Mirror,
signal, shoulder check, move. These are the four steps for a successful
lane change. Simple enough one would expect, until you watch what goes
on around you in traffic today. This is a basic skill that a driver
should be confident practicing once
they have left the novice stage behind.
Unless a lane change is forced by an emergency, the first step in
changing lanes is to think ahead and plan your move. Scanning well in
advance for changes in traffic or anticipating your exit gives you the
time to execute a lane change safely, without affecting
the travel of another vehicle.
If you’ve left yourself an out, you can minimize the risk in an emergency as well.
You must signal every time you make a lane change. That signal, made
before you begin to change, must be made for long enough that the
drivers around you realize your intent.
The gap in traffic that you want to move into must be large enough.
Ideally, you need at least a 4 second gap, two seconds following
distance for you and two seconds following distance for the driver
behind you. This assumes good driving conditions, otherwise
the gap will need to be larger.
Can’t see both headlights of the vehicle behind you in the next lane in
your center rear view mirror? Don’t jam your vehicle into the space,
leave your signal light on and monitor the gap.
Here’s an opportunity for the driver behind to show that they know how
to share the road. Rather than speed up and put everyone at risk, drop
back and allow the change. It’s a ‘pay it forward’ moment.
Now it’s time for one last look around before you make your move.
Traffic ahead of you is still moving, the gap to move into is still
appropriate and there is nothing lurking in your blind spot. Do not rely
on blind spot monitoring to do the job for you, a
shoulder check is still required.
OK? Let’s do it! Smoothly.
Many drivers will make lane changes where it is forbidden to do so. It
is illegal to make a lane change over a solid line at any time. Solid
lines are marked at places like crosswalk approaches or where merging
traffic needs to gauge the surroundings before
moving anywhere. They say to the driver “Don’t, it’s not safe to change
lanes here.”
“Tell the other drivers that it’s illegal to change lanes in an
intersection” is something that I hear frequently. This is not the case
in British Columbia unless it would be unsafe to make the change. A
defensive driver will choose not to do this and it may
also have negative consequences during a driving examination.
That’s the short course for changing lanes safely!
Story URL:
https://www.drivesmartbc.ca/lanes/making-safe-lane-changes
—
Constable Tim Schewe (Retired)
DriveSmartBC: Where better than average road users satisfy their curiosity.