Five Tips For Driving Safely At Night

Depending on when you conducted your driving lessons, you may not have a lot of experience of driving at night. This can lead to your first efforts upon passing being a little faltering, but it is important that you understand the need to drive safely in low-light conditions. If you are wary of driving at night, or have a few bad experiences under your belt already, the following tips should prove useful to make sure you build your confidence and stay safe when you are on the road.

Understand Your Lights

There are a number of different types of light on your car and you need to understand how to use them properly to drive safely at night. While placing your headlights on full beam may seem like the best option in terms of visibility, you also have to remember the issues related to glare that fellow road users will have to deal with. As such, it is important that you understand the different types of light that your car has and how to use them effectively when you are out on the road.

Look Out For Eyes

If you are driving out in the country, it is possible that wildlife is going to become a problem. For darker animals, such as badgers or raccoons, you may find that it is too late to stop before you collide into them. This can obviously be devastating for the animal, but it can also cause damage to your car. As such, you need to be capable of looking out for the refection of your lights in the eyes of animals. It may not always help, especially if you are driving at high speeds, but you may end up saving an animal and an expensive bill if you do.

Be Wary of Oncoming Lights

In the same way that your headlights might affect the vision of another driver if used incorrectly, so to can the lights on another car impair your vision. Be wary of any oncoming vehicles and try not to look directly into their lights. That brief moment of glare could impair your vision to the point where an accident is caused, so keep your eyes on the road while also being sure to acknowledge that there are other vehicles around you.

Slow Down

Night-time driving offers limited visibility, at least in comparison to driving in the day. This means that you need to adjust the speed of your car appropriately in order to compensate for potentially slower reaction times. Keep in mind that the speed limit is the highest speed that is legal, rather than the one that is safe. If you have any doubts, just slow it down a little bit to stay safe.

Practice

Of course, as with your standard driving lessons, practice is going to make perfect. As such, you need to spend as much time as you can driving at night to build your confidence. Start on quieter roads and then slowly build yourself up until you start to become comfortable.