Begin Driving on Freeways for a Novice Driver
Freeway driving is an essential part of learning to operate a car, but it can be a little scary at first.
Steps
- Pick a highway and a time. It's best to start when you know the highway will not be crowded. Weekends and evenings are best. Pay attention to the traffic reports in your area. Make sure you know exactly where you're going and you don't have any place to go for a while.
- Learn to operate the car at lower speeds first. Make sure you know all the laws and "rules of the road," including what different kinds of lanes look like and the local speed limits.
- Make sure your car's brakes, lights, turn signals, steering, transmission and all other parts are working safely. Get the car inspected and fixed if necessary. The freeway is the worst possible place for a breakdown.
- Start on a day when the weather is clear and dry. Darkness and inclement weather make driving more difficult and should not be the beginner's first step.
- Start driving from your driveway, then head for the freeway on-ramp. Don't take the on-ramp too fast, but when you come off it you should be going close to the speed of freeway traffic (whatever that may be at the time).
- As you come up the on-ramp, use your turn signal, check your blind spot and mirrors, look forward again and merge onto the highway. You must watch for cars on the freeway and adjust your speed to enter the freeway safely. Although many people will change lanes to the left to give merging cars more room, it is not their responsibility to let you onto the freeway. Once you've safely merged onto the freeway, match your speed to the flow of traffic.
- Practice changing lanes as you cruise down the highway. Use your turn signal, mirrors, and glance at your blind spot every single time. Remember when driving on freeways that you should always stay in the furthest lane to the right unless you are passing a slower moving vehicle in front of you. You have probably seen signs which read, "KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS." If everyone followed this rule traffic congestion would be much less severe. If you are in the 'faster' lanes (left lanes) and there is a large space in front of you and many cars behind you YOU ARE OBSTRUCTING TRAFFIC. Safely change lanes toward the right to allow traffic to pass. It is not your job to enforce speed limits by obstructing traffic on the freeway.
- Once you're comfortable changing lanes, try passing other cars. Make sure to give them lots of room, and don't ever cut in front of anybody.
- When you're ready to get off the highway, find an appropriate off-ramp and get in the correct lane, using the steps to change lanes. As soon as the off-ramp breaks away from the main highway, start slowing down.
- Once you're off the highway, you can go home, or look for another on-ramp and practice more highway driving.
Tips
- Always wear your seat belt. No exceptions. If the car is moving, you'd better be buckled.
- If you're not good at navigating, have somebody who already knows how to drive take you down the highway before you do it yourself. This way you'll know exactly where you're going.
- Never, never change lanes without signaling and checking your blind spot first. Otherwise you could change lanes right into another car you didn't know was there. A little round blind-spot mirror stuck to the lower inside corner of the side mirror (where it would otherwise just reflect your car) can help with this, but remember anything in them is much closer than it appears, and you should glance anyway.
- Don't drink alcohol or caffeine before you start driving. (In fact, in many places it is illegal to even have an open container of an alcoholic drink in the car.)
- Practice, practice, practice. This seems like a lot of steps to follow, but very soon it will be an easy habit.
- Practice your first few times with an experienced driver in the car. You'll want a buddy along in case something goes wrong, to help you navigate, and to warn you if you're about to hit something. Also, with another person in the car, you can drive in carpool lanes.
- Make sure you have adequate insurance (whatever is required by law) before you drive. It goes without saying that your license should be valid and up to date, too.
- You may find it easier to learn on a car with an automatic transmission first. Especially with a low-powered automatic car, don't be afraid to step on the accelerator hard, which will make the car shift into a lower gear and accelerate more quickly and more noisily, when necessary. It is supposed to do that to generate the full power for which the car is designed.
