“1. Always wear your seat belt.
2. Never drink and drive.
3. Watch your speed and roadway conditions.
4. Leave an adequate space cushion between you and the driver in front of you.
5. Use your turn signals.
6. Watch the street lights, because if the light has been green for a couple of minutes as you’re driving toward it, it will probably turn red before long.
7. Always watch the road ahead of you
8. Check your blind spots.
9. Practice all the other basics of driver’s ed.
Keep an eye out for…
Rainy weather
Because months of dry weather allow car oil to accumulate on roads, “the first rain is the most dangerous, the oil rises to the top of the roadway surface and makes [driving] very slippery. Reduce your speed and drive with your headlights on,” to allow for reduced visibility and slippery roads on rainy days.
“Look for standing water. Watch the cars in front of you. If the car 50 yard ahead is making huge puddles and the waves are crashing over the hood, then there’s probably standing water there, and you’ll need to slow down.
“If you’re driving on the freeway, and you can no longer see the raised dots on the road or cannot see the roadway lines, then maybe there’s standing water in the roadway. You need to slow down.”
Nighttime driving
“Make sure your headlights work, left and right. Make sure that you’re not using your high beams. If you do need to use them, reduce your high beams so you don’t blind oncoming traffic, and if you’re coming up from behind, make sure you dim your lights so you don’t blind them in their rear-view mirror.
“Any time your visibility is reduced, you’re going to need to reduce your speed, too. Watch out for outside objects—people in dark clothing, people on bicycles, people crossing the street outside the crosswalk. You definitely need to be paying attention more at night than you do in the day. Both times it’s imperative to pay attention, but at night, you’ll need to pay extra attention.”
Tires
Get good tires and keep them inflated at the pressure recommended by the manufacturer. You’ll find the pressure on the bottom part of the tire.
Overall physical condition of the car
Keep your car in good running condition. “Don’t ignore the little things in your car. If your car’s running good one day and the next day it sounds funny or it’s making a funny noise, you should check it out, because there could be something that could go mechanically wrong with your car, that could cause you to end up in a collision.””