Driving Safely All Year
It’s almost Summer time and we are ready! Whether you are traveling across the country to hike a national park, racing to the coast for some sunshine, or looking forward to hitting the slopes ; we have put together a few tips to help you ensure that you get to and from your spring break destination of choice, safely. After all, the road trip journey is arguably one of the most memorable parts of the vacation, and we believe in the ability to balance fun and safety on the way!
Our List of Fun and Safe Road Trip Tips
Prep Tips
Preparing beforehand alleviates stress and in this case, danger, later on. We have a few key ways that we encourage you to prepare before your trip.
Have maps and addresses ready beforehand
Before you depart, have an idea of the route you plan to take. If using GPS or Maps on a mobile device, make sure to input any necessary addresses before putting your car in drive.
Plan out stops ahead of time
Decide beforehand where you will need to stop for gas, meals, etc. This tip is especially important if you are traveling alone, so that you won’t be fidgeting with maps and looking for stopping points on your route while driving. Plus, you can plan fun places to stop along the way to give yourself things to look forward to as you make the trek! (Buc-ee’s, anyone!?)
Passenger Tips
Limit your passengers
While filling the car up with your entire extended family might seem like it is “part of the road trip experience”, too many passengers can be a major distraction. Knowing your driver, carefully consider the maximum number of people you can have in the backseat, while still maintaining your focus on the road.
Be Careful of Distracting Passengers
Further, ensure that passengers aren’t participating in any distracting behavior. (Loud volume, playing music too loud, distracting games, etc.) As the driver, don’t be afraid to speak up and let your passengers know when they are stealing your focus from the road. Lastly, limit traveling long distances with pets when possible. We love bringing our furry friends along with us, but they tend to present a distraction for whoever is behind the wheel
Utilize your passengers
Appointing a “designated texter” is always helpful for a driver, but especially when driving for extended periods of time- to adjust car climate, GPS navigation, road trip music, or to respond to texts or calls. Plus, passengers provide a fun source of non-distracting entertainment.
Phone Tips
Set up your phone. With phone being one of our biggest distractions, there are a few things you can do before to limit temptation.
Download SAFE 2 SAVE!
Download SAFE 2 SAVE if you don’t already have it, make sure all of your settings are up to date, and get ready to rack up safe driving points on your long drive. You can then look forward to redeeming your points for food and goodies when you get back home!
Put your phone away!
If using it for navigation, put it in a phone mount. (This is a worthy-purchase if you don’t already have one!) If not using your phone for navigation, put it as far out of sight and reach as possible!
Fix Your Phone Settings
Turn on the Do Not Disturb feature on your phone and even Set Up An Auto Response to automatically respond to your people who try to contact you while you are driving.
Driver Tips
Think about your driver!
The driver should always be well rested, well fed, and have a sharp mind while traveling long distances. Switch off drivers if necessary to give the driver a break.
Fun Tips
Finally, keep it FUN! Again, the road trip can be one of the most memorable, bonding, and enjoyable parts of the vacation if you do it right! Here are some ways to make the travel time pass safely.
Play non-distracting games
A few of our favorites include:
The Story Game. You can play this many different ways. One includes going around the car telling a story, but each person only gets to add one word. Another way to play involves everyone adding on by choosing when the next person in line has to fill in. Again, there are many funny ways to adjust and play this one!
Don’t Stop Singing. Play fun music and take turns suddenly pausing it, go around a circle and see who can keep singing the correct words.
Name Game- Celebrity edition. Start off by naming a celebrity, whoever is next must name another celebrity whose first letter of their name is the letter as the last letter of the celebrity before. If they can’t think of a new famous name within a time limit, they are eliminated and it moves on to the next person.
Movie Guessing Game- A classic, but fun one. A player can begin to describe the plot of a movie without giving away any character names or obvious details. Whichever player is the first to piece together which movie they are referring to gets to be the next one to describe a movie.
Click here for 30 more fun road trip games. The best are verbal games that don’t take any eyes off the road or distract other drivers!
Have fun and safe driving!
