How you sit and use the controls can reduce driver fatigue by over 30%

Postural stability is key to managing vehicle control and driver fatigue.

Postural Stability means anchoring the body so we are part of the car, having controlled actions not uncontrolled over actions.[/caption]

Most important is how you sit in a car. Every student in a Total Driver program, the first thing we focus on is postural Stability.

Just by how your hands are placed on the steering wheel, will reduce your fatigue by up to 30%.

Don’t believe me, try using the demonstration of holding a glass of water.

A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the “half empty or half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: “How heavy is this glass of water?” Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz. She replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”

Balance is essential to make you part of the car so you work with it, not against

So when your hands are high on the steering wheel, this is the problem, you are holding your arms up, for sometimes hours at a time.

So bring your hands down to halfway position on the steering wheel, treat it like a balance bar at the gym.

Now to make this work, you need balance in your posture, how you sit in the car. It is called Postural Stability and believe it or not, it even goes to how your feet are positioned on the floor and with the pedals.