3.1 Defensive Driving, Visual Search & Risk Management

Before You Drive

The manual opens its Basic Driving section with a short checklist:

• You and your vehicle should be in good condition to drive.
• You must have a valid learner's permit or driver's license and the vehicle registration card with you.
• Adjust your seat and mirrors before moving.
• Make sure you and all passengers are wearing seat belts.

The Basic Rule and Defensive Driving

"A basic rule of driving is that, at all times, the driver should control the vehicle to avoid a crash." You are responsible for operating safely, which reduces risk for you, your passengers and everyone else on the road.

Visual Search and Driver Awareness

You make constant decisions, so you must know what is happening around your vehicle at all times: front, sides and rear. Constant observation helps you spot problems that may require you to change speed or change lanes. Searching ahead and being ready to adjust is what the manual calls defensive driving.

A widely taught way to organize that search is the SIPDE process:

1. Search the road ahead and to the sides, including driveways, crosswalks and ramps.
2. Identify real hazards: a child near parked cars, brake lights several cars ahead, a drifting driver.
3. Predict what might happen next.
4. Decide what you will do: slow, brake, change lanes or sound the horn.
5. Execute the decision smoothly.

Many driving instructors also recommend looking well ahead (often described as 10 to 15 seconds of travel), checking mirrors every few seconds, and checking your blind spot over your shoulder before changing lanes, merging or pulling away from a curb.

Maryland's Risk-Management Steps

Driving is a risky activity. The manual lists these steps to manage risk:

Managing Space Around Your Car

• Ahead: this is the space you control best. Keep at least a 3-to-4-second following distance in good conditions (see Section 3.3).
• Beside: avoid riding in another driver's blind spot, especially beside large trucks; either pass or drop back. Leave yourself an escape route, such as an open lane or shoulder.
• Behind: you cannot control a tailgater, but you can control your response. Do not brake-check. Ease off the gas to open more space ahead, so any stop you make can be gradual, and move right when it is safe so the driver can pass.

Communicating With Other Road Users

• Turn signals: signal before turning, changing lanes or pulling from a curb. Maryland law requires a turn signal for at least the last 100 feet before a turn.
• Brake lights: a light tap before slowing warns drivers behind you.
• Headlights: they help others see you in rain, fog and at dusk, not just help you see.
• Horn: use it to warn, not to express anger. Remember that honking can startle bicyclists (see Section 6.2).
• Eye contact: with pedestrians and drivers waiting to pull out, it confirms they have seen you.

Maryland's "Be the Driver" Campaigns

The manual includes Maryland's Zero Deaths safety campaigns, which sum up defensive driving well: Be the Slow Down Driver, Buckled Up Driver, Focused Driver, Make a Plan Driver, Share the Road Driver and Look Twice Driver. The manual cites NHTSA data that a crash on a road with a limit of 65 mph or higher is more than twice as likely to be fatal as one on a 45 or 50 mph road, and nearly five times as likely as one on a road posted 40 mph or lower.

Scenario Practice

Scenario: You are approaching a green light. A car is waiting to turn left across your path, and a delivery van is double-parked on the right. Defensive response: ease off the accelerator, cover the brake, watch the left-turning driver's wheels and the van's doors, and keep space on at least one side.

Scenario: A driver tailgates you on a two-lane road. Keep a steady speed, increase the gap ahead, and let them pass where passing is legal, or pull over safely if needed.