but perhaps the best way to observe how this fivepoint program can be put into action is to ride with Harold Smith himself and listen to his comments as he drives H what we're going to do here is a wrap up of what we've been talking about in space and visibility these are the two basic ingredients for all automobile operations on any given trip from point A to point B I'm going to attempt to demonstrate for you what it looks like to plant this vehicle voluntarily into the traffic stream with lots of space and lots of visibility around my vehicle most of the time I'll be talking and telling you what I'm doing and where I'm looking and why I'm doing what I'm doing with the vehicle at any given moment for instance right now I'm looking a whole block and a half down the roadway and as you can see we have a beautiful space in front of us we've got a beautiful space over here and we're enjoying right now a three car length lead on the car behind us way up front Things Are stilling looking very very good and right now we're running at the speed of traffic now of course there's nothing wrong with driving in the right hand lane next to these Park cars but you must be aware of the fact that people do occasionally open doors and move these cars in and out of parking places so when you're driving in the right hand lane you have to be aware of these people we scan the steering wheels of these Park cars looking for people I gave this lad a friendly tap of the horn he looked up and smiled just wanted him to let let him know we were there so he wouldn't step back dangerously into our path there's a lady sitting in the car right here we'll give her a friendly tap of the horn and ask her not to open the door now I didn't have to ride in the right lane all that time my left lane was wide open I could have been riding out here and not have had to worry about all those horn Taps but people will ask me occasionally do I advocate that they always drive in the left-and lane and of course not I advocate that they drive wherever they feel comfortable but always apply the principle of space and visibility and of course communication with other people in the background up here now being coming to foreground we have a stale green light we are approaching now and just past the point of no return you mean by a stale light it's been on for a while it's been green for some time a stale green light is a green light that was green when I first saw it so I must assume that it could go against me at any time it's a defensive Outlook right fellow up here is uh trolling for a parking place or he's trolling for some address not paying too much attention to his driving gave him a friendly tap of the horn just to let him know we're about to move into his blind spot moving along at the speed of traffic got a beautiful space up front got a red light in the background driver at right angles is looking at us that's the eye contact we refer to and all is clear all around us we have a bad situation up front because that big billboard and that billboard I mean that truck any big vehicle large displacement vehicle that blocks your forward view we refer to affectionately as a billboard and uh you can't see through them around them under them or over them so they usually are hiding something that uh you have to slow down the seat have to stop for this one that's quite obvious now after this vehicle up ahead starts to move I'm going to sit here with my foot on the brake and mentally count to three before we put this vehicle in motion the object here is to get an immediate instant space cion so that I can take my eyes off this fellow and look way up the block the only way that you can consistently get a big picture keep your eyes running 8 to 12 seconds that's a block down the roadway leading your vehicle at 30 mph is to be a minimum six car lengths away from from the nearest vehicle in front you won't have to concentrate a night car you can have that peripheral I always I always like to say that I can comfortably take my eyes off them I mean it feels good in the pit of my stomach even when I'm not watching it now Ernie we've covered a lot of the points and the situations you encounter on this kind of a street in a few minutes I'd like to take you out on the freeway and I'd like to show you how we apply the same principle to the smess system outward traffic conditions are somewhat different we don't have parked cars cross street signal lights but we do have entrance and exit ramps and we have much higher speeds to encounter now I'm going to uh enter the freeway up here Ernie and I expect that we're going to encounter a little different situation than we've had back on those surface streets on this particular Entrance Ramp we don't get any preview whatsoever it's all blind it's all blind I can't see a thing until we get up on the level of the freeway itself how we can blend in up here can only be determined when we get there but I'm assuming the engineers have given us an acceleration ramp it isn't very long I could see that right now however we've got a beautiful spot here to fall into I'm going to pull right up to the speed of traffic and we're going to move right on out just as smooth as silk now you can notice up there we have a great big cluster of traffic and we're not going to catch that cluster at all we're just going to leave those people where they are I'm going to get up to to their speed but I'm going to stay back here by running their speed back here I keep a lot of people back here from passing us you can't help it if a charger once in a while like this little hot dog wants to go by in a sports car but by and large most people run along about the same speed I like to drive the speed of traffic it isn't always exactly at the speed limit sometimes it's a few miles hour under but nevertheless if you're driving at the speed with most other cars you have to make the least number of adjustments to keep your space and visibility we have a lot of space in front of us a lot of space on both sides and I have a beautiful space pushing behind me right now as we round the B I can see way up the Sol that's setting my face is in the blue car up there just disappeared around the curve really don't have any time racing into a traffic pattern having to slow down anyway so might as well stay where you are that's absolutely right you see again there's a cluster them all grouped together up there and I don't want to join that mob I don't want any part of them I want to stay by myself got space here space there a lot of space in front and a beautiful question behind us we're doing all this by making little adjustments of the accelerator sometimes we pick up a little speed sometimes we let up on the accelerator to drop our speed now I'm going to move over into the right lane because we're getting ready to get off up here this is the Smith system in action the working formula for space cushion driving space for the car and visibility for the driver I like to get over here and decelerate off of the main roadway if you have such a deceleration Lane and in many parts of the interstate system we do have Lanes like this and most motorists don't take advantage of them I don't like to use my brakes out there on the main portion of the main travel thorough also gives a fell behind you a a queue that you want to get off of exactly he knows exactly what I'm going to do takes all the guess work out of it aim high in steering get the big picture keep your eyes moving leave yourself an out make sure they see you you'll find these principles can be applied in every driving situation on all streets and highways where wherever you go so next time you drive make space and visibility work for your comfort and safety be a better driver and enjoy [Music] yourself