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Hi there smart drivers. Rick with Smart Drive Test talking to you today about blind spots
and the importance of blind spots when you're learning how to drive. As well,
we're going to talk about the fundamentals of learning how to drive.
Now just before we get started here, be sure to hit that subscribe button over...
about there. Where you're going to get access to all of the great information
and videos as I get them available to you. Now talking about blind spots - blind
spots are paramount in learning how to drive. When you first start learning how
to drive. It is important to understand the blind spots around your vehicle. And
no doubt, the biggest blind spots on your vehicle are on the passenger side of the
vehicle and to the rear of the vehicle. and I sort of hid this blind spot
information in another video the curb parking video and so what I've done is
I've moved that information out and she'll see that I actually shot it in
the winter time so today I'm going to show you that blind spot information and
show you the importance of knowing blind spot information and getting a sense of
where your vehicle is in space and place and one of the reasons that you're going
to have difficulty parking and doing other slow speed maneuvers is because of
these blind spots around your vehicle and the way that you get to understand
these blind spots around your vehicle is by going up getting some of those one
meter tall 36 inch pylons and practicing slow speed maneuvers in a parking lot
with these pylons and trying to get as close as you can to them without hitting
and that will give you an understanding of where your vehicle is in space and
place so we're going to talk about that today and give you some more information
about blind spots and the fundamentals of learning how to drive so stick around
we'll be right back with that information
- right drivers welcome back Rick with smart drive test talking to you today
about blind spots and the importance of blind spots in learning how to drive
especially when you really really first get started like first lesson you need
to understand the blind spots around your vehicle the blind spots the areas
you cannot see around your vehicle when you're sitting in the driver's seat and
those blind spots are going to be biggest to the rear of the vehicle
almost twenty feet on a small mid-sized vehicle and they're going to be
approximately eight feet out on the passenger side so those are the biggest
blind quat's around your vehicle and when you're learning how to drive you
need to start working in a parking lot and I really strongly suggest that you
go out and get some of those thirty-six inch one meter tall pylons you can rent
them from the local rental shop hires them for you know less than ten dollars
for a day and do some really good work and get a sense of where your vehicle is
in space in place because that's the fundamentals of learning how to drive it
the same is music and you're learning how to play a musical instrument for the
piano for example you have to know where your fingers are in relation to the key
and where the different notes are on the keyboard so what you're doing is you're
learning spatial relativity in relation to other things and your fingers and
those types of things it's the same thing with a car you have to figure out
where your car is in relation to other fixed objects and other road users on
the roadway and think of it like martial arts or boxing or any other type of
sport especially boxing at the beginning of any boxing match they're going to
give you the reach of the boxers because the boxer with the longer reach their
arms sticking out this is the reach here that will give that box or an advantage
and you need to figure out range of your opponents so that you're going to be
more successful in a boxing match or a fight if you're doing martial arts and
driving a car and learning a car and learning the blind spots around your
vehicle is no different you can see the two police cruisers behind me here the
car is going to have smaller blind spots than the large SUV so know that the
larger the vehicle bigger the blind spots around your
vehicle bigger the vehicle the bigger the blind spots so know that if you're
driving a higher class vehicle you're going to have bigger blind spots around
your vehicle and as you get up two tractor trailers is going to be enormous
now for those of you learning how to drive a passenger vehicle it is
important to understand that these bigger vehicles have much much bigger
blind spots and when they're making turns and those types of things it's
important to stay back and give them lots of room or if they're backing into
a dock off a roadway or something like that as well stay back because often
times they can't see you especially if it's on the blind side of the vehicle
the blind side is the passenger side of the vehicle so if you're over there know
that you're in danger if you're in a passenger vehicle and there is a large
commercial vehicle that's trying to move around or RV or something like that so
know that these vehicles behind me here if you're driving near them when you're
learning how to drive stay back from them that way they can they have better
chance of seeing you and you being seen so that's one of the keys to driving
around large vehicles whether it's one of these large cement trucks behind me a
tractor-trailer unit an RV unit or vehicles that are towing trailers all
these larger vehicles have much bigger blind spots and it's important to give
them a wide berth when you're learning how to drive and as you continue through
your driving career so blind spots around your vehicle I'm going to show
you this older footage that I shot months earlier in the winter time here
and show you specifically the blind spots around my midsize SUV and as I
said the bigger the vehicle the bigger the blind spots and your challenges when
you're learning how to drive when you're learning how to do slow speed maneuvers
it's figuring out those blind spots and especially when you're parking along a
curb you have to get the vehicle six to nine inches from the curb when you're
parallel parking or you're just straight curb parking or where the vehicle is in
space in place when you reverse Bay parking backing into a parking space and
you need to know where the blind spots are around your vehicle and just for the
purposes of a road test know that when you're reversing into a parking space or
reverse Bay parking you can't use a reverse camera so just know that so
let's go to that older footage here and I'll show you the blind spots around my
midsize SUV the first thing you need to know about your vehicle you need to know
about the blind spots around your vehicle the blind spots around your
vehicle are fairly against and out the front of the vehicle
your blind spot is more than six feet to be able to see an 18-inch pylon if you
move that pilot out to the back of the vehicle it's even more significant it's
more than 20 feet before you can see that 18 inch pylon out the back of the
vehicle so the significant blind spot out at the back the second biggest blind
spot on your vehicle not really surprising is out on the passenger side
and it's almost 8 feet from the passenger's door out to the 18 inch
pylon that you're able to see it from the driver's side if you measure the
inside of the vehicle and I have a small SUV it's four feet so it's 12 feet more
than three and a half meters out to that pylon so there's a fairly significant
blind spot on the passenger side and the smallest blind spot on your vehicle is
out on the driver's side which is not surprising because that's where you sit
in our position in the vehicle it's only about 3 feet or approximately one meter
out to the 18 inch pylon on the driver's side as you can see here in the image
you know the second biggest blind spot around your vehicle is on the passenger
side therefore to get close to a four to six inch curve is going to be somewhat
challenging so the first thing you need to do in order to be successful to park
along a curb will do slow speed maneuvers get those 36 inch pylons and
practice backing around corners backing up on either side of the pylon and
driving along those pylons so you get a good sense of space management of the
vehicle and I come back to the slow speed maneuvers again and again yes they
are not sexy they hurt hot sexy and any stretch of the imagination said in the
introduction you certainly don't want your friends to see but if you want to
be an overall better driver you got to spend time doing the slow speed
maneuvers and if you don't want to drive over the curb when you're parallel
parking when you're doing three-point turns or you try and park along the curb
for the purposes of your road test you need to spend time doing slow speed
maneuvers I cannot stress that enough if you don't spend the time in the parking
lot doing slow speed maneuvers you're not going to be successful parallel
parking you're not going to be successful parking along the curb and
you're not going to be successful doing three-point turns these are the slow
speed maneuvers yes they are a very small part of a
test however they are the parts of the road test that give new drivers the most
grief so spend the time doing slow speed maneuvers and this will translate into
all of your driving and make you a better driver overall so do the slow
speed maneuvers know what the blind spots are in your vehicle and know the
challenges that you're up against quick review of blind spots around your
vehicle it is important to understand that there are areas around your vehicle
that you cannot see from the driver's seat and the biggest blind spots on your
vehicle are going to be out on the passenger side and they're going to be
the rear of the vehicle these are places that you cannot see around your vehicle
when you're sitting in the driver's seat regardless of which side of the vehicle
you're sitting on and where you are in the world and the larger the vehicle
bigger the blind spots this policeman behind me here is going to have much
much bigger blind spots than a midsize SUV or a small compact car so think
about these things when you're going to do your road test you want to have a
vehicle that you are comfortable with that you've taken most of your driver
training in that you've learned to drive in and you're comfortable with all of
the controls and you know where the blind spots are around the vehicle
because as I said before 7/8 of the road test is in a forward motion the 1/8 the
slow speed maneuvers the parallel parking the three-point turns the
two-point reverse turns those types of slow speed maneuvers are going to give
you the most challenges in terms of passing your road test because you need
to understand and have a sense of where the vehicle is in pace and plates as I
said in the body of the video you have to understand spatial relativity where
your vehicle is in relation to other fixed objects and other road users on
the roadway and know you can't use a backup camera when you're backing up to
eliminate those blind spots behind your vehicle incredibly helpful but you can't
use it for the purposes of a road test because the examiner and authorities are
thinking that you will be in different vehicles during your driving career and
you need to know how to compensate for those blind spots around your vehicle so
initially you cannot use a backup camera so blind spots spatial relativity
understanding the places around your vehicle that you can't see when you're
driving and when you're learning to drive and as they said fundamentals
of driving look at the cards up in the corner there and get the exercises that
will help you to understand the blind spots around your vehicle and help you
to learn to drive faster because if you spend the time doing the fundamentals of
learning how to drive a vehicle it's going to accelerate your overall
learning around learning how to drive and prepare for a road test and give you
a better sense of the vehicle now just quickly do the two by four exercise in
the fundamentals of learning video go and get some of those 36 inch one meter
tall pylons and try and get as close to them as you can because it's better to
hit one of those pylons and it is a fixed object while you're out learning
how to drive and as I said these fundamentals of driving learning the
fundamentals going to the parking lot are going to accelerate your learning
and make you a better driver overall question for my expired drivers when you
started learning how to drive how did you figure out the blind spots around
your vehicle in other words how did you figure out space and place and moving
the vehicle successfully for the purposes of learning how to drive and
purposes of a road test leave a comment down in the comment section there all of
that helps out the new drivers learning how to drive if you like what you see
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brake courses and it has 100 multiple-choice questions that you will
be asked on both a theory and a practical air brake test for your CDL
license camera core smart drive test thanks very much for watching good luck
on your road test and remember pick the best answer not necessarily the right
answer have a great day bye now at 7/8 of your road test is in a forward
motion 1/8 of the road test is slow speed maneuvers
unfortunately it's that 1/8 of the road test is going to give you the most
difficulty and the most challenges yet slow speed maneuvers yes they're not
sexy