16 People Prove Defensive Driving Lessons Are Definitely Not a Waste of Time

With self-driving vehicles and smart cars becoming more frequent on the roads, the art of defensive driving is slowly losing its importance, or so many drivers feel. While moving ahead with time and technology is a good thing, nothing can truly replace human skills. This is why, knowing and anticipating all that can go wrong on a road, and taking steps to avoid it, is a sound proposition to make driving safer for all. Here are some Redditors who feel defensive driving is perhaps the best thing you can learn, and practice, to ensure driving remains stress and collision free.

This driver emphasizes why you NEED to pay attention to the road, always.

• A man pulled up at the drive-thru, and before placing his order, backed to speak properly into the microphone. I noticed the car was still in reverse gear, so I backed up a little further.
  Sure enough, after he placed his order, he accelerated and went back about 10 feet. Definitely would’ve hit my car. You can’t predict what people will do, but some are so bad you HAVE to be paying attention, especially in case their attention wanders. Spatula151 / Reddit

Other Redditors admitted to being in similar situations.

• One time I went through a DD drive-thru with some friends. I meant to put it in park and put it in R instead, then forgot I even had it in park ^® and just hit the gas and went backwards almost into the car behind me. MetaCardboard / Reddit
• As I was pulling up to a left-hand turn lane today, some guy in a work van crept too far into the intersection, I guess, and had his transmission in reverse. I beeped at him twice as I pulled up alongside him, and he took a look at me as if to say, “What do you want?” Light and turning light both turned green at the same time, so I got to see him roll backwards as he took his foot off the brake. hitlama / Reddit
• Absolutely wild. Saw one today where someone was attempting an illegal U-turn and had to back up for room to make the turn. The dashcam driver just kept driving in their lane despite seeing this almost a quarter mile away and tried squeezing past them in their blind spot, then acted shocked when the U-turn driver accelerated into their side. Unknown author / Reddit

Polite stopping can be a hazard, as this mail carrier explains.

• I’m a mail carrier. People love stopping their vehicles in the middle of the road to let the mailman cross the street. They think they are being so courteous. They also think they are helping the mailman do his job.
  Please stop. You aren’t helping. It’s dangerous for you. It’s dangerous for me. I am not a child. I can cross the street when it’s safe to do so. Unknown author / Reddit

Many other Redditors tried to drive this point home.

• Exactly. You might stop. What about the guy behind you who gets peeved and decides to go around? What about the other lane, are they going to stop?
  Then you’ve just stopped despite them not having the opportunity, and it’s even more dangerous for you to now go after you’ve made a point of stopping to let them cross. Just drive correctly and save being courteous for letting people merge in on the highway, that’s the only real time when driving correctly and being courteous lines up. Zak_Light / Reddit
• I hate when cars stop for me as a pedestrian when they don’t have a stop sign or anything. What’s safer for me: a stopped car nearby or no cars nearby? I’d rather they just keep driving, so I can wait till it’s clear. Ndi_Omuntu / Reddit
• This is absolutely my biggest pet peeve. I recently had a car in front of me stop on a nearly empty rural road with no stop sign in our direction to let a school bus make a left turn. The bus could have easily and safely made the turn less than ten seconds later, and definitely didn’t have any signs out.
  But, by stopping unexpectedly on a 45 mph road, if I hadn’t been driving defensively, I easily could have rear-ended this guy. By trying to be nice, they created a situation that was much more dangerous for the bus than “waiting ten seconds to safely turn.” CarolynDesign / Reddit

Defensive driving can save lives, feel these drivers.

• The person coming the other way fell asleep at the wheel and crossed the center line. I held down the horn and drove onto the shoulder. Unfortunately, the horn wasn’t enough to wake the guy up.
  I was able to dodge the guy, but the guy behind me did not. Both drivers needed ambulances, and the guy who was behind me couldn’t get out of his car and had to be cut free with the Jaws of Life. I saw them hit in the rearview.
  When I stopped and got out of the truck to go check on the people involved, I legit was afraid that someone had died. They were quite fortunate that they both lived. A few seconds slower on my reaction, and it could’ve been me in that ambulance. SillyAmericanKniggit / Reddit
• I was almost in a pile-up in Michigan. It was during morning rush hour after it snowed, and I see a sea of brake lights flashing on and cars swerving. I slow down a lot and leave extra space between me and the car in front of me. It’s not enough, traffic is slowing down even more. So I start pressing my brakes, but people slow down to 15 mph, I start pumping my brakes.
  While doing that, I have my right hand hovering over my emergency brake and I point my wheels to the ditch in case a catastrophic pile-up occurs. As I approach 0 mph, I am angled towards the ditch but safe, and finally, traffic starts to move again. Upnorth4 / Reddit

A driver raised a somewhat pertinent question.

• Has anyone else noticed that defensive driving seems to be dying? Every day on TikTok, I see dashcams of easily avoidable wrecks that people just...drive into. Then the entire comment section is filled with people saying the driver did nothing wrong.
  Obviously the person causing said wreck is in the wrong, but there’s almost always clear and ample time to avoid the wreck and people just don’t avoid it or even accelerate into the other vehicle. Is there a reason more people don’t go out of their way to avoid wrecks, even if they aren’t at fault? Are there any defensive driving tips you all can share? Unknown author / Reddit

Plenty of tips, tricks, and stories followed through.

• I always say, “drive as if the people driving around you are just about to do the stupidest thing you can possibly imagine, and you’ll be fine.” McGriffff / Reddit
• Exactly what my father, a professional truck driver, taught all of us. Watch your mirrors. Always be looking for a way out. Assume everyone around you is inattentive. Retired_Jarhead55 / Reddit
• More drivers need to take that “invisible” approach, always assume other drivers aren’t paying attention and can’t see you. Similar to this, I’m excessively wary of blind spots. I always make sure to avoid sitting in people’s blind spots, and especially avoid changing lanes into someone’s blind spot.
  Actually argued with someone about that the other week, because they were convinced it’s only the other car’s responsibility to check blind spots. The thought of defensive driving flew completely over their head. Unknown Author / Reddit

Motorcyclists had more stories and tips to offer.

• Here’s an alternate / additional way to think of it, here is how I explained defensive driving to my niece when I was helping her learn to drive. This comes in part from two decades riding motorcycles across 17 states, including commuting on a motorbike in Boston-area traffic. There’s two “bubbles” around your vehicle. A big bubble, where you’re aware of everything in that bubble. And a smaller bubble, where you’re in control of everything in that bubble.
  Before you change lanes, you check over your shoulder for your blind spot, but you should ideally never be surprised by a car being there, because your “blind spots” are part of your awareness bubble. Keep track of cars as they leave your line of sight or your mirrors, so you always know what’s in your “blind” spots.
  Then the smaller bubble that you control, the most obvious part of that is your following distance from the car in front of you. But it also extends to the spots directly next to you, on a multi-lane road. If you can avoid it, don’t hang out in someone’s blind spot, and don’t let other people hang out in yours, for unnecessarily long. spit-evil-olive-tips / Reddit
• I took a lot of what I learned riding a motorcycle, a year before getting my license, and applied it to driving a car. One of the major lessons I took home, although it’s trickier in a car, is to look for escape routes. I’ll instinctively look for someplace to maneuver, still applying my brakes hard, but leaving room for drivers behind me to stop as well.
  On a motorcycle it’s a given, because you can stop so much faster, and are at major risk of being crushed. I was taught to pretend like I was invisible to other traffic while riding, and I’ve taken that a step further, and pretend like people are actively *trying* to hit me. I use the same approach to driving, so I’m rarely surprised when someone cuts me off, eases into my lane, etc. Shadow_Spirit_2004 / Reddit

Ultimately, it all boils down to being aware and attentive on the road, and making sure to keep your calm. On this note, here go some more tips for new drivers to stay safe on the road.