In my recent motorcycle class, I found that a lot of what I was learning about being aware of where I was on the road in relation to other people and on curves went hand in hand with my self-defense training.
What else do you do in your life that you’ve found reinforces or improves your self-defense?
Driving in general is great. When I was 15, I learned a defensive driving process called IPDE, which I still use to this day. It stands for Identify, Predict, Decide, Execute. The basis is that you’re looking down the road and scanning from ditch to ditch. You’re looking for animals, people, other vehicles, etc. As your eye Identifies something, you quickly try to Predict if that thing/person/critter is going to interfere with you in any way. You then Decide if you need to do anything and then Execute that action, which might be simply letting your foot off the gas and hovering the brake while you pay closer attention to a potential conflict, or it might be active braking or evasive maneuver is needed right now.
Needless to say, after using the IPDE process for some 35 years, it encompasses every aspect of your life. When walking through a store, I find that I use IPDE on every single person that enters my visual field. Not only to keep from crashing shopping carts, but with a foundation in self-defense and situational awareness, it readily translates to personal safety.
Just as a recent example, I spent a long weekend in Seattle (recreational) and on several occasions altered my walking path in the downtown area as we explored the Pike’s market and other downtown areas of Seattle (and having to do so without a CCW due to the local laws passed to prevent good people from bearing arms in that city). It’s just become a natural thing. You Identify something further down the road (or sidewalk) that might concern you, so you just decide to execute a slight course change (cross the street) to avoid any potential issues.
Towing a trailer with a pickup. Added width, extra weight, accommodations for corners. It adds a whole new level to driving. Keeps you on your toes for sure.
We talked about IPDE in our motorcycle class, @Scott1. They use SEE - seek, evaluate, execute which has the same philosophy. The one thing that helped me up my situational awareness is looking for gravel. Instead of just looking for obstructions in the road, I specifically look for gravel now. Why? It’s much more dangerous on a bike and I’ll see other larger obstructions if I’m looking for gravel as part of my seek.
Now when I watch people in a large area, I look for the gun/what their hands/hips are doing. I’ll see a lot by looking at those areas.
Towing a trailer s a whole different animal when it comes to driving. You need more awareness than before and more planning before you execute. I have witnessed a rollover because the driver didn’t know how to properly recover from a swaying trailer. My dad also had it happen to him. That was the day I decided I knew some things he didn’t and could return the favor of all his teachings to me.
I’ve been using IPDE for years myself as well as always leave yourself an out which means leaving enough space between you and the vehicle in front so if you need to go around you can get around them without hitting anything. When stopped at a light or stop sign always leave enough room so you can see pavement between you and them and when driving always leave 8 seconds between vehicles so if you have to stop or make a fast move left or right you have time to do so especially when pulling a trailer as I do usually loaded with 40,000lbs of product in a 53ft trailer.
Now if all of us in the little 4 wheelers would be as thoughtful to the big rigs driving would be so much less stressful.
@DBrogue Not all truck drivers (especially the newbies) are as good at following the rules as the senior driver’s such as myself are. Been out here pulling freight for almost 23 year’s and even the new drivers scare me since they act like they are in a car rather than a 80,000lb vehicle. The scariest thing is every 98 of 100 cars & some semi trucks are always on their cellphones not really paying attention to the surrounding areas and what’s going on around them…they have no situational awareness what so ever.
The cell phone may be the single worst threat to people ever.
Stay safe.
When it comes to driving, when approaching a red light, I always hypermile (foot off the gas coasting), I rarely come to a complete stop, usually only at left turn controlled intersections.
Also leave room between me and the car in front of me, at least a cars length. Two reasons for this escape route and if I’m ever rear ended less of a chance of hitting the car in front of me. I also always back into parking stalls, this forces me to walk around the entire car if I have to put something in the back of the suv. If I can’t carry a purchase in one hand it always goes in a cart, hands immediately free if needed.
So you’re saying you start stopping far enough in advance that by the time you get to the intersection it’s turned green, right @BrophE? You’d never do something illegal like not stopping when the light is red or at a stop sign. 
I run those suckers all day every day! Seriously though, by the time I get to the light it’s green.
@dawn, @BrophE is sayin’ he’s a master of the California Stop… “honest officer, I stopped, I just didn’t have time to take my foot off the gas!”
I got a ticket in CA once because the officer said I didn’t completely stop. He said he watches for the front bumper to dive, then rock up and down to know you really stopped. I said I’m an engineer and I practice conservation of momentum, that once the bumper dives and starts to come back up that’s evidence you have stopped, and i use that momentum to bring the gas pedal up into my foot and start my forward roll on the upward rock.
Which was all true but he gave me the ticket anyway.