How to change lane safely? - Focus safety maneuvers: starting, stopping, braking, tracking, hand over hand steering, turns in traffic, scan, reverse, 3-points turn, changing lane

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How to change lane safely?

Maintain Speed

While changing the lane you should maintain your speed neither increase your speed nor even slow it. Do not let go of the gas. Instead, just go with the normal speed of the traffic. And in case even if you can’t see anyone around you, follow the same speed.

Turn On/Off Blinker

To let other drivers know that you’ll be changing lanes, hence giving them time to let you change the lane. And when you do take your turn make sure to turn your blinker off. Or Else it may create unnecessary confusion for other drivers. Which can potentially lead to dangerous results too.

Check your rearview, side mirror, and blind spots

When you have activated your blinker make sure to check your rearview and the side mirror to ensure that you got enough space or not. Also, don’t forget to check your blind spot which is very important to do. After checking the side mirrors and your blind spot then you can merge into checking with the other vehicles.

What are all things not to do while changing lanes?

Mirror Setting

Mirrors are supposed to be positioned properly in order to scan the vehicles around you and change the lane accordingly. In case your mirror is not set properly you are creating a risk. As you won’t be able to see whether there is another vehicle or not.

Moving out too early

If another vehicle behind you has reached past you or has already started to change the lane you should not change the lane. And instead, wait for them to pass and get merged into. When you are kept in a hazardous situation you should deal with it calmly, avoiding rush and surprise.

Slowing down before changing lane

A common mistake that happens with the majority of people, especially new drivers, is to extremely slow down the speed while changing lanes. Mostly it happens to be the reason to disrupt the flow of the traffic.
And thus it is much recommended to maintain the same speed of traffic. Later after merging, adjust the speed according to the speed in the new lane.

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