2018 New Year driving resolutions

The New Year 2018 is upon us, and with it a clean slate, hope for a fresh start and lots of great potential. As we make resolutions to live a better life, right wrongs or simply abandon bad habits, we should also make resolutions with driving and how we treat our cars.

Cars after all, are an important part of our everyday life as it is an extension of our freedom, giving us ease and convenience and allowing us to enjoy life more.

Here are some resolutions we can consider:

1. Drive better and safer

In our daily rush, we forget that driving is a conscious act rather than an involuntary action.

We should pay more care of traffic lights and signs, pedestrian crossings and intersection yellow boxes, instructions of local traffic police constables, and of course, the speed limit.

We should avoid talking or texting on our mobile phones, too.

2. Plan your daily driving routine

The biggest waste in everyday driving is traffic. To be able to avoid any form or amount of traffic is always welcome.

While traffic is unpredictable, we can still improve our chances of avoiding traffic by planning our schedule and routes accordingly so that we won’t be sawing back and forth in the metro.

Avoid known traffic hotspots during the rush hour, and leave these areas before school or work is out.

3. Drive at the maximum allowed speed

Filipino motorists have a general characteristic of driving at the absolute minimum of the speed limit. This isn’t safer or more efficient because we spend more time on the road, causing more traffic and burning up more fuel.

We should aim to drive at the fastest possible allowed speed to speed up the general pace of traffic and get ourselves off of the road, thus helping decongest traffic, saving time, and allowing us to do more things aside from just driving slowly. Remember, slow isn’t efficient.

Related to this, never hog the innermost lane of the expressways.

The innermost lane is the overtaking lane, and the simple theory is that if you place yourself on the innermost lane, you should constantly and continually be overtaking cars on your right, even if it means you will be driving above the speed limit.

By keeping to the maximum speed limit on the overtaking lane, you are preventing other motorists from overtaking you and other slower moving vehicles, or worse, emergency response vehicles. Don’t be a road hog!

4. Be mindful and alert of emergency response vehicles

Too often, many drivers are clueless about incoming fire trucks, ambulances and similar vehicles.

As soon as we hear sirens and see flashing lights, we should start scanning our surrounding environment, locate where the source is coming from, and prepare to move aside, give way, and in many instances, stop until these emergency vehicles have passed.

And we should never tail-gate, race or piggy-back these emergency vehicles. Give way immediately to these vehicles as soon as it is safe.

5. Take better care of your car

We’re all guilty of it: we skip the PMS, fail to air up the tires, replace balding tires, streaking wipers, busted lights, or a noisy suspension part.

Cars can fail at the most inopportune time, and it could have been prevented if we took better care of our vehicles.

Write down reminders on your smart phones, mark dates on a calendar when to have a PMS performed, check the tires (even the spare tire) everytime you gas up, and make sure your vehicle’s tools are complete and in proper working order.

The goal here isn’t just to make sure you don’t break down or be ready should your car fail, but ultimately, to prevent you from being another traffic obstruction on the road.

We hope that with these five simple suggestions for your motoring resolutions, your motoring life will be better, safer, more convenient and more enjoyable this 2018. Safe motoring!