The danger of driving when the road is wet is tenfold especially when you are new to driving. An inexperienced fellow in a driver’s seat during a rainstorm can put others at risk as well himself. If you are experienced enough, there is no need to panic but not everyone comes as an expert in driving. Rain brings out the worst in most drivers and can cause dangerous driving hazards. The following tips are some of the safety measures which you can adopt to protect yourself while driving on raining days:
* Turn on the lights and wipers. Slow down instantly when the rain starts as rain water mixed with oil can make the road slippery and slick.
* Don’t follow another driver too closely and try to keep plenty of distance between the front and back vehicles.
* Pay attention to the pedestrians walking aside or trying to cross the road.
* Pull off the road if the rain is too heavy and the road is unclear.
* Drive in the lane which is closer to the center as the slow lanes may have water build ups and is not safe.
According to me never drive beyond the limits of visibility. At night rainy roads become especially treacherous. The glare of oncoming lights, amplified by the rain on your windscreen, can cause temporary loss of visibility while substantially increasing driver fatigue. In rainy conditions pedestrians, livestock, and wildlife are extremely hard to spot and even harder to avoid.
Here in london, it rains all the time, so we have no choice but to drive in the rain. And we have phases of sudden heavy showers mixed with light ones, so no one really pulls over or the traffic would come to a halt half the year round!
Hence, we continue driving, but slow down, try to maintain distance from the car in front of you, switch on lights as the visibility is quite poor, avoid breaking suddenly and try to stay as alert as possible!
The danger of driving when the road is wet is tenfold especially when you are new to driving. An inexperienced fellow in a driver’s seat during a rainstorm can put others at risk as well himself. If you are experienced enough, there is no need to panic but not everyone comes as an expert in driving. Rain brings out the worst in most drivers and can cause dangerous driving hazards. The following tips are some of the safety measures which you can adopt to protect yourself while driving on raining days:
* Turn on the lights and wipers. Slow down instantly when the rain starts as rain water mixed with oil can make the road slippery and slick.
* Don’t follow another driver too closely and try to keep plenty of distance between the front and back vehicles.
* Pay attention to the pedestrians walking aside or trying to cross the road.
* Pull off the road if the rain is too heavy and the road is unclear.
* Drive in the lane which is closer to the center as the slow lanes may have water build ups and is not safe.
If it hasn't rained in a while the roads can be really bad during the summer when it begins to rain. Like you said the oil is on top of the road.
Regarding pulling off the road - I've done that But I actually Exited the Highway. Pulling onto the shoulder in zero visibility is like asking to be killed.
Near where I used to live in the Bronx was a bridge wihich had a road surface that was made entirely of grated steel. You wanna see slippery? I mean the surface was a joke in the rain. More common are the steel roadway plates that construction crews put down. Wet steel is to be respected. By that I mean try not to do anything but maintain your pace and direction over it If it can't be avoided.
Keep in mind that one of the biggest problems are the people in cars that have really bad grip in the wet. They are not going to drive through the puddles because they can't and are apt to move over right in front of you. In his book 'Principles Of Performance Driving" Jackie Stewart talks about the fact that most manufacturers do Not do development work in the wet. As a consequence of this some vehicles are just inherently bad in the wet.
Also old roadways that have been worn down smooth are bad -- and this is often exacerbated by the tracks that have been ground into the road by all the cars passing over the same spot. These "grooves" hold puddles of water. Aquaplaning is really no fun at all, especially in heavy traffic..
Lastly: keep in mind that even if you are in a car with seemingly good grip; even through puddles: just a slight increase in speed can change that.
Really Lastly: if you've never driven on a particular road in the wet; then you don't know the road and should proceed accordingly.
I generally agree, with a few drawbacks; I do disagree about the grip level over tire grooves. Yes, the tires polish the surface which reduces grip levels especially in the wet, but this very polish, along with the natural "crowning" of the road, makes the grease and dirt build up not in the grooves but on the edges of the road. Categorily you can say that a wet road be more slippery the further you move towards it's edges, with the exception of badly paved roads where the crowning of the road is reversed (draining water towards the center) or where deep wheel ruts are created by heavy traffic movement over roads with a poorly compacted asphalt mix.
The grip reduction caused by rain after a dry period (even after a single week and less!) is not only a result of grease drops, but just as much (and maybe more) by presence of dirt and dust. These turn into a thin film of mud which is just as slippery as the grease. Dropped leaves, tree sap and fruits (like a Ficus) can also reduce grip levels and some countries (like mine) also paint signs and crosswalks with slippery paint.
I also agree that pulling over is too dangerous, but I also use this rule in completely dry and sunny conditions. You probably know well how vision leads the way while driving, and the very attention drawn by a car that has pulled over makes drivers swerve towards it. In my country, about 10% of the casualties on the road "go" like this, and in Europe there are special, protected "Lay Bys" with a hotline for emergency services, instead of an open hardshoulder. Even in conditions of pouring rain, it's adviseable to slow down and crawl your way towards a safe stopping place, which is completly segregated from the road.
I found the point of tire maintainence somewhat unstressed in your post. With the right tires, your comment about inherently bad wet grip becomes much less significant. A high-quality, carefully-inflated, relatively new and deeply treaded tire will give suprisingly high grip levels in the wet as it does in the dry.
I generally agree, with a few drawbacks; I do disagree about the grip level over tire grooves. Yes, the tires polish the surface which reduces grip levels especially in the wet, but this very polish, along with the natural "crowning" of the road, makes the grease and dirt build up not in the grooves but on the edges of the road. Categorily you can say that a wet road be more slippery the further you move towards it's edges, with the exception of badly paved roads where the crowning of the road is reversed (draining water towards the center) or where deep wheel ruts are created by heavy traffic movement over roads with a poorly compacted asphalt mix.
The grip reduction caused by rain after a dry period (even after a single week and less!) is not only a result of grease drops, but just as much (and maybe more) by presence of dirt and dust. These turn into a thin film of mud which is just as slippery as the grease. Dropped leaves, tree sap and fruits (like a Ficus) can also reduce grip levels and some countries (like mine) also paint signs and crosswalks with slippery paint.
I also agree that pulling over is too dangerous, but I also use this rule in completely dry and sunny conditions. You probably know well how vision leads the way while driving, and the very attention drawn by a car that has pulled over makes drivers swerve towards it. In my country, about 10% of the casualties on the road "go" like this, and in Europe there are special, protected "Lay Bys" with a hotline for emergency services, instead of an open hardshoulder. Even in conditions of pouring rain, it's adviseable to slow down and crawl your way towards a safe stopping place, which is completly segregated from the road.
I found the point of tire maintainence somewhat unstressed in your post. With the right tires, your comment about inherently bad wet grip becomes much less significant. A high-quality, carefully-inflated, relatively new and deeply treaded tire will give suprisingly high grip levels in the wet as it does in the dry.
Let me restate this -- In the heat of the summer when it first starts to rain; especially if it's been hot and dry for several days the oil from cars and the asphalt itself comes to the surface. This can be a challenging situation.
On a well worn roadway the tires have cut grooves into the road surface. These Can fill with water and become lake like. This leads to aquaplaning -- when you choose to drive in them. This is especially true, on poured concrete roads.
This is not some theory -- this is real world fact based on my decades of driving and yes street racing.
Dust? Um not a factor when cars are regularly flying over the road at 85 MPH. It's pretty well dust free. Just saying.
Yes it's true tires count a lot. As do their inflation levels. They are after all an integral part of the suspension system and your only reason for changing and or maintaining your direction on planet earth. However as Sir JYS has pointed out from his years as a top level development driver... some cars are just plain bad in the wet compared to other cars.
Not just in the summer, in every case where the rain ceases for some time. In hot weather the temperature intensifies this process. If we discuss highways ("Where cars are flying at 85 mph") than this whole discussion is mostly irrelevant: These roads are usually clean not only of dust, but also of grease.
Grease residue is formed in areas of slower speeds, like in towns, mainly in conditions of deceleration or cornering, and while the cars are moving slowly or standing. When standing at an intersection or bus stop, the constant drip of oil will form into an actual sheen, where on the highway it will be sprayed so widely to have a negligible effect on tire grip.
Also, the paving of such roads is better, hence subjects of reduced road grip, bad drainage or formation of wheel ruts will become very rare on such roads. These roads have another problem, which is hydroplaning. At highway speeds, even a brand new and well inflated tire can hydroplane over thin films of water. This helps me understand your former point about the effect of slight changes of speed on wet grip.
The rest is merely a misunderstanding: When you talked about grooves in the pavement I assumed you referred to the normal wear of the tarmac, which becomes polished and shiny at the wheel-paths. Now I understand that you referred to a situation of deep ruts which, as I said, are an abnormality caused by bad paving.
Not just in the summer, in every case where the rain ceases for some time. In hot weather the temperature intensifies this process. If we discuss highways ("Where cars are flying at 85 mph") than this whole discussion is mostly irrelevant: These roads are usually clean not only of dust, but also of grease.
Grease residue is formed in areas of slower speeds, like in towns, mainly in conditions of deceleration or cornering, and while the cars are moving slowly or standing. When standing at an intersection or bus stop, the constant drip of oil will form into an actual sheen, where on the highway it will be sprayed so widely to have a negligible effect on tire grip.
Also, the paving of such roads is better, hence subjects of reduced road grip, bad drainage or formation of wheel ruts will become very rare on such roads. These roads have another problem, which is hydroplaning. At highway speeds, even a brand new and well inflated tire can hydroplane over thin films of water. This helps me understand your former point about the effect of slight changes of speed on wet grip.
The rest is merely a misunderstanding: When you talked about grooves in the pavement I assumed you referred to the normal wear of the tarmac, which becomes polished and shiny at the wheel-paths. Now I understand that you referred to a situation of deep ruts which, as I said, are an abnormality caused by bad paving.
Yeah, re: your last paragraph. Bad paving describes it a bit but its more like really old pavement that was put in before so many people moved into that area. As a result of the roads being commuted on by many more folks than they were desigined to handle, the asphat / concrete has been worn down.
Hi, thank for giving important tips for rainy season.
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