applies to blind corners, poorly lit areas, or even streets where you’re driving close to parked cars.
In fact, almost all the other tips and tricks here fall under this single heading. You need to do everything in your power to increase what you can see, but in those cases where vision is limited, you simply need to slow down to give yourself and others a chance.
Remember, we’re all in this weather together, and we’d all like to make it through to springtime safely. We all sometimes wish rain wasn’t a thing. It is though. Stay safe out there.
