efficient turning…dexterity…prepared for emergencies…comfort
These are the concerns, essential as they are, to each and every driver.
You must be set upon the steering wheel in such a way as to be able to handle the emergency. Emergencies are surprises. You have no time – none – to change your hand position to respond. Your best steering positions afford comfort and are best situated to respond instantly to all emergencies. If you do not have this method, there is no guarantee that you can emerge unscathed from an emergency.
There is only one strategy that will fully respond to efficient turning, dexterity, preparedness for emergencies, and comfort. In my sessions with over 8,000 students, aged 15 1/2 to 86, this one method has proven itself universally; that is, hand-over-hand forward steering. Hands poised anywhere from 10:00-2:00 and upward, rising to the top of the wheel when anticipating turning, leap-frogging over each other in a tight area toward the top of the wheel. Right turns are done in the 12:00-2:30 area; left turns are in the 12:00-9:30 area.
For each and every of our concerns, hand-over-hand is the best…and accident-saving. Firstly, let us review the alternatively proposed steering techniques to understand why they pale in contrast to hand-over-hand.
Hands at 9:00-3:00
Claim = best for when air bags go off, so that the driver does not lose control over the moving vehicle and that their hands are less likely to cause injury.
However = Air bags, when depolyed, are much larger all the way around than the steering wheel. It does not matter where your hands are; they will be forced off of the wheel. The bag deploys at the collision impact when the car will, in most cases, become stationary. Control is no longer an issue. It is more wise to position your hands in order to escape the collision rather than to cement your habit for (if and when) the air bag inflates. Also, your arms can lock up turning from 9-3 to half the total revolution of the wheel. Locked arms truncate your evading.
Hands at bottom half of steering wheel
Claim = “I can drive more relaxed this way.”
However = You are very relaxed with hands draping downward from the upper parts of the wheel and you can move them around up there. Hands at the bottom only accommodate driving straight and minor wheel adjustments.
One-handed steering
Claim = Again, more relaxed.
However = But the one hand should be at 12:00 high, where you get even control when going left or right. That one hand is quickly joined by the other in a turn or emergency.
Hand inside the wheel for turning ( cupped under the inside of wheel)
Claim = “Faster to turn; I get more power.”
However = Our habits must acccommodate the emergency which can come out of the blue. Up until the emergency, this might suffice. But not in an emergency. Then, a hand cupped under and inside the steering wheel can twist and contort and become tragically limited in response. It is the emergency that dictates our hand movement on the wheel.
“Inching or push-pull” the wheel when turning (hands move toward eachother in small incremental movements )
Claim = There is no claim here. It is easy to understand the futility of this method when it is pointed out.
However = Terribly inefficient. Will not work for emergencies. Cannot move the steering wheel far enough and fast enough.
The Unmistakable Superiority of Hand-over-Hand Steering
It always allows smooth turning. Allows tight turns, properly measured as needed. Prevents your doing turns that angle too closely to cars coming in the opposite direction as you are turning onto the new road.
Let steering wheel slide through your pressured fingers as you come out of the turn. You cannot efficiently, in emergencies, return the wheel any better than by letting it slip through your fingers as your fingers control how fast the wheel slips. Most emergencies require quick turning for avoidance and quick turning to return to your path. Once again, hand-over-hand, with its neatly defined movement of wheel, is best.
A habit is “bad” ever when it works most of the time but not all of the time.
It is best to develop fast hands for the hand-over-hand technique.
Hand-over-hand is comfortable, allowing dexterity and the smoothest skilled steering any person can do, hands down.
