ALT-1 Driving Safely in the Rain
One of the more important aspects of driving is learning to drive in bad weather; many people think that bad weather means snow or icy roads or even high winds. However, one more element of our weather that can catch us out when we drive and it can be any time of the year, and that is rain.
Learning to drive in the rain will come naturally to many people, one minuet it could be dry, and the next minuet you could be driving in a heavy downfall of rain, and you will find that all you can do is to continue to drive on.
However, we must follow certain safety rules, and those are, making sure that you have a good set of tyres at all times on your car, tyres on a car are very important in rain, you will find that having a good set of tyres with plenty of grip will help your car to stick to the road when you have to break in any emergency.
Your window wipers are one of the more important items on your car, those two little bits of rubber just twenty inches in length and with a width span of just 1/4 of an inch will enable you to see in all weathers, non more so than in rain, when you are driving in the rain, not only do you have to put up with the rain hitting your window screen, you have also the back splash of other vehicles in front of you. This means that unless those two bits of rubber are in tiptop condition you will be driving with impaired vision. Regularly check your window wipers for wear remember that if your car has twenty thousand miles on the clock that's as many miles as your window wipers have travelled if you have not replaced them. Rubber does not last forever, you will find that little bits of the rubber will start to wear, and if that happens your front window will start to smear, there will be parts of the window that will not be cleaned of the water.
Make sure that on every trip that you make your window bottle is full, now this might seem strange that we are talking about a full water bottle when it is raining, however a full water bottle with a little bit of winter de-icier will make all the difference to a greasy window, over time especially when we have a dry spell the roads become rather dirty with rubber from the wheels of our cars, when this happens you will find that when it rains and the vehicles in front of you throw up all that water from the road your window that you are looking out of becomes greasy. When that happens when you turn on your window wipers, you will find that your screen becomes smeared, and no matter how you try, you will not be able to get rid of that smear unless your water bottle is topped up with clean water and a few drops of de-icier.
Your lights are important, you may be able to see what is in front of you when it is raining, but can the car behind you see you, and can that car that is pulling out of that junction see you coming, so always without exception turn on your dipped headlights so that everyone can clearly see you.
Many modern cars have automatic lights that come on when it grows dark, however it might not be too dark as it rains, so don't be fooled that if you own one of these cars that your lights have come on automatically, just because it has become a little darker it will not necessarily mean that your lights have come on, so make it an habit of turning them on when it rains.
Driving in the rain does not mean that it becomes more difficult, you yourself make it more difficult by not following certain rules, by following these driving safety rules you will find that driving in the rain will not be as traumatic as you might think.
