Top 10 tips for driving in rain
Finally, after months of snow, sleet, ice pellets, freezing rain and generally grotesque driving weather, the sunny season we’ve all been waiting for is almost at hand — once we get past the inevitable spring rains.
While those on the West Coast deal with rain for about 10 months of the year, making some of them masters at manoeuvring in the moisture, not everyone is so seasoned. And with some stats showing more accidents occur in rain than in snow, it’s clear many drivers fail to respect the rain. So here, at the onset of spring and the rainy season, we offer these tips on how to drive safely in the wet.
1. Reduce your speed
While it might be obvious, it’s not usually practised. The easiest and safest thing to do while driving in rain is slow down. Not just because visibility is reduced, making it harder to detect hazards, but because stopping, braking and turning in the wet require more distance because of the reduced friction between your tires and the road.
Even with good tires, braking in the wet is about half as effective as when the road is dry. So, if a child darts out between parked cars in a residential zone, or a car or pedestrian cuts across your path, a vehicle travelling at 48 km/h will require 37 metres to stop in the wet. That’s about the length of three school buses and includes the driver’s split-second reaction time, plus the needed distance to halt the vehicle. Reducing that 48 km/h to 32 km/h cuts the stopping distance by more than half, to just 18 metres. Even a little slower is a lot safer.
“Speed limits are set for ideal conditions, and since driving in the rain isn’t ideal, drivers need to adjust their speed and brake sooner,” says Scott Marshall (thesafedriver. ca), director of training for Young Drivers of Canada.
2. I can see clearly now
Several U.S. states have laws that say if your wipers are on, your headlights must also be on. No Canadian province has such a law, and perhaps that’s why so many motorists in this country don’t do one of the simplest and most basic things to increase safety when driving during inclement weather: Turn on the headlights. The rule isn’t so you can see the road better, but so other drivers can see your car, from the side and rear especially. See and be seen is a rainy-day rule all drivers should heed.
“If visibility is poor enough to have wipers on to allow you to see, why not make it easier for other drivers to see you, in front and behind, by having your full lighting system on?” Marshall adds.
3. Make a clean sweep
Since we’re talking wipers, when was the last time your vehicle got new ones? In Canada, with our extremes of heat and cold, wipers tend to wear out faster than promises made by politicians, usually lasting about a year. But that doesn’t mean you need expensive new blades every spring. Instead, replace only the rubber strip within the wiper blade, called a “wiper refill,” for less than $10, at about the same time you put the winter tires away every year. That way, any tears, kinks or nicks developed on the rubber over winter won’t affect the sweep on the glass in the rainy season. Using a glass water-repellent product such as Rain-X also helps a lot.
4. The art of driving in the rain
Keep more distance than normal between other vehicles when it’s raining. Stay well back from, or overtake big trucks and buses so you don’t get stuck in their spray. In heavy rain, follow the tracks of the vehicle in front, which will have pushed some of the water away. On roads where heavy truck traffic has left sags in the pavement, keep the left tires closer to the road’s crown, where there is less chance of hitting standing water. Remember, too, that roads get covered in lubricants when dry, and in rain these oils come to the surface of the water on the road, making them especially greasy.
5. Some help when hydroplaning
Stand in your kitchen and lay four slices of toast on the floor in the approximate location of your car’s tires. Stand back and observe. Those four contact patches are all that holds your two-tonne car to the road. And when the road is covered in water, those four points can surf atop the water. It is called hydroplaning: when your tires no longer grip the road. You’ll know it, too, because the car might feel squirrelly and steering can feel quite light. Stay calm. Look where you want the car to go. Ease off the gas, allowing some weight to transfer to the front wheels. Ease on the brake and steer toward a spot with less water on the road.
6. Good tires and proper inflation
It goes without saying that it helps to have good tires, with lots of tread, but proper inflation matters in the moist, too. Tires generally lose a pound of pressure a month, so check them regularly to avoid a blowout, and don’t over inflate. Inflation pressures are usually found on the inside pillar of the driver’s side door.
7. Dry the brakes
Wet roads mean wet brakes, and the four wheel discs on most cars can be coated with water just when you need them most. Some cars automatically touch the pads to the rotors to scrub water, and add heat to the rotor to remove water, but you can also do this by gently touching the brakes after splashing through a wet spot.
8. Dry the interior
Rainy days bring 100 per cent humidity, all of which flows into your interior, easily fogging the inside glass. Turn on your air conditioning to dry the incoming cabin air, and set the airflow to the dash vents, not to defrost, which will only make the front glass sweat in warm weather. Avoid using the recirculation button unless the AC is on.
9. Standing water, puddles and airbags
As tempting as it is to charge through that puddle at high speed, it’s usually a bad idea. Water can shoot up into the engine bay and fault or short-circuit sensitive electronics or processors. It can also cause the steering wheel to pull hard to one side, potentially creating an accident. And if confronted with deep water that looks shallow enough to cross, do not attempt it, because if water seeps through the door seals into your interior, it will become a greenhouse for mould and could stink forever after. If your car does get submerged, do not attempt to start the vehicle right away because the water could potentially trigger the airbags.
10. Use technology wisely
Today’s cars come with more driver-assist functions than ever before, but many of them can’t adapt to rainy weather. Cruise control, adaptive cruise, lanekeep assist and forward-collision warning systems can create a false sense of control. If cruise control is engaged and your car starts to hydroplane, there will be no weight transfer to the front wheels as there would be if you lifted off the gas, and adaptive cruise control might not keep the correct distance needed in the rain. Anti-lock braking systems, however, are excellent in the rain, as are traction control and stability control. Use your car’s technology when it makes sense to do so.