On Mon, 2009-11-23 at 11:25 -0800, Bob Blick wrote:
> > I think these things become natural over the years of driving
> > experience. Most case when there is an emergency situation you do not
> > think, just act and then when it is over you start thinking what has
> > happened.
> 
> How can you train for that? 

You practice "loosing control" in controlled situations.

Every winter, when the opportunity arises I pull into an empty parking
lot and "refresh" my loss of control skills (assuming there's enough
snow).

> I don't want to accumulate sufficient
> experience with children running into the street. I think too many of
> them would get hit before I learned. 

That's not what we are talking about. When you are familiar with loss of
control your actions to counter it become very instinctual and
automatic. The "steer into the skid" sort of stuff never even enters the
mind, you just act accordingly.

Many people are terrified of loss of control and never purposely
experience it when it's safe to do so; so when it does happen they panic
(since it's something "new") and invariably do completely the wrong
thing.

Don't get me wrong, your hands will be shaking after a "real" event
either way, the difference is you'll have a higher probability of
driving away safe.

> I am happy to have ABS.

Good for you. However, you seem to suggest that having ABS means not
having to worry about loss of control and what to do, and that is a VERY
dangerous suggestion.

ABS is a tool. As with ANY tool, if you use it wrong you can get into
alot of trouble. People who've never experienced ABS often "freak out"
and let go of the brake, exactly the wrong thing to do in almost all
circumstances. 

A driver must also understand that ABS is NOT foolproof, there are
situations where it actually makes things worse, and with that knowledge
you can do more to avoid those situations.

Too many people assume that with ABS/traction control they can "slack
off" when it comes to tricky driving situations.

This is the same attitude people have with AWD/4WD. As a host of a car
TV show here has often said: all AWD/4WD does for most people is put
them farther in the ditch.

TTYL

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