The wheel

Originally published June 2005

Driving a car has always been an exhilarating experience. It is, essentially, not far removed from the experience of controlling the average modern gadget. It requires a certain knowledge of the mechanisms and components, and is, beyond a point, fairly intuitive.

But of course there is the unfortunate fact that driving a vehicle around is inherently tied to the fact that there are lots of cars around.The best drive is on an empty road, but that is also the most unviable thing.

In the face of this, I believe that the way out, or rather the way through, is to set yourself clear objectives. If society (or the part that takes to the wheel atleast) were to diligently follow a coherent set of objectives, driving and road safety would be a lot easier a problem to tackle. I for one have, in a loose order of importance, the following objectives:

  1. To brake as little as possible — This is of course so as to achieve as little loss of power and as little wastage of energy and fuel as possible. This is technically not the perfect solution, but to the layman, the fact that the energy from fuel is lost on braking is the easiest to convey and for the layman in turn to register as nominal guiding principle in his driving. There are of course other things which improve fuel efficiency and reduce vehicle wear, like changing the gears at the proper torque requirements (the RPM, displayed on most cars manufactured today, and the load, in the form of the contents of the vehicle, or the terrain and gradients one is driving on; together give one an idea of the torque required), accelerating moderately and plateauing at the appropriate optimum speeds, using the clutch minimally.
  2. To drive as smoothly and as softly as possible — This is to ensure the maximum comfort for the passengers of the vehicle. I once took a glass of water full to about 4mm short of the brim, and drove around, trying not to spill the fluid. This particular objective though is easier set than achieved. The idea is not representible as a tangible set of actions, rather it depends more on how you do things in general. Reducing car rolling (swerving less), increased use of banking, braking softly, using the clutch to disengage at appropriate times, releasing the clutch slowly and gradually; all things that make your ride more comfortable.
  3. Drive in a straight line or as close that as possible, while respecting the lane — This is just geometrical in the basic idea. The faster you want to travel, the more you need to move in a straight line and the less you should be butting in and out. Also for the more advanced riders, on an empty road, there does exist a “racing line” although you have to remember that you should not be braking hard, because that unfortunately spoils the fun (since you are NOT in a race car/situation). Lane discipline is more conducive to faster travel for all, specially if coupled with proper speed-lane distribution.

Needless to say, all of this is quite pointless in a traffic situation in which each one is in a battlefield of his own, not realising that the best situation is in discipline and diligence and not in flitting in and out.

Also one more minor but important thing. I firmly believe that if one wants to be a good driver, one must be faithful to a particular vehicle. As I said earlier, each vehicle conditions your intuition to respond to its functioning, and changing vehicles is not the best thing to help this.

And yes, to close this ranting, safety, needless to say, is never to be compromised.

Drive happy.