I pretend me and my car are invisible. I expect no one to slow down, speed up, change lanes or do anything else in reaction to anything I do. And mostly I pray no one just rams into me from behind.
I attended a high performance driving school many years ago. It was geared toward becoming proactive behind the wheel, not just reactive. I still use what I learned today. I feel I have avoided a number of potential accidents from what I learned.
Assume every other asshole out there doesn’t know how to drive and will at any random moment do some random stupid and dangerous thing.
Then drive and plan ahead accordingly.
I think the most objective means of determining whether someone is above average is to look at their driving record. I don’t think tickets are necessarily objectively unsafe. If everyone is going 10 mph over, it’s generally less safe to go the speed limit than go with traffic, yet that might result in some tickets. A quick google shows that the average person will be involved in 3-4 accidents in their life time. Frankly, that seems low, at least for this area, but how do you rate? For instance, I’ve been in several, but all of them were the other driver’s fault; in fact, all of them were the result of someone rear-ending me at a red light, so they weren’t even avoidable on my part. I’ve had a few near-misses that likely would have been my fault, either not seeing something or briefly losing concentration, but quick reflexes prevented that. I’ve also, through quick reflexes prevented a whole lot more that would have been someone else’s fault. So really, I think if you’ve been at-fault for few accidents than average for the length of time and amount of driving you do, you’re likely above average.
For somewhat less objective things, there are certainly some characteristics. Some people might have years or decades of driving, but because they live in a warmer climate, maybe they don’t have the experience of driving in ice or snow. Or maybe someone is from a rural area and not used to dense and aggressive driving, or from an urban or suburban area and not used to mud, and narrow, winding dirt roads. So relevant experience to the conditions matter. Someone might be above average in some conditions, but below average in others.
And for specific behaviors, maintaining good following distance in case one has to stop suddenly, or having an escape route incase of an unseen hazard. One who checks mirrors and blind spots and stays aware of the behavior of surrounding drivers, hazards or other changing conditions. One who plans ahead to change lanes or make turns early enough that it’s safe and doesn’t need to force it in at the last minute. Someone who maintains appropriate speed or other habits based upon the behavior of other drivers or various road conditions. Making sure that you’re not distracted on the phone or other activities and taking steps to minimize them or pulling over when they do become a distraction. These are all common things that most drivers either do, or are aware they should be doing.
Ultimately, though, what I’ve found to be one of the biggest things that so few drivers do is making sure I’m driving in a predictable way for other drivers. Even if someone is driving fast or changing lanes alot, it’s unsafe, but I at least know what to expect and can adjust accordingly. It’s people who make sudden changes in speed, maybe to prevent someone from getting in front of them, or someone who realizes they’ve gotten into the wrong exit and suddenly pull into traffic, or people who try to be nice and stop suddenly to let people in, or people who have the right of way but don’t take it and leave others confused about whether they should go or not. That’s the sort of stuff that makes it difficult for me to keep driving safe. If you’ve got the right of way, take it. If you’ve gotten in the wrong turn lane or missed your turn, don’t stop in the middle of the road or pull into traffic, just deal with it and either wait until it’s safe to pull back into traffic or make a safe u-turn. And for the love of God, learn how to match speed and merge and how to not be a dick when others are trying to merge safely and either slow down or speed up to help them merge safely as appropriate.
Yes-there’s means, and there’s medians. 20% of all drivers cause 80% of all wrecks. The vast majority of drivers are solid and safe drivers, and thus don’t rack up tickets and accidents, in which case, yes, ~80% of all drivers are above the average (mean) accident/ticket rate. But that bottom 20% drags the mean down.
Eh. This thread assumes “above average” means “decent.” But the average could be so bad that “above average” is still a terrible driver.
I can’t estimate percentages, but I’ll point out that I see bad, terrible, even life-threatening driving by multiple people almost every time I’m outside, let alone driving.
On a recent half-mile trip to the library and back I saw three extreme examples of dangerous driving (the worst of which was a minivan doing 20 in a 35 zone…that wasn’t so bad, until it continued at 20 miles an hour right through a 4-way stop without any hesitation at all) and numerous examples of negligence and rulebreaking. Last time I was in a car (a couple of days ago, I take a bus frequently) we saw a car weaving badly in its lane and slowing to 50ish on a divided highway…as we passed him, we saw the driver looking down, busily texting on a clearly visible smartphone. A truly shocking number of times, as I pass through a yellow light, I see two, three, five, seven, ten more cars stream through behind me, long after the light has been red. I see people run red lights so often that it seems like every other red light I see people zoom through who were way the hell far away when the light went solid red, but they just accelerate toward the intersection. If they’ve “seen it green” at any point on their approach, some people feel entitled to roar through it.
This rant entirely leaves out aggressive driving, mind you.
I’d add 3 things to that:
The first is the ability to think ahead as far as where you want to go, and what that means in terms of how you get there. All too often people may be aware of other cars, aware of their car’s handling, focusing on driving in the moment, and all the other good stuff… and then fire up some sort of insane turn across 3 lanes of traffic and onto the off-ramp, causing a huge mess, all because they weren’t in the right place when they came up on the off ramp. Had this person been thinking ahead, they’d have realized that they need to get over well ahead, and be in the right lane.
The second is a certain degree of patient unselfishness. It’s not everyone else’s job to react to whatever stupidity you perpetrate because YOU made a mistake and don’t want to drive a half-mile, u-turn and go back. It’s not their job to let you in when you drive up the shoulder around traffic and want in at the very head of the line. Basically, driving’s part of a collective effort for everyone to get where they’re going in a safe and timely manner, not a every-man-for-himself free-for-all where everyone does whatever insane things they think will get them where they’re going a hair faster.
The third is the ability to drive in a predictable and customary way, and to be aware of when your customary way of driving is inappropriate and adjust accordingly. This dovetails with #2 above nicely, in that lots of people may realize that they’re driving in a way that’s out of the norm for an area, and just not give a shit, and drive too slow, too fast, too aggressively or too timidly for an area and decide that it’s everyone else’s problem. If everyone in your area drives 5 miles above (or below) the posted speed limits, and you go somewhere that everyone drives at the speed limit, then you need to adjust, not decide it’s their problem.
Heck, I’m not even sure you need different metrics to say this is correct, if my “Average” you mean “the average number of accidents they cause.”
If you added up all the accidents that take place I think you would find a shockingly high percentage of them could be attributed to a shockingly low number of drivers. I’ve never in my life caused a traffic accident, nor have most people I know. But there are people - and I’ve met a few - who cause a truly amazing number of accidents, and get their licenses pulled and drive anyway and cause more.
I am tempted to say, “All you gotta do is drive like me”.
Well, I’ve had a licence for 61 years and never been in an accident. One of the things I see other drivers do is not anticipate. For example, I see a light turn red a block away. I slow down. In fact, I play a game of not using the brake, if possible. Then some a-hole behind me will come around and pass only to come up to the light and screech on the brakes. Not only is this wasteful, but it will cause me to have to brake. There’s a stretch near me that has a sign saying the lights are timed for 40kph. I drive that speed and never have to slow down or speed up. But over and over I see guys who go 60, stop at a light, go 60 to the next light, stop at it and so on.
I signed up with my insurance company for a safe driving discount. Now I have a dangle that plugs into a port on my car. They monitor my driving and my discount will depend on that. They monitor 4 things: hard stops, hard acceleration, time of day, total miles driven. I assume they know what causes accidents.
First, continuous improvement. You should constantly be monitoring your performance and working on doing things better. Every near miss is an learning opportunity. Even when another driver was the wrong-doer, could you have anticipated that, could you have been in a better situation, could you have had a larger space cushion. Do you tend to have trouble staying in the lane on left hand curves? There is a reason and a fix for that. Do you always find it difficult to merge, or get over in time to exit? There is a reason and a fix for that.
Second, be well ahead of the car mentally. Pretty much as far ahead as you can see. I constantly see people braking on nearly empty stretches of interstate as they approach the one other car going the same direction. They slow to the same speed, THEN start thinking about changing lanes.
Third: Following distance. In heavy freeway traffic I see 70-80% of cars following at 1 second or less. Many under a half second. It screws up traffic as people who need to change lanes can’t without disrupting traffic in two lanes, and then it all goes to shit when someone inevitably rear-ends.
Fourth: Be predictable. If you screwed up and have 100 yds. to get over three lanes to your exit, then you need to take the next exit and backtrack. Don’t stop at a green light to give the homeless man on the median $1. Yes the speed limit is 55, but if everyone else is doing 65, then driving 55 is not safer.
yes…anything else is subjective
Well,since they can’t see you, that’s entirely possible. 
To the list of good characteristics, can we add not unnecessarily slowing down when passing an accident (or even a car just sitting on the shoulder)?
Yep and yep.
In particular: don’t just pay attention to what’s in front of you (although yeah do indeed do that). Be also aware of what’s happening behind you. To the side of you. Think in 2 dimensions, not just linear.
Facilitate other people getting where they’re going. Communicate with the other drivers as need be in the process of getting you where you’re going.
Avoid doing things suddenly. It makes your passengers nervous, it startles other drivers, and it should not be necessary.
Don’t drive like my Grandma did when she was 83: don’t focus your attention 20 yards in front of your car. You should be aware of what’s happening way way off at the horizon as far off in the distance as you can see.
I rode a motorbike before I got a car license, and I must say (touch wood etc) that it gave me the best training to drive a car.
I stay WELL behind any car in front, not so much because the car in front is likely to slam his brakes on, but because the car or two in front of HIM might do something crazy. I’m hyper-vigilant of all the vehicular activity around me, and am forever checking my mirrors and entering traffic. I allow merging cars in (when I can, and am often waved for my generosity…
) but it means that the traffic is smoother and less stressful.
In my 35 yrs of driving, I’m yet to have an accident.
Oh, except for that one time a lady stalled in front of me and I rear-ended her! She got a tiny ding in her bumper-bar…but MY car (a bloody VW Type 3) was thrown so far out of whack it was totalled!
uh yeah and how much **more **to charge you for the insurance. they dont need to know my business so I keep them out of my car.
Oh and my rules
Keep S.O. out of the car as well as any other back seat driver
drive offensively instead of defensively
in snow dont drive on roads with other cars on it, inevitably they’ll cause an accident…
generally I just try to keep the cars from tailgating and try to remember not to do the same to the vehicle ahead of me. Watch out for cops
Laugh at the idiots going the speed limit, sees a cop and hits the brake…idiots
I use my turn signals as much as possible
I give semi trucks their due space in front and back
I pass the Sunday drivers as much as I can…cussing all the way around them
Recently, this year, I’ve taken to looking both ways when turning right. Frequently you can see drivers passing in your lane if you turn out into the lane that is yours.
Above all, remember your blind spots! Keep your license tabs up to date and dont text and drive!
Seriously, I try to be a good driver and remember the rules/tips I learned in drivers ed (high school)
In addition to all the other fine comments, this and what Mudshark said about knowing what your car is capable of also can take an already good driver to an even higher level. I attend 3 or 4 high performance driving events a year and not only do we work on our car handling skills but also you finally really get to know the extreme limits of your car, the G forces it can handle on flat or banked turns, the grip characteristics of your tires when they’re at different inflation points and different temperatures, the fine line in a hard corner when your front or rear end is just about to let go, the braking characteristics, just how hard you can slow and trail braking competence, accelerating in corners and passing, how it’s different in the rain, etc. Heck yeah, I definitely find myself employing some track knowledge on the streets and highways that make my driving more predictable and thus the road safer for me and everyone else as well.
Just drive.
Don’t eat. Don’t rummage around in your bag. Don’t play around with your phone. Don’t mess around with your hair or makeup. Don’t reorganize the shit laying around your car.
Just drive.
Like I tell my wife on a regular basis: “You know who’s a good enough driver to drive and do that other shit at the same time? NO ONE.”
Just. Drive.
Don’t hurt yourself or anyone else, and get where you’re going without getting in anyone else’s way, as much as is possible.
And it really helps if you know where the fuck you’re going so you don’t have to cut across three lanes of traffic at the last second.
I think all that’s a pretty low bar to clear, but in my experience at least 95% of everyone is completely incapable of achieving even that very low standard.
Your rate can’t go up as a result of Progressive Snapshot information, if that’s what you’re worried about. It will either go down or remain the same.
The problem with looking at your driving record is that it hugely depends on how much you drive. I’ve got a pile of speeding tickets and a couple of fender-benders here and there, but I drive close to 50,000 miles a year. I’ve got friends and family who are frankly scary to ride with, but have clean records because they don’t drive much.
First, I’ve looked at that study and it is about how people evaluate themselves, not about how well they drive, so arguing about what above average means is pointless.
Lots of good answers here, especially paying attention and situational awareness. Three more things
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I agree about looking ahead and looking behind, but it is important to look at the side. I see lots of cars changing lanes into another car and switching back at the last second. I almost got zapped by one a few weeks back. You need a model of which cars are around you - if you know there is a blue Chevy on your right, and you don’t see it when you are about to change lanes, odds are it is in your blind spot and you should figure out where it is before you move.
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Anticipate what other cars are going to do. Tailgating is bad, obviously, but so is leaving excessive amounts of space on busy roads moving slowly. People will swerve in front of you, or try to pass, and there are more opportunities for accidents than if you leave a decent amount of space.
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Channing Idaho Banks says use cruise control. Optional, not required. I hate it - I’d much rather force myself to be in control of all aspects of driving, even on long boring trips.
I’ve had two tickets in 45 years of driving, none in the past 20 in California, and this is despite a reasonably long commute. If you are not the fastest car on the road, you probably won’t get a ticket. I learned this 43 years ago when I got my only speeding ticket, and it has served me well, and I am not a slow driver.