“Emergency Stops with Steering” Structured Practice

You’ve practiced emergency stops … now add steering.

New drivers tend to panic when something unexpected happens.  As part of learning how to drive a car you must stay in control and keep steering, no matter what happens.

Go back to your parking lot.  This time take with you a plastic parking cone if you have one or something large like a box that you can see from a distance but don’t mind running over.

Place your cone ¾ of the way to the other end of the parking lot.  Start the car and get the speed up to 15 mph (25 kph).  Brake hard when you are about 20 to 30 feet (6 to 10 meters) from the cone.  Try to stop in front of the cone.  If you can’t stop, steer around the cone.

Repeat at various speeds (like the previous exercise) with this steering component.