- Hi there, smart drivers.
Five tips for driving on two-lane roads
and keeping yourself safe
and significantly reducing your chances
of being involved in a crash.
Despite the myth of what most people believe,
these are the roadways where most fatal crashes occur,
tertiary and secondary roads where it's two-lane traffic,
moderate traffic, dry roads, good conditions.
This is where most of the fatal crashes occur.
Tip number one for driving on two-lane roads:
look for the intersections
and when it goes from two lanes to one lane,
it is an intersection.
You want to identify the intersections
as you're driving along the highway.
Intersections are where you are going to meet
other road users, cyclists, pedestrians,
farm equipment, e-scooters,
all these types of different kinds of traffic
that are driving on the roadway.
That is tip number one, and one of the most important
when driving on two-lane skinnies,
as they're called in the trucking industry.
Tip number two is space management.
Have your following distance.
Three to four seconds is ideal.
You should be using the throttle to control space
in front of your vehicle
because you can always control that space
in front of your vehicle.
The only times that you should be using the brake
are slowing down to turn, slowing down to stop,
or behind other traffic that's doing one in the same.
Controlling your speed on a downgrade or unexpected events,
those are the only four times
that you should be using the brake.
If you're using the brake to control space
in front of your vehicle,
you are following too close.
As well, tailgaters, if you got tailgaters on the highway,
it often means that they want you to speed up
because you're going too slow,
so keep your eye in the center mirror and your wing mirrors.
Watch the traffic that's going on behind you.
If you got tailgaters, increase your space in front
even more so you don't have to do aggressive braking
or other actions as well.
If there's a safe place to pull off the road,
pull off the road and let them pass.
That's the way you deal with tailgaters.
Number three, the road markings.
Pay attention to the road markings.
Here we have a painted island road markings.
We have a nice buffer of space
between us and the oncoming traffic,
but you can see that it goes back down
to double solid here, and double solid, you can not pass.
And the reason is because of the railway crossing here,
railway crossings, you always want to move a bit to the right
so that you stay out of the ruts
and it's not as rough as well.
Make sure that you're not braking
when you're going over the railway track.
That will allow the suspension to work on your vehicle.
It's just easier on your vehicle.
Okay, we have a cluster up here.
It is summertime, and in the summertime,
you're going to get caravans, trailers,
all these RV and recreational vehicles.
You might even get some rental vehicles.
People don't know where they're going or they're lost,
but oftentimes you get these RVs and there's caravans
and they are going to hold up traffic
and you're going to get these clusters of cars,
these groups of cars,
and you need to just stay out of that cluster.
Just keep your space.
Many of these two-lane roads,
you're going to have passing lanes every few miles.
You have a passing lane that you can get over
and you can get around these slower vehicles,
but unfortunately, when you're on two-lane skinnies
like this, you're going to have to pay attention to that
and see what's going on here.
Okay, we got a truck sign here on the left,
here we can see that there's construction work
and that means that there could be a gravel pit
or a concrete factory, any other type of area,
lumber yard, whatnot,
where trucks could be coming in and out
and getting onto the highway and you're going to get some dirt
and other debris on the roadway,
but also you're going to get slow traffic.
Here we see that the road markings have gone
back to double solid
because we're getting into curvy roads and whatnot.
Lane markings, and watch the lane markings
in the middle because they are accurate.
I've been very few places where the lane markings
in the center of the roadway,
which control passing, have not been accurate.
You can see here that we can pass on this side
and we have a fairly long, straight stretch of roadway
that it's safe to pass, and the other traffic
on the other side can be passing as well here
with this dotted line,
which indicates both sides can be passing.
So you're looking up here down the roadway
and making sure that there aren't vehicles in your lane
that are passing and coming towards you in your lane.
That way you want to move to the right to get out of the path
of on oncoming traffic and potentially avert,
you know, being involved in a head-on crash.
Tip number four is traffic signs.
Pay attention to your traffic signs.
Again, it goes into tip number one with intersections.
Traffic signs will allow you to locate intersections
and will give you all kinds of information
about cautionary speeds for going around curves and corners
to keep yourself safe.
It's summertime, June, July, and August
are the highest numbers for fatal crashes during the year,
and right now in the northern hemisphere,
we are in the worst 100 days of the year
for fatal traffic crashes, especially for new drivers,
so pay attention to all the road users.
And you can see here the speed limit is 50 miles an hour.
We're not even doing 45 miles an hour
and that is because of the caravan up here
that's holding up traffic,
but we can see here we've come into dotted lines
in the center of the road,
so it's safe to pass here for a little bit,
but we've got motorcycles,
we've got oncoming traffic and whatnot.
We have an intersection off to the right here.
We can see the the cautionary sign
that's warning of the intersection
and we've got a car off to the right here that's turning,
so we're just going to let off the throttle,
off the accelerator, and we're going to control
that space in front of our vehicle to keep ourselves safe.
We have another vehicle behind us now
and we're going to keep track of that vehicle behind us.
We have another intersection off to the right here,
another sign up here, warning of animal crossing.
So if it's sunset, at night, you're coming into an area
where there could be deers and whatnot,
deer and other animals crossing the roadway,
so you have to be on the lookout for that.
In the evening, can not pass.
The lane markings have gone to not being able to pass here.
We have another cautionary sign warning
of a railway crossing ahead.
Again, we're scanning the tracks and making sure
that there aren't any trains approaching.
Bicycle warning, and again,
we want to move to the extreme right side
of the railway crossing to get out of those main ruts
so that it's nice and calm.
Here we have a school zone.
When children are present on the highway,
it's reduced to 40 kilometers an hour
and so we just disengage cruise control,
hit your cancel button,
and slow down to 40 kilometers an hour,
keeping your distance in front.
The vehicle behind me is keeping
a really good distance behind me.
Double solid lines here.
The other piece about traffic signs,
don't just be reading the traffic signs.
Look for construction signs, business signs, tourist signs,
any signs that's going to give you an indication
of what's happening in front of you.
And some of it can be seasonal.
For example, if you're going past the drive-in theater,
that's going to be seasonal.
In the summertime, that's going to be active at dusk
and there's going to be traffic slowing
and turning into the drive-in theater.
If you have some sort of tourist attraction
along the highway, again, vehicles are going to be turning in.
We've got a sign here on the right
that says Mexican food and gas.
There's some irony in that,
that there's a sign that says Mexican food and gas.
It may not be gas for your car,
but people are going to be turning in.
Drivers are going to be going into there to get fuel
and to get something to eat, ice cream and whatnot.
They're going to be turning, so again,
that ties into your intersections
and keeping yourself safe and knowing how those signs
are going to cause traffic to change in front of you
as you're driving along.
So pay attention to not just the traffic signs
but other signs that are going along the highway.
Cidery here.
Again, tourist, summertime,
people might be going in to buy cider,
slowing down on the highway and turning there.
The last tip to keep yourself safe,
tip number five is cruise control.
Yes, you can use cruise control.
We're doing about 50 miles an hour
and that seems to be a good space in front of us,
so we are just going to put it on cruise control
and we're going to relax.
Calm awareness of what is going on.
Again, paying attention to the lane markings
in the center of the road.
We can pass but the other side can not pass
'cause they have a curve coming up there.
Smart points to remember: intersections.
Locate the intersections, where's other traffic
going to come out and be coming on and off the roadway
on which you're on.
Space management, keep your three
to four-second following distance at minimum.
If anything is in doubt or a hazard presents itself,
increase your following distance even more,
especially if you're being tailgated on the roadway.
Road markings.
Pay attention to the road markings, they're accurate.
Traffic signs, pay attention to the traffic signs
and they will give you an indication
of the traffic conditions that you can expect
along that roadway, especially on these two-lane roadways.
You're going to encounter animals on the roadway
and big trucks and whatnot.
And remember, pick the best answer,
not necessarily the right answer.
Have a great day. Bye now.