Archive for the ‘TIPS & TRICKS’ Category
Every year, thousands of people are involved in automobile accidents. In almost every accident, somebody acted negligently, and could have avoided the accident by exercising more caution.
I have represented thousands of accident victims and seen over and over again common accident mistakes. Most of the time, only one person is at fault. Sometimes, more than one drive shares the blame.
The following suggestions are given to help you avoid causing or contributing to an accident. This is not a hypothetical list. This is a list gleaned from years of seeing thousands of situations occur in the lives of my clients.
Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol or a Controlled Substance. It’s never a good idea. Some of the worst accidents I’ve seen are caused by drunk drivers. Most people who consume alcohol do not think they are too impaired to driving. Alcohol impairs reaction time, and those fractions of seconds can make a difference in driving situations.
Falling Asleep at the Wheel. If you get tired while driving, pull over and take a quick nap. I drive long distances frequently, and I pull over when I get tired. Don’t fight hrough it.
Overcorrecting. Many of the accidents I see are people who overcorrect. People see something in the road they don’t want to hit, and they swerve to miss things that would not hurt them if they hit them. Road cones. Tumbleweeds. Rubber from tires. My advice is to hit the object, and brace yourself. In most cases, the consequences are far less severe than swerving at a high rate of speed. My wife just lost a friend who was ejected from her Hummer (she was not seat-belted, either) when her husband swerved to miss a road cone, rolling vehicle several times.
Running a Red Light. Don’t enter an intersection after the light turns red. Ever.
Turning Left on a Yellow Light. When the light is turning yellow, vehicles going straight try to beat the light. But the person who needs to turn left has been waiting in the intersection. The fatal mistake I have seen time and again is the turning party turns on the assumption that the speeding car going straight is going to stop. That is a risk you should not take. Assume nothing. Even though the light turns red, you are already in the intersection. Most street have a delay between when the light turns red the opposite lights turn green. Besides, you face far less risk with cars that see you ahead of them that are accelerating from a stopped start than to pull in front of a car going 45 miles an hour.
Following Too Closely, Tailgating. It is hard in crowded traffic to keep a safe distance between you and the car in front without someone cutting in front of you, but you have to discipline yourself to do it. Think of space as a big cushion or pad of safety. That buffer of space will save you from many accidents that occur when people in front of you have to slam on their brakes or take evasive action. Many of the rear-ender accidents I handle could have been avoided if people just gave themselves more space between them and the car. The rule of thumb is one car length per 10 miles an hour, or a 2-second buffer between you and the car in front of you.
Driving in the Parking Lane. The shoulder of the road is not a lane, even though many people use it. I have seen many accidents occur as people try and use this as a travel lane. People turn into them all of the time. Any lane to right of a white line is not a driving lane.
Failure to Adjust Speed Given the Road Conditions. Too many people travel too fast, ignoring speed limits. Also, people fail to adjust their speed when hazardous conditions exist. Speed limits are maximum speeds, and if hazardous conditions exist, drop your speed below the maximum so you can have time to react to approaching conditions.
Failure to Pay Attention. Many accidents also occur because people get distracted, talking on their hand-held cell phones, leaning down to pick something up, eating, talking to someone in the car, etc. Your car is not a restaurant, phone booth or office. Force yourself to avoid distractions and remember that fractions of seconds matter if you are going to avoid or prevent accidents.
Changing Lanes without Looking. Always check your and blinds blind spots when changing lanes. I have seen a number of side swipe cases because people failed to do this.
Making Illegal Traffic Maneuvers. Don’t’ make maneuvers, such as U-turns, in places where they are not allowed. The double dashed center lanes on many of our roads are not merge left lanes, they are left turn only lanes. Only use them for their intended purposes.
I know if everyone followed the rules, I would probably be out of a job! Most people will not take my advice–but I hope you do.
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10 simple tricks to save gas
Author: admin
1- Use public transportation. It’s time to ride the bus again and to take the metro. If you hate public transportation you 
can ride your bike to work or even walk.
2- Carpool. Find coworkers who live close to you. Offer to give 10$ per week of gas money. This will cost you less than going to work by yourself and give you someone to talk to while heading at the office. You can even use carpooling to do your groceries and other routine shopping.
3- Combine errands and walk between stops. Try to do your groceries and find a pharmacy close by (walking distance ?) I believe now Wal-Mart actually combines both type of stores! With the new concepts of supermalls where all the big retailers rent space right beside each other it would be smart to drive to one place and stay there for all your purchases.
4- Drive slower. The faster you drive the more gas you are burning. If you drive over 55 miles per hour your gas 
consumption per extra mile is greater than below that speed. A rapid acceleration is a big gas-burner too, I know it’s fun to drive fast, especially after that red light but is it worth the extra cost? Cruise control on the highway is another great way to lower your long distance travel bill.
5- Keep your tires well-inflated. Inflated tires help you get better gas mileage by reducing the friction tires can create on the road. This is probably the oldest trick in the book.
6- Keep your vehicle light. Remove any unnecessary weight from the car. The more load you carry the heavier it is and then it only costs more to move around. Also try to remove anything that can create drag with your car. (eg: bike racks or ski racks)
7- Parking in shadow will reduce the evaporation of gasoline from your tank, as sitting in the hot sun speeds up that process. Parking in the shade also keeps it cooler inside, and you will need less A/C to cool off when you get back in.
8- Turn off your engine if you are going to be 
idling. Millions of gallons of fuel are wasted each day from idling, we all do it and it’s actually almost unconscious. The other day I dropped off a friend who just needed to walk in and send a later to the post office, without realizing it I idled for 5 minutes. If you look at it on a larger scale, a few hundred thousand people idling every day we can save a lot of gas consumption right there.
9- Warm your engine first, specifically for the folks living in the northern hemisphere, try not to drive a lot with a cold engine. Not only this is bad for your car, cold engines do not run efficiently. This is actually written in most cars manufacturer manuals who reads those anyways, but you should!).
10- Buy a high mileage car like a MINI or a Toyota PRIUS hybrid cars, or better yet move closer to where you work.
Hopefully this will help you reduce the gallon/mile ration you have right now. If you want to make a profit out of the skyrocketing commodity price, invest in buying stocks from oil companies or any utility company. For some reason I cannot explain, they always make more money when the price of their product goes up (which they have no control over). As for me, I am going to start using my bike more often, it’s free and on top of that it combines getting from point A to B while keeping fit!