30 Mar Driving during rush hour can be stressful, dangerous
Do you live in or around New York City? If so, you know that fighting rush hour traffic can be stressful and time-consuming.
Unfortunately, you may find yourself in gridlock during both the morning and evening hours. While you may feel safe when you’re creeping along, don’t lose sight of the fact that you could still be involved in an accident.
Here are five safety tips to keep in mind when driving in rush hour traffic:
- Exercise an extreme amount of patience. It’s hard to do, but you must remain patient when driving in heavy traffic. No matter what you do, you can’t make the traffic move any faster, so you might as well be patient and take your time.
- Leave yourself sufficient time to reach your destination. For example, if you need to be at work in the morning for an important meeting, leave your house a bit earlier than usual. This will relieve some of the stress if you find yourself stuck in traffic.
- Consider taking a different route. There is probably more than one way to reach your destination, so keep your options open. Even if a particular route is longer in terms of mileage, it may take fewer minutes to reach your destination.
- Leave more space. There is no point in driving too close to the vehicle in front of yours. Leave enough space so that you can stop in time should you need to do so without much notice.
- Keep your eyes on the road. When sitting in traffic it’s easy to let your mind wander and begin to look for things to keep you occupied. As tempted as you may be to send a text message or turn around to talk to someone in the back seat, you need to focus on the task at hand.
There is no denying the fact that driving during rush hour can be stressful and dangerous. This is why you need to follow the above safety tips.
If another driver causes an accident, move your vehicle to safety (if you can) and then call for help. Later, you can file an insurance claim and learn more about your legal rights for holding the negligent party responsible for any injuries and damage to your vehicle.