Speed learning

Wish to be a safe driver on city streets and highways? Hone your skills at the racetrack by driving at 200 kph and cornering at high speeds.

The racetrack at the Dubai Autodrome zigzags, dips and rises at intermittent stages. Its sharp low - and high-speed corners are unforgiving, but for the audacious race drivers competing on this circuit, it offers a spine-tingling challenge.

Speeding on a racetrack makes for safer driving? Sounds a bit stretched as logic goes but the instructors are on firm ground about this one.

Every week at the school, about 30 students take lessons on driving at 200 kph (average) and cornering at high speeds. They perform daredevil manoeuvres on the maverick 2.6 km FIA-sanctioned racetrack.

And the skills they learn here not only push them into top gear for circuit action, they also prepare them to handle everyday road emergencies and instil the confidence required to help them cope with different traffic and weather conditions.

To the casual observer, the connection between safety and racing is tenuous, but the instructors offer a rationale that strengthens the connection.

How safety is compromised

A study jointly conducted by the World Heath Organisation and the World Bank published in the New York Times earlier this year stated motor vehicle crashes kill about 1.2 million people a year worldwide, and predicted the number would rise to more than 2 million in 2020, making road traffic injuries the third largest cause of death and disability.

"There is more than one reason for the marked increase in the number of road accidents," says Joe Chedid, manager, Dubai Autodrome.

"Lack of consideration for other drivers tops this list of reasons. In addition, UAE roads witness vast disparities: we have drivers with different driving standards, hugely different vehicles resulting in speed differentials, and in some cases, the design of the roads as well."

Sean Stevens, one of the 20 driving instructors at the Race and Driving School, agrees. "Poor consideration involves one or more or all of these acts – tailgating, flashing headlights, driving excessively fast, failing to halt at junctions, not indicating, weaving in and out of traffic, and using the emergency lane or the hard shoulder to overtake. Sometimes, it is the design of the road that poses a danger. For instance, some flyovers in Dubai have a decreasing radius, i.e. the corner tightens as you drive towards the exit. This can be quite dangerous."

"A simple analogy is that of one bad apple in a basket. The ramifications of one driver's aggressive behaviour such as braking suddenly, gesticulating or tailgating is, to put it mildly, dangerous to others on the road as well as to himself."

Bad, real bad, attitude

In the category of much sought-after modern-day virtues, attitude probably enjoys an alpha status. Doing the right thing is not commendable any more.

For instance, when you in queue to take a usually busy exit off the highway, you can get held up for extended periods of time. The right thing to do is wait your turn. But of course where would that leave attitude?

By deciding to do away with courtesy and correct driving etiquette, you can make headway by cruising past the queue.

"It's a typical situation," says Stevens, "and can be attributed to bad driving etiquette."

Another attitude that causes more harm than good is being overly optimistic and believing that bad things can never happen to you, he says.

"Risking a short trip without wearing a seatbelt or balancing a cellphone while manoeuvring are high-risk activities. People don't realise how conveniently they put others at risk when they disregard safety norms."

Racing schools = punching bags

Many accidents are a result of speeding. If you have a speed need, get on to the racetrack. Satiate your desire for speed on a circuit and you will find you are behaving more responsibly off the track and on the roads. On the racetrack, you can push your driving skills to the limit. And the result? Fewer aggressive drivers on city roads.

At the school, students are taught various aspects of driving: starting and stopping drills, system of car control, forward observation, steering and manoeuvring techniques, skid correction training, understanding different road surfaces, principles of safe cornering, overtaking technique, hazard perception, and car handling skills in both evasive and offensive driving, among others.

Even the finer details of driving right from seating position to the height of the headrest and steering technique are fleshed out at the school.

"If you improve your driving skills on the circuit, you become a better driver in general," says Stevens. "There is a margin for error in a controlled environment."

"When you take risks here, you automatically understand the limits on normal roads. And the programmes taught here combine classroom and behind-the-wheel instructions to maximise a driver's potential."

For example, how many of us ever bother to pay heed to safety signposts?

In an ideal world, we would be 100 per cent alert, heed road signs and understand different traffic conditions. Anything that hampers concentration levels should be dealt with appropr