Singapore -
Yes, we’re old, we’re even writing about helmets and hair-loss, probably only slightly wiser for it too. Which brings us to the story: There’s always that ‘hindsight 20/20’ question : If you could go back X years to give your younger self advice, what would it be?

‘Don’t drop soap’ and ‘Avoid yellow snow’ aside, here are some things that I wish I could have told the new driver that was myself.

And having written out this list, I also realise it’s just as applicable to plenty of drivers on the road here whose techniques don’t seem to have matured ever since they’ve left driving school. Well nobody’s perfect and there’s always room to learn more...  

1. It’s okay to miss a turn
Driving for the first time on your own is an overwhelming experience - you concentrate so much on controlling the vehicle that you will, without a doubt, get lost. Driving, listening to the navigation cues and looking for road signs - it’s easy to miss a turn or highway exit. But don’t swerve across three lanes of expressway to make a turn. Why? Well five or even 10 minutes of extra driving is a lot less to pay than any repair bill or injury. And besides, Singapore is tiny, it's not like if you miss an exit you have to drive 25km just to make a detour like in other countries.

2. Awareness trumps everything
In driving school they teach you how to drive, that is, to control your own vehicle. But the real key to staying out of trouble in the real world is spatial and situational awareness -  knowing what’s going on around you. How do you improve this? First of all adhere to this Zen-like maxim: When driving, drive. I.e. don’t jab your phone, use a handsfree kit or argue about which chicken rice is better. Focus your attention on driving, and you’ll do it better. You can do exercises to improve spatial awareness and your peripheral vision. At the end of the day, you simply want to be aware of everything that’s going on around you so you stay out of tricky situations and skills like these help you in every aspect of driving, from going around corners, driving safely, and even parking. 

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3. Keep left, give way
With all the sensory overload, it’s quite common to forget just what you’re doing and where you’re going. Until you gain more confidence in your skills, you probably won’t be going very fast - in which case it’s important to keep your eyes on the mirror and make sure you aren’t blocking anyone, especially on the expressway. The common Singaporean retort is “But I’m already at the speed limit!”. That may be so, but driving is a lot like walking - there’s a lot of give and take and some grey areas. Besides, one day it’ll be your turn to be in a rush too.

4. Being nice really helps
The way the older generation sees it, the roads are a battleground of people hedging their turn signal bets at the last moment in the paranoid fear someone might not let them make their turn (see point 1). Singapore’s roads have become a lot better since then, and while no system with human drivers can be truly error free (despite the advent of hands-off driving) in the meantime, it helps to be polite and to just try and let everyone get on with more living and less driving. A friendly wave, or ‘you first’ could make someone’s day, or even defuse a potential road rage situation.

5.You can also go backwards
It’s the Singaporean way of life: Charge forward, queue and get out in as little time as possible. But on the road, it’s not always possible to do that, especially if everyone else has the same idea. What do you do if your turn is coming up and nobody wants to let you in? Well check the mirrors behind the car and, if safe, simply slow down and slot in behind them. This also works when you’re waiting to emerge into a main road - don’t fixate on just the one approaching car, but the entire road situation. It sounds painfully simple, but keep your eyes open on the roads, and you'll notice some drivers making lemming-like attempts to kill themselves  merge onto the road in front of you when all they had to do was take it easy.