How to drive with rain safely

As much as it hurts, summer is over and with autumn The rains begin to arrive to the peninsula. After a few months in which we have practically not driven on wet ground, it is worth reviewing some concepts and tips for driving safely with rain.

Although the maintenance and preparation of our vehicle for the season Winter is very important, in this article we are going to focus on driving itself, starting from the basis that we already have the car properly revised and tuned. Here we give you five fundamental tips for driving in rain.

As you will see below, these are basic tips, but it is very easy to forget them and ignore them completely. If we always take them into account, we will significantly increase our safety when driving in rain. If you notice, you will quickly see that they are common sense, although you will be with me that they are not always carried out by all the drivers.

Security distance

As you all know, the limit of adhesion to wet soil is much lower than when the asphalt is dry. Therefore, and although our cars already have ABS to prevent the blocking of the wheels in a braking, the physics dictates that the braking distance increases considerably with the wet floor.

Today, the only formula to ensure that in case of abrupt braking of the vehicle that precedes us we will not end with our front "kissing" their rearguard is increase the safety distance . Of course, the safety distance must be increased both in urban traffic and on fast roads.

Anticipation of movements (ours and the rest of users)

We could say that, with rain, vehicles they have a more "clumsy" behavior. Of course, both ours and those of others. That is why it is convenient to anticipate the movements and to prepare before when we would do it with the dry asphalt and a shining sun to make maneuvers like a simple change of lane or take a crossing.

By this we mean to consult our mirrors mirrors more frequently and more frequently, to signal with the intermittent our intentions beforehand and to take other precautions such as making sure ourselves even more when leaving a Stop or when making an overtaking maneuver. Better to sin patient than risky.

Softness in the controls (steering, accelerator and brake)

This section is directly related with the previous one, referring to the anticipation of movements. To drive safely in the rain, we must be gentle with the controls of the car, that is, with the steering wheel, the accelerator and the brake , and for this the best thing is to be clear what maneuver we are going to do, what we can find a few seconds later and what are the intentions of the rest of users.

As far as we are concerned, we will try to drive accelerating and braking gently to not overload of work to our tires -remember what I told you in the first point of the grip- and not create inertia in the body. The same thing happens with the address of the car.Although the most disadvantaged in this regard are users of two wheels (bikes and motorcycles), we must also take this into account when driving a car.

If we drive cautiously and following the advice given above, we should not especially concern this section, but we must take it into account. To ensure a safety bonus, it is best to avoid braking sharply on the lines that delimit the lanes, so there is nothing like trying not to step on them as much as possible.

Keep calm and do not drive in a hurry

Last but not least, try to stay calm. Many drivers are stressed when the rain surprises them at the wheel and, as you can imagine, nerves are not good companions of travel. All this is the result of less visibility and, of course, of being aware that the capabilities of our vehicle are altered.

At this time it is advisable to take a look at the weather forecasts the last night, something we can do simply with our smartphone. If the forecasts tell us that the next day will wake up with rain, it is advisable to get up a little early to leave earlier and have more margin time , which will reduce our stress and prevent us from rushing to try to get there on time to our destination.