Winter Driving Tips For New CDL Drivers

A confident driver will make better decisions for the most part. Fear often causes wronf decisions, or inaction.

Bad thing, there's gonna be a lot of scary miles between fearful and confident.

You'll learn to read your trucks reaction to conditions. Be safe

 

One more thing I thought about. If the road looks wet, but you don’t see spray coming up from tires. That is black ice. About 28 degrees of air temp is the most likely time to encounter slick roads. If ice is building up on the back of your mirror it is building up on the roads. Let off the fuel and coast across bridges when possible.


Guess that was a few more things.

 

You correctly react to fear by identifying what you are afraid of. analyzing the environment, remembering your training, implementing those actions, inventory your physical/emotional responses (squeezing the steering wheel triple super hard isn't going to help in the slightest), focus on the primary and secondary keys to measure success/failure ( looking for lane markers, road markers, etc). A good baseball hitter doesn't stand at the plate with enough tension in his hands and neck to produce diamonds. He keeps his physical actions appropriate to the situation, even if the team may win or lose the last World Series he will ever play in his fading career.

If you don't fear losing traction on an icy road or don't fear walking between 2 drug dealers on the sidewalk you need adult supervision. Perhaps you and I mean different things by "fear". Perhaps you mean have a REACTION to something dangerous that means doing nothing or running away. That's not how I use the word. I mean extreme alertness, recognition of danger (physical or psychological, both real and imagined). If you are anxious but you are anxious of everything/something/anything and can't focus on specifically what the fear is, one may shutdown. The more specific the cause of the fear the easier to respond correctly. I've noticed women will respond to a general "there may be some bad men around" by "I'll talk on my phone actual call or pretend) and then the bad men will know I'm not alone." That's a dysfunctional reaction. It's like not locking your door but feeling safe because you have video camera to record an intruder. IT ASSURES YOU. IT DOESN'T PROTECT YOU. I think denial of fear is more like the "talk on my phone so I don't get robbed." I worked in a dangerous field and learned how professionals deal with dangerous situations. They don't talk about their feelings to feel better. They exchange techniques for doing them well and shedding distractions. Whether the activity is selling hamburgers, getting in the ring with Mike Tyson, defusing landmines there are the time-tested or data-tested methods and procedures to maximize success.

We all know how terrible 4-wheelers drive. It's my theory most people are just as terrible at most other things unless they learn and train specifically for that thing, whether it's saving for retirement, buying real estate, doing their taxes, maybe even raising children. Maybe I'm wrong?

 

I said that 2 posts ago,,

 

My bad. I have been caught skipping pages.

 

Snow driving advice:
You get better traction in the snow beside the tire ruts than you do IN the ruts.
You get better traction on the shoulder than you do on the lane pavement
(remember these when you break traction, or when you find yourself not leaving enough room to stop normally....)
Also, pavement reflects light differently when it's wet to when it's just beginning to ice-over to when it's fully iced-over.

 

Reminds me of a time. Left S.Wis. for Rhinelander, just drizzly, 4 lane I-39 was just wet. Got up north, I had about 40 miles to go on 2 lanes, it was sheet ice.I had to get my wagon from Rhinelander before 9pm, or wait until morning so I had to roll. I found, running on the gravel shoulder, I could at least do 30-35. Coming south, another driver was doing the same thing.