The Washington herald., 1922-06-25

In this case the centrifugal force
tends to slide the car broadside of
the raod.
Head for Road Center.
The driver who experiences his
first skid. or side slip, feels help
less. but after one of two Of them
he will learn how to correct them.
Nearly all side slips are toward the
right, made so by the Gambler of
the road or city street. Application
of the brakes in such a case will
only aggravate matters. The thing
to do is to partially close the throt-
tie. but not all the way, as this
would be equivalent to putting on
the brakes. Then gradually head
the car for the center of the road,
at the same time opening the throt-
tie. This might aggravate the skid
somewhat. but it will be for a short
time only, and all the while you
are placing the front wheels in the
center of the road with the car
pointing at an angle.
Tn this manner the car can be
brought to the crown of the road
again and the right rear wheel,
which Is down in the ditch, will be
pulled out by the momentum of the
car. The important thing to re-
member about skidding is to leave
the. brake pedal alone. No great
deal of trouble will be experienced
on wet pavements If the brakes
are applied only when the car is
going in a straight line. But by
no means should the brakes be ap-
piled enough to lock the rear
wheels. In turning a corner on a
slippery pavement the clutch should
not be taken out If there is a ten
dency for the car to slip. Turn
corners slowly and cautiously.
Steer Into skill.
There is another cause of side
slip which might take place when
the car is being driven in a straight
line If the brake be applied hard
one or both of the wheels may be-
come locked and the car skid in a
straight line. When this takes
place very frequently one of the
rear tires, especially If 1t has a
plain tread, will lose its lateral grip
on the road surface and begin to
slip sideways, setting up a posi-
bility of the car being swung up
against the curb. Steer into, not
out of, skid to stop it.
Never steer a car sharply from
the curb to the crown of the road
when the surface is slippery. This
is also true when the car is started
from the curb. The theory back
of this is simple: The adhesion of
the road wheels is insufficient to
overcome the centrifugal effect and
the result is that the rear of the
car is forced into the gutter. Some
times a sudden speeding up of the
engine will effectively overcome the
tendency to skid.
Driving I'm Trafic.
Driving car in the city
through traffic calls for quick
manipulation of the steering wheel,
brakes, gears, ETC., much more so
than when in the country. In the
city the driver must be on the
alert at all times, owing to the
Increased number of vehicles met,
street cars. pedestrians, etc. One
of the first things to learn In traffic
driving Is not to get up too close
to the car or vehicle ahead of you.
especially IL 1t is horse-drawn.
Horses become restive at times,
sometimes from their own caprice.
ana others because of an unskilled
driver. and have way of backing
up In stopped traffic. II a car is
driven within six inches or one foot
,be.hind, the result is usually a
broken lamp or fender. or. in some
cases. even the radiator might
suffer. The careful driver leaves
plenty of space between his car and
any vehicle in front. so that in
case the latter starts to back up
the reverse can be used and the car