Steering and Lane Changing

There are two key skills to master in this section, and they are steering and lane changing. Both of these skills require practice to master, but once you have them down they will become second nature to you. Steering To begin practicing your steering, find a nice large empty parking lot and drive straight down the middle of it. As you drive, practice holding the wheel with both hands at roughly ten and two o’clock positions and focus on something straight in front of you.

Look down the road in front of you and focus on where you want to go. It is important to do this because the car will naturally follow where your eyes are looking. When you need to make a turn, slowly turn the steering wheel in the direction that you want to go. Remember not to make sharp jerks or quick movements with the wheel. You want smooth gradual movements, and only make adjustments as necessary.

As you approach the completion of your turn, slowly bring the wheel back to the starting position. Avoid making any quick jerks or movements with the wheel as you straighten out. One of the biggest problems that new drivers face when turning is that they will focus too much on the curb or the line in the road. When you do this, you will inadvertently use your hands to follow what your eyes are looking at. You will end up turning more sharply than you anticipated and the car will drift to the inside or the outside part of the turn. To avoid this, remember to focus mainly on the path that you want the car to follow when you exit the turn.

You can practice this in a parking lot by setting up lanes with cones, if they are available, or by using the painted lines on the parking lot. Make S-curves with the lanes at a slow speed, and focus on looking where you want the car to go, instead of focusing on the front of the car. You will feel that the car will follow a smoother path when you apply steady pressure on the wheel instead of jerking on it. Repeat this process several times, and then increase your speed slightly to feel that it is still the same when you have a little more speed. Lane Changing When you are changing lanes, you want to follow the same rules as turning.

You want to focus on looking ahead and avoid jerking the car back and forth. Before you change lanes you will also want to check your mirrors to make sure that it is all right to change over. Check your mirrors early to see what is behind you. You want to make sure you have enough time to make the lane change. After checking your mirrors, put your turn signal on to let the other drivers around you know that you are going to change lanes. Check your side mirror and glance over your shoulder to check your blind spot to make sure that the lane next to you is clear.

Once you have determined that it is okay to change lanes, gradually turn the wheel and ease on over into the next lane. You do not want to make any quick jerks or movements with the wheel when changing lanes. You want to make the movement as smooth as possible. Many new drivers will turn the wheel too sharply when changing lanes.