~~ 38- Friday, October 8, 1999 ~ North Shore News

signals

THE problem with
Yancouver rain is that
it’s so darn wet. That
and the fact that ic
lasts for nine moaths.

Driving conditions
change hie uite dramatically
during these rainy months.

Visibility is reduced, the
roads are slick and ‘pools of
water gather just about any-
where that gravity sees fit,
creating little road rivers
along the way.

Here are a few tips to
help you drivers deal with
David Duchovny’s bane,
Vancouver’s wet, dreary,
gloomy rainy season.

Aside from slick roads,

“heavy rain, fog, mist and
darkness each affect your
ability to see properly.

Slowing down is your
first, best, defensive driving
practice.

It gives you a littl bit
more time to appraise and
anticipate traffic and its haz-

"ards.
“_ Ivis important, therefore,

to look well ahead into traf-
fic ~ and over traffic into
the traffic further ahead.

‘nosticate any potential prob-

lem or pluggage in your
path.
How far ahead, you ask?

AAs far ahead as your
vision allows, responds
Shaun.

* “Thar is to say, if you can

but merely following the
bumper in front of you
means that you are oblivious
to the traffic and its hazards

This enables you to prog-

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further ahead.-

There is a lot of
information our there:
Abserb as much as you can
and you will be a better-
prepared, more defensive
driver.

If you can NOT see 12
blocks ahead then you

see twelve blocks down the
street, look twelve blocks
down the street — find out
what’s going on way down
there before you're in the
thick of it.

Keeping an eye on your
immediate surroundings is
obviously imporiant, too,

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should slow to an appropri-
ate speed.

Regardless of the “set”
speed fimit, one can still
be ticketed for speeding if
visibility and/or road condi-
tions make che normal,
regulatory speed unseemly,

Drive only 3s fast as vour
vision allows.

Fools and boncheads
rush in...

Since roads are quite slip-
pery when they are wet,
bringing your car to 3
screeching hale is no longer
an option; a slip-sliding ran-
domly-placed halt is possi-
ble, bur undesirable.

You can avoid such prob-
lems by looking ahead.

Ifyou see a reason, or

assible reason, to stop a
lock or two away, slow
dawn before you get there.

Never be in a rush to
become part of the chitter.

Hang back and you just
might find that said clutter
clears before you even ,
arrive.

If, by chance, you are
forced to “slam on the
brakes” you may find thar
your car just doesn’t sto:
like it would have on a dry
road, in which case “slam-
ming” the brakes is the
wrong thing to do.

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NEWS photo Paul McGrath

DRIVING at speed across pooled water can cause hydropianing — your car tires skim across the surface of the water. And when a car is
water-skling it has no braking or directional capabilities!

Push the brake pedal only
enough to siow the car; if
the tires lock up (skid), case
off the pedal and then apply
the brakes again with slight- -
ly less pressure.

Repeat as necessary.

This is known as “thresh- . -
old braking” and it is what
ABS (Anti-thought Braking
Systems) automatically does
for you.

You see, you cannot steer
if your front tires are skid-
ding and this is why an
understanding of threshold
braking is crucial.

It may seem like a lot to
remember in that moment
of panic when you are stam-
ming on your brakes, but if
you are looking ahead,
you'll rarely fi nd yourself in
that predicament — besides
which, grasping the concept
of threshold braking aside,
you shouldn’t be going into
a panic in the first place:

You look ahead and plan for
anything untoward and are
never caught off guard or
panicked.

So, your best course of
action: Do a whole lot of -
looking and planning — -,
plan a hypothetical “escape
route” snould something

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