Ten Ways You Can Improve Your Driving and Make the Roads a Safer Place

No. A good driver is one that does not stand out in any way in traffic. He's basically a stealth master. "Wait a minute," you'll say, "if they're surrounded by bad drivers, wouldn't blending in make them a bad driver as well?" Well, let's just hope it never gets to that.

A good driver is a safe driver. The common mistake is to assume that in order to be safe, you also need to be slow, which is completely wrong. A slow driver is not a safe driver, as he's very likely to cause irritation, forcing other drivers to make bad decisions and engage in hazardous maneuvers.

The guys at Car Throttle have put together a video showing ten techniques that should turn anyone into a better driver. Most of them are common sense, some should have been taught in driving school while other are a bit questionable (like the one telling you to drive a manual - it's not wrong what they say, but let's be serious, you can't stand in the way of automatic transmission).

First of all, you need to master your vehicle. To do that, you might want to take it to a closed road or a parking lot and experiment a little. Get a feel of what it handles like in extreme situations so you'll know what to do when the time comes (hopefully never) in real traffic. Matching the revs on a downshift is great for a smooth ride, for preserving speed and puts less strain on the transmission components. However, in normal driving conditions, you don't have to heel-and-toe as there is plenty of time to hit the gas after you've braked and before switching gear.

Have a look at the video for the complete list and make a few mental memos on the things you might need to work on - or simply watch it as a confirmation of how good a driver you are if you already to all of this stuff.