05/10/2026
DON’T DRIVE FASTER THAN YOU CAN SEE.
Your brakes might be excellent. They still can’t stop you for something you haven’t spotted yet. ABS doesn’t stand for “Automatic Bend Surveillance”.
The rule is simple: drive at a speed that allows you to stop well within the distance you can see is clear.
That means your WHOLE stopping distance the distance travelled while you recognise the danger and react, plus the distance needed to brake.
Your foot doesn’t arrive on the brake pedal by teleportation.
Picture a country lane with a bend hidden behind a hedge. You’ve driven it hundreds of times and the limit is 60. Neither tells you whether today there’s a horse, a broken-down car or a tractor around it.
Familiarity isn’t X-ray vision.
Here’s a useful idea from advanced driving: watch where your clear view of the road ends.
At a bend, this is called the “limit point”. Imagine it as the edge of the road’s curtain beyond it, you don’t yet know what’s on stage.
If that point appears to come closer as you approach, your view is shortening. Adjust your speed so you can still stop within the clear distance.
When it moves away, your view is opening up.
That gives you more information, but you still need to check the surface, traffic and hazards before considering more speed.
You don’t need to obsess over one spot. Keep scanning the whole scene.
The bend matters, but so does the cyclist ahead, the muddy surface and the warning sign you’ve just passed.
Get your speed down before the bend. Give yourself time to assess it and enter with control, rather than arriving too quickly and expecting the brake pedal to negotiate with physics.
Approaching a blind hill crest?
Reduce your speed before your view disappears.
Knowing where the road goes doesn’t tell you whether traffic has stopped on the other side.
On a narrow lane where vehicles cannot pass each other, leave stopping room for an approaching vehicle too. Aim to be able to stop within half the distance you can see is clear, allowing more margin where needed. You aren’t the only person who might need to stop.
Driving at night? Your speed needs to suit the clear road your headlights reveal. The darkness beyond them isn’t an empty car park reserved for your convenience.
Passing parked cars?
Look for feet beneath vehicles, movement through windows and gaps where someone could emerge.
These are clues, not guarantees.
A child can be completely hidden, so reduce your speed and leave space.
Fog, heavy rain or glare shrinking your view?
Bring your speed down with it.
A slippery surface also increases the space you need to stop.
Less view and less grip demand more caution.
This is what good driving involves: gathering information early and changing your plan as the road changes.
Your speed should respond to what you can see, rather than staying fixed until something frightens you into braking.
Ask yourself: “Could I stop comfortably if something was stationary at the edge of my clear view?”
If the answer is “hopefully”, ease off.
Which gets your attention most: blind bends, hill crests, parked cars or darkness? Have you ever rounded a familiar bend and found something completely unexpected?
Share and tag your friends in 🫶🏾
Sheena Ahmed
Motorvation school of Motoring
