Having received a driver's license and bought a car, it is worth driving for some time on not very busy roads and practicing parking in places where this action can be done as simply as possible. This must be done not only because you still have too little driving experience, but also because you need to get used to your new iron friend and feel the dimensions of the car. At this stage, many people wonder how to feel the dimensions of the car if I am a beginner. It is the sense of size that allows you to perform any maneuvers without violating your own and others’ safety.
Recommendations and tips: how to feel the dimensions of a car.
Dimensions
The concept of dimensions usually refers to the height, length and width of the car. But the machine is not only in a static position; it also has dynamic dimensions. Those who have carefully studied in a driving school know that there are six main indicators:
- A straight line that continues the wheels – left and right.
- Continuation line of the front bumper.
- Rear bumper.
- Front axle.
- Rear axle.
These parameters are completely different for different brands and not only beginners, but also quite experienced drivers need to get used to them. You can feel them well only after some time has passed - this is the experience of traveling in this particular car. Only after feeling his car, the driver can easily fit into a dense traffic flow or park in a very small and inconvenient space. The same feeling allows you to avoid bumps on the road or move on rough terrain. It’s quite easy to spot a novice driving; many of them try to crane their necks during the trip and try to look at the road in front of the bumper. Such drivers can often see various minor damage to the bumper, front and rear, or headlights. All this is most often the result of unsuccessful parking. You can try to avoid this, because even minor repairs often cost a very tidy sum.
How to feel the dimensions of a car and not be afraid of driving around the city
This question is asked by every novice driver.
All of them very often make the first mistake: unnecessary control of everything and everyone, and constantly of what is happening behind the front and rear bumper of the car. This is unnecessary and makes you very tense, which reduces the concentration required for driving. Control of the dimensions of the machine must be carried out within reason, i.e. look in the side mirrors and rearview mirrors, so you control the side and rear dimensions. To control the front dimensions, the hood must be visible. It is pointless to lean out to the windshield and try to look at the bumper, since the traffic rules have the concept of “distance” in front of the car or obstacle in front.
Developing a sense of size
For a good driver, the feeling of the car occurs automatically, as if subconsciously, and the goal of any beginner is to achieve exactly this level. To the question of how a beginner can get used to the size, the answer is clear - you need to not be lazy and do some self-preparation. Experienced motorists and driving instructors talk about several groups of possible complexes:
- Completing a complex of individual, or self-guided, training using improvised or stationary means.
- Individual preparatory work on the car.
- Completing training using assistive electronic devices.
Individual car preparation
The adequacy of driving will depend on how comfortable, and most importantly, how correctly the driver sits behind the wheel. Proper seating reduces unnecessary driver movements and speeds up the decision-making process. This is achieved due to the fact that the driver has the correct position of his arms and legs, and in addition, sufficient visibility, without unnecessary bending and peeking. To achieve the optimal fit, the driver needs to make a special adjustment. Adjusting the driver's seat and steering wheel
- Sit in the driver's seat and adjust it just for you. Ideally, you need to fully depress the clutch and move the seat forward or backward so that it is comfortable and there is no desire to stretch. The backrest is adjustable so that when using your legs you do not have to move your entire body.
- Do the same with the steering wheel - your palm should fit between the rim of the steering wheel and your knees, and at the same time the second hand should be extended above the steering wheel and touch its top point with your wrist.
Exercises to bring the feeling of a car to automaticity
There is a fairly wide variety of training options for inexperienced drivers, which allow you to quickly feel the dimensions of the car. We want to introduce you to the most effective ones.
Beacons
This is the simplest, but no less useful way to feel the dimensions. For this method we will need the following items that are absolutely safe for the car:
- Cones of any bright color.
- Plastic bottles filled with sand. For better visibility, you can stick bright flags into the bottles.
- Sacks or cardboard boxes filled with something very soft.
- Old tires.
The next step will be to install these beacons. Now you can start working directly.
- The driver must stop his car so that his front bumper, first the central part, and then the sides, touches the installed beacon. It’s important to touch, and not knock over or miss – this happens about the tenth or fifteenth time.
- Then you need to practice the same exercise with the rear bumper. These exercises should be brought to automaticity.
- After completing the first two stages, you need to move on. We mark with beacons the contours of two cars with a distance of 9 - 10 meters. Next, we begin to practice the parallel parking method, which is considered quite difficult.
- We put tall sticks in bottles with sand that will imitate gates and begin to work out the passage. First, the distance between the bottles should be approximately equal to the width of your car + 1 meter. Then we gradually narrow the distance, reducing it by 10 cm each time. The exercise will be considered completed if you can drive the car into a gap that exceeds the dimensions of the vehicle by only 10 cm.
How to feel the dimensions of a car?
Don't be lazy to spend time on practical exercises. And you can practice in the following way: we take light boxes and build from them something similar to a gate, after which we try to drive through them. You need to devote several hours to this exercise, and if you cope with this task easily, we complicate it, that is, we reduce the distance between the boxes and increase the speed.
Approximately the same principle can be used - using boxes we designate the space into which we will need to move.
You can learn to feel the dimensions of your car in other ways. We draw a line on the asphalt, and then try to drive up close to it, but at the same time you should not touch it with your wheels.
And if you see that you cannot complete this exercise, then you can return to the task with boxes again. Also remember, this exercise will need to be performed until you learn to correctly determine the distance between your vehicle and such a stop line. This task is intended not only for the front wheels, but also for the rear ones.
In addition to these, there are other equally effective exercises. We take chalk and draw lines from the front wheels of the car 7 - 8 meters in front of them. At the same time, try to keep them as parallel to each other as possible. Next, we sit behind the wheel of a car, look for some stationary object that is constantly in front of your eyes (a protrusion on the dashboard can be suitable as such an object), and connect this object with the line that we drew from the right wheel, then along In the same diagram we mark the position of the left wheel. Thanks to this exercise, we will be able to feel the dimensions of our car. We drive away from these lines a little back, then drive your wheels onto them again.
If you combine all the above exercises, then I think you will get used to the dimensions of your car very quickly.
See also:
Learning to drive well does not only mean learning how to start a car and drive on busy roads. Each driver constantly has to perform such maneuvers as parking, turning on a narrow road, avoiding potholes and other obstacles. To accurately perform all these actions, you need a very good sense of the dimensions of your own car. With experience, this feeling comes naturally, but if you are a novice car enthusiast, it won’t hurt you to learn a little about this skill. There are several exercises specifically for this that will help develop a sense of the car’s dimensions.
Mistakes of novice drivers.
When driving a car for the first time, many people underestimate the importance of the vehicle’s dimensions. We are talking about the length and width of its body, as well as the height of the suspension. Naturally, for each car model these parameters may even differ greatly. At the same time, even knowing specific numbers does not always help with parking. To do this, you still need to get used to the car and literally feel it.
Very often, novice drivers overestimate their strength and think that they will be able to drive the car into the garage the first time or successfully avoid a dangerous hole on the road. But in reality, not everything is so simple, and when you get behind the wheel of a particular car, you should understand that driving skill and a sense of size will only come with time.
You can learn this by doing certain exercises, which we will definitely introduce you to. But before that, we want to introduce you to some mistakes that inexperienced drivers often make:
1.
While driving, the driver constantly tries to see what is happening directly under the front bumper of his car. However, if you look directly at the road in front of the car, you risk losing your straight line and colliding with other cars. While driving, you need to look only in front of you.
2.
When parking backwards, many beginners greatly underestimate the importance of rear-view mirrors and try to complete this task literally at random. However, in order to park without damaging the car body, it is very important to adjust the outside mirrors so that you can see the rear wheels of the car. Thanks to this, it will be possible to determine the distance to other objects as accurately as possible.
3.
Properly adjusted side mirrors will also help you change lanes without problems. Under no circumstances should you take the risk of literally cutting off other cars in an attempt to overtake them. You can occupy a lane while overtaking only after you have a full view of the entire car you are trying to overtake in the rearview mirror.
For the rest, the rules of the road and, of course, increased driving practice will help you. You can set it up on any abandoned road or parking lot where there are no other cars, and you will be able to drive around to your heart's content and train your sense of the dimensions of your car. To do this, we recommend performing the exercises described below.
Exercise "Beacons".
Preparing for this exercise is very simple. To do this, you need to make the beacons themselves, for which we take an ordinary plastic bottle and pour sand into it so that it becomes stable and does not fall even from the wind. After this, we insert a thin and maximally long pole into the bottle, marked on top with some bright flag or other markings. It is better to make several such devices for training.
We install beacons in front of our car and try to drive up to them close enough to lightly touch the flag with our bumper. In this case, the beacon should remain standing. If he falls, you can consider the exercise failed.
But you shouldn’t end the lesson here, since you still need to train your sense of the dimensions of the rear bumper. The same beacons will help you learn how to drive through narrow places as accurately as possible. To do this, just try to drive between two beacons. At the same time, at the very beginning of the exercise, the beacons can be installed quite far from each other. When you begin to succeed in performing this exercise, you need to gradually complicate the task for yourself, moving the beacons closer and closer. The same beacons can be used to perform figure eight and snake exercises.
While driving, it is very important to try to drive as close to the poppies as possible, while trying not to hit them.
Exercise "Hit."
This exercise will help you develop a sense of the lines of the wheels. Again, you will need available materials as inventory - an ordinary empty bottle or a small cardboard box. Place such beacons in front of the car and try to hit them as accurately as possible with either the right or left wheel of the car.
You can complicate the task if you place two beacons at a short distance from each other and try to drive through first one, and then through the other. You can also try passing them between the wheels of the car.
The highest level of driving can be achieved if you learn to perform the same exercises when driving in reverse. Even if everything starts to work out for you quickly, do not be lazy to consolidate your success in a few more days.
Exercise "Tags".
The best way for novice drivers to feel the dimensions of a car is to use the “Marks” exercise. It consists in the fact that special marks are applied to the base of the windshield, allowing you to feel and understand the location of the front wheels. To apply these marks to glass, you must:
1.
Take the longest ruler or just a straight bar.
2.
Place it on the hood so that it is located directly in the center of the front wheel of the car.
3.
Bring the second end of the ruler to the windshield, thus marking the line of the middle of the front wheel and make a corresponding mark on the glass (it is better to apply it from the inside so that it does not wash away).
4.
We perform similar actions with the second front wheel of the car.
In the future, in unusual situations, you will be able to focus on these marks, which will help you understand which line the front wheels of the car will follow while driving. These markers will be especially useful if you need to drive through a narrow arch, gate, or overcome a very narrow country road.
It is worth noting that very often such marks, which improve and develop the driver’s sense of the car’s dimensions, are installed by the manufacturers themselves. We are talking about hood deflectors, as well as special bulges in place of the front ones. Performing a decorative function, they simultaneously tell the driver how best to drive through a particular area. As markers for developing a sense of the rear dimensions of the car, instructors recommend focusing on (if there is one) or simply using rear-view mirrors for this. Otherwise, only exercises with beacons will help.
Rapid learning – can it be effective?
Exercises to sense the dimensions of a car can only be effective if they are performed frequently and regularly. If you have just received a driver's license and do not feel very confident on the road, you need to perform such training 1-2 times a week. Moreover, this needs to be done for about 1 year so that the acquired skills become professional and are performed automatically.
It is very important to understand that if you change your car, you will have to go through the whole science again.
Naturally, getting used to a new car will be much easier and faster, but you should not neglect the importance of exercises to sense the dimensions.
But there is another quick learning option that will help you become a real Schumacher. Almost every driving school has special extreme driving courses, after completing which you will feel the body and dimensions of your car like your own body. At the same time, the instructor accompanying you will tell you a lot of useful information on how to behave correctly in difficult situations on the road and avoid accidents.
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If you are an inexperienced motorist or have purchased a new car with large or, on the contrary, small dimensions, you need to get used to them and learn to feel them, because the ability to maneuver and safety on the road largely depends on this. In order to feel your iron horse, driving schools have entire specialized courses, but this art can be learned without spending money.
