Car Driving: How to Drive Safely and Perfectly on Steep Slops

We know, how difficult is to drive away a stationery car on an upward-slope

© Harish Jharia

When I was a small kid, I could not understand why the drivers of cars, buses and trucks used to put stones as stoppers when the vehicles failed or stopped on gradients- upward-slops and downward- slopes. I slowly understood the reasons for this when I learnt driving myself.

All of us know how difficult is to drive away a stationery car on an upward-slope. It is so because for the simple reason that a stationery car is usually put in a gear and handbrake applied and if you attempt to release the gear and hand break the automobile will uncontrollably roll-bake on the downward slop.

Now for driving away you have to press the break paddle, release the hand break, press the clutch paddle, bring it back to 1st gear, and drive away. We usually follow this procedure. But unfortunately, your automobile rolls back on the down-gradient and you might hit some other car at your back. This 5 stage exercise is so complex that almost 80% drivers fail to avoid the rollback of their cars before driving away. Here is the proper procedure for avoiding the disastrous rollback.    

Let me list it out stage wise:

Conditions: a car stopped on a steep upward-slop and is in the reverse gear and handbrakes fully applied.

Most of us usually drive away a car from such position as follows:

1. Press brake-pedal
2. Release hand-brake (keeping brakes applied)
3. Press clutch-pedal (keeping brakes applied)
4. Apply neutral gear (keeping brakes applied)
5. Start the engine (keeping brakes applied)
6. Apply 1^st gear (keeping brakes applied)
7. Do 3-actions simultaneously: release brake-pedal… press accelerator… release clutch-pedal…

Result: The car will first rollback a bit and then will move forward. This rolling-back of the car is an error in driving. For correcting this error, we may change our action at the 7^th stage. Let us revise the above stages with corrected 7^th stage.

We should drive away a car from this position in the corrected way as follows:

1. Press brake-pedal
2. Release hand-brake (keeping brakes applied)
3. Press clutch-pedal (keeping brakes applied)
4. Apply neutral gear (keeping brakes applied)
5. Start the engine (keeping brakes applied)
6. Apply 1^st gear (keeping brakes applied)
7. Do 2 actions together: release brake-pedal and release clutch-lever… 
8. Take both these actions simultaneously, successively and slowly… in order to let the engine drive away the vehicle with the default throttle of the fuel and ignition setting.
9. Continue this action until the vehicle comes in motion from the stationary position.
10. Shift your foot from the brake to the accelerator
11. Remove your foot from the clutch
12. Press the accelerator and drive away as usual

Result: By following the corrected way, the cars will not rollback, before moving forward, when attempted to drive away from stationary position on an up-gradient road.

This is the way a perfect driver drives in adverse conditions.

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Disclaimer: 

This article is written based on my personal observations. My intention for publishing the same is to provide healthy reading and intellectual entertainment and not for educating the visitors. No literature or authentic books have been referred for writing the contents of this article. The visitors are advised not to refer the contents of this article for any research or testimony on scientific, geographical, political, civic or legal purposes. The visitors are further advised to consult relevant experts before adapting any information from this article. The author or the website are not responsible for any errors, mistakes, or omissions there in.
- Harish Jharia 
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