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springwood driving lessons

Defensive Driving Course

Everyone should take a Defensive Driving Course. Driving a car is not risk free. Regardless of how careful you are whilst driving there is the possibility that you will be involved in a car crash. Which could result in serious or catastrophic consequences for yourself, your family and other road users.

Defensive driving involves applying driving techniques and low risk driving strategies that minimize risks whilst driving. This involves
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  • Developing good driving techniques including vehicle control
  • Planning ahead so you are prepared for what is coming up
  • Driving to the conditions of the road
  • Monitoring your own driving so you do not make mistakes
  • Monitoring other drivers so you can avoid crashing due to their bad driving

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Book Here For Defensive Driving Course

 

A Defensive Driving Course should cover safe driving techniques and low risk driving skills that go beyond the basic mechanics of driving a car. Defensive driving reduces the risk of being involved in a motor vehicle crash by:
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  • Anticipate dangerous situations
  • Managing adverse driving conditions
  • avoiding dangerous situations created by other road users

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At Learn to Drive Driving School we focus on low risk driving strategies and defensive driving techniques for everyday motoring.

Defensive Drivers Course

There are a lot of organizations offering Defensive Driving Course. With a large variety of trainers with and even greater diversity of skills and qualifications, it can be hard to decide which course suits your needs best.

At Learn to Drive Driving School we provide individual one on one training. This allows us to tailor each course to your specific needs. The reality is that each driver has different driving skills and knowledge.

Before attempting to develop more advanced driving skills you need to ensure you have a mastered the fundamental skills of driving a car. Too often people enroll in an advanced driving course when they have not mastered the basics of driving.

A great place to start learning to drive safely for learner drivers is to complete the Transport for NSW Safer Drivers Course.

Defensive Driving Course Foundational Skills

defensive driving course

It is not possible to learn advanced defensive driving skills without mastering the essential skills of driving. At Learn to drive we take the time to evaluate your driving skills and ensure you are ready to learn the more advanced driving techniques.

Most drivers are lacking at least one of the basic skills of driving. These basic skills include
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  • Steering: Most drivers are unable to steer correctly using either Pull Push or hand over hand steering. Common mistakes include having your hands out of position or crossing your arms.
  • Scanning: You can not react appropriately to changing road conditions if you do not scan properly. Most people do not have a process for scanning.
  • Spatial Awareness: Most learner drivers and a lot of fully licensed drivers lack spatial awareness. This is a skill that can be developed with the correct training.
  • Road Rules: Sadly most drivers to do have a good understanding of the actual rules of the road.
  • Planning ahead: Most drivers who get into dangerous situations failed to plan ahead. Planning ahead allows you to be prepared for upcoming dangers whilst driving. Sadly this skill is often ignored when teaching learner drivers.
  • Road Position: This is a basic skill that everyone should be able to do. In fact most people claim to have good road position. However under exam conditions every driver I have been with has road positional errors. As an older driver assessor for Transport for NSW and a rehabilitation trainer I drive experienced drivers every week. That is fully licensed drivers with decades of experience and none of them have good road position.

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Driver Evaluation

The first step on your journey to becoming a better driver is to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. As a driver you would have noticed other drivers making mistakes whilst driving. In addition you would have also noticed your own mistakes.

In order to correct any weaknesses we have to discover why you are making mistakes. It could be a lack of knowledge or it may be poor driving techniques.

The reality is we all have faults as drivers. There have been many surveys conducted on driver awareness over the years.

It is vitally important that you know the road rules. Most drivers do not have a thorough working knowledge of the road rules.

One survey conducted by budget direct showed that
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  • 48% of people do not know how to travel through a multi lane roundabout in NSW. That number rises to 49% in Queensland, 58% in Victoria and 68% in South Australia.
  • 31% of Victorians do not know who should give way at a T-interSection
  • 21% of drivers in NSW did not know who to give way to at T-intersections

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In another survey conducted by the NRMA parents and guardians of learner drivers were asked to complete and online driver knowledge test. These are the supervising drivers who are teaching the learner drivers to drive.

The test included questions similar to the Driver Knowledge Test that learner drivers are required to pass. Whilst the actual Driver Knowledge test has 45 questions the NRMA’s online test only had 16 questions.

Only 18 of the 600 plus unqualified supervising drivers who completed the online test actual passed the test. Think about it for a moment, the people teaching learner drivers could not pass the simplified version of the Driver Knowledge test. That means the learner driver has a better understanding of the basic road rules that their supervising driver.

Mastering the Basics

After identifying any gaps or weaknesses in your driving, we then bring you up to speed using our exclusive Better Way Training Program.

Then you will have the skills to gain the full benefit of our defensive driving program. Whilst each person will progress at different speeds when mastering the art of driving. The reality is that your knowledge and experience will ensure this does not take too long.

Then you will be ready to gain the full benefit of the defensive driving course.

A great way to assess your driving skills and identify areas that you can improve upon is to take a practice driving test.

 

Defensive Driving Course

 

Driving Defense

Involves combining many different driving skills and low risk driving strategies whilst driving in a variety of different road conditions.

When you are driving the conditions of the road change.

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  • Single lane roads
  • Multiple lane roads
  • Bus lanes, turning lanes, transit lanes, zipper lanes, marked lanes, unmarked lanes.
  • Low traffic, medium traffic, high traffic
  • Pedestrians, bike riders
  • Wet weather, heavy rain, ice on the road, gravel, oil spills, pot holes

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Your responses to these changing conditions will determine how safe you are on the road. Changes in the road conditions require you to change

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  • Speed Management
  • Road position
  • Crash avoidance spaces
  • Buffer zones and how you buffer you vehicle
  • How you respond to various hazardous situations.
  • Planning ahead so you are prepared for what is coming up

 

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Developing the skills and ability to scan properly and prioritize your decisions and responses to the changing road conditions is critical to safe driving. Then being able to respond appropriately with the correct driving technique is essential.

Driver Safety Program

Our training program is divided up into the following levels

Level 1: Evaluate your driving and identify any weaknesses in your driving skills.

The first step in our Driver Safety Program is to assess your current skill level. Your driving instructor will put you through a rigorous driving assessment under a variety of driving conditions.

During your initial driving assessment we will be assessing:

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  • Steering and car control
  • Cornering and road position
  • Speed management under a variety of road conditions
  • Your ability to scan and identify potentially hazardous situations
  • Your driving response to various driving hazards
  • Knowledge and application of road rules

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Once your strengths and weaknesses have been identified, we will develop a training program to meet your specific needs. Lessons will be conducted one on one allowing us to focus on your driving skills.

Level 2 Mastering the Basics.

This involves bringing your skill levels up to an acceptable standard. This will make you a better driver. In addition it will give you the skills needed to learn more advanced driving techniques.

Level 3: Learning Low Risk driving strategies and defensive driving techniques.

The next step in your journey to becoming the best driver you can be involves learning a variety of low risk driving techniques. Each low risk driving technique is taught to you by a highly qualified driving instructor.

Level 4: Applying those strategies and techniques in real life on-road situations

Then when you have achieved competency in that technique you are given the opportunity to practice in a safe manner on the road, This is an important element of safe driving, knowing when and how to apply low risk driving techniques on-road in real life situations.

The reality is that car crashes occur on public roads. Whilst you can simulate various road conditions in an off road environment, you will gain more practical experience on-road.

During this process you will learn how to assess on-road situations and determine the best low risk strategy for each situation.

Level 5: Understanding the contributing factors in car crashes and how to mitigate those risks.

The final component of the defensive driving course involves understanding the main contributing factors to serious car crashes. By studying the different crash types you will get a better understanding of how car crashes occur. Then we will show you specific defensive driving strategies that you can use to avoid these serious crash types.

Before deciding on the defensive driving course that is right for you consider what you will learn. At Learn to Drive we will work with you to ensure you develop all the skills required to drive defensively.

Our on-road defensive driving course is conducted in Penrith. Each class is 2 hours duration. You can see available course times and book online at:

Book Here For Defensive Driving Course

The number of defensive driving lessons required to complete the course will depend on your experience and skill level.

A learner driver who has completed the Safer Drivers Course will usually need a couple of lessons to develop the foundational skills required to drive defensively.

An experience driver will usually have some bad habits that they have developed over many years. Therefore they will need an extra couple of lessons.

We suggest lessons be taken weekly. This will allow you time to practice the driving skills and low risk driving techniques in your own vehicle between lessons.