My good friend MyOwnWorld after some long and painful arm twisting kindly agreed to perform moderation duties on this forum.

She is very kind and intelligent lady and has a good sense of humor. And she loves to drive! I am sure she will do an outstanding job.

Her duty officially starts tomorrow May 1st, 2010.

While it's true that several major insurance companies will now allow auto insurance clients to purchase pet coverage, that coverage is meant to pay for your pet's medical care if someone hits you, not to be a liability insurance policy if you hit someone because Fido is bouncing around the car, blocking your vision. The fact is, as much as we love to drive with our dogs, an unrestrained animal in a car is a serious safety hazard - literally an accident waiting to happen. How then, should we handle having our best furry friends along for the ride? Here are some tips:

Always Secure Your Dog: Small dogs allowed to ride loose in cars can get caught beneath the pedals, or seats, or bounce from seat to s...

Often times, people drive to a different state and are totally confused by traffic patterns that may be unfamiliar to them. In large metropolitan areas, it's usually complex freeway interchanges. Here in my home state of Maine, it's less complex, but many out of state (and local drivers, too) can't seem to get it. How to drive in a rotary.

What is a rotary?
A rotary is a a large intersection where traffic travels in a circular motion until reaching the desired exit. Rotaries in Maine may be one or two lanes. Other parts of the world may know them as roundabouts or traffic circles.

A one-lane rotary is the simplest. Upon approaching the rotary, slow down and be prepared to stop. Traffic already in the rotary has the right of way. You have a yield sign, bu...

What distance is safe to maintain? Whenever you drive in traffic, you keep asking and answering this question every moment over and over again. How should you approach this task in order to always be as safe as possible? What are the rules and guidelines, and what internal and external factors should you consider? Some of it they teach you in a Texas defensive driving course, some they don't.

The usual rule of thumb is to keep two-seconds distance, with variations of three and even four, and sometimes corrections under bad weather. I do not have any problem with two-seconds rule as a baseline, as long as you realize that it is just a rule of thumb, imprecise by...

Our friend Joshua Nestor did some investigation on Texas defensive driving phenomenon. Not that Texas got all defensive and built a remake of Great Wall of China along its borders, But it's government and courts suddenly got all defensive about how bad the situation on the roads is, and decided to teach drivers to become defensive, too. I can't say I agree with their defensive approach, as their method seems to be yet another offensive money-making machine for the government, but looks like Texas defensive driving is here to stay, so I asked Joshua to take a look at it. He did an excellent job at it, and while I don't agree to everything what he says, I invite you to take a tactical moment to read his short essay on Texas defensive driving.

Gas Saving Tips - The Comprehensive List

Well, with gas prices approaching $4 all over the USA, this may be an interesting topic to talk about. I tried to put together all my experience and knowledge, and came up with the list of tips with explanations. They do tell you why every particular advice helps or does not help you to achieve best gas mileage.

Give it a try, I am pretty much sure you'll see a noticeably better gas mileage if you do - and no gas savers needed

I'm thinking about making a video series "Getting all defensive with Misha". The idea is that I just drive and comment on what is going on on the road. I think it is going to be much better than a dry lecture Texas defensive driving style. I have a wealth of information in my head, but it's a kind of tricky to get it from there when I'm sitting at my workstation and typing. Everchanging road situation usually triggers the memories, and information should be better consumed in relation to what happens on the screen (or I hope so).

I'm posting the test episode that I just filmed today on my way to the city center, and I welcome and solicit any comments/suggestions/ideas that can help to make this video better, more enjoyable, and more educational. I'm looking for a wide angle le...

Popular belief Texas defensive driving style seems to be just that - Speed kills! With the meaning - higher than speed limit speed kills. And the popular remedy to road dangers is - Slow down stupid! That's how many homegrown defensive driving classes have it. However, most experts in the field and almost anybody who takes time to seriously think about the issue come to the conclusion that speed per se is not the cause of deadly accidents, i.e. speed does not kill.

How this could be possible? And who is right? Since I did some serious thinking about driving, I came to the conclusion that speed does not kill. Now you are going to prove me wrong with all the examples of horrible high-speed crashes, right? But wait, I can tell you that yes, speed sort of does kill, too.

Isn't it a parad...

When you are driving an automatic car, your transmission is deciding when to switch gears. When you are driving a car with manual transmission this is your job. While it is definitely not a rocket science, it still requires some thought and skill.

There are quite a few myths circulating around on what is good and what is bad and how you should and how you should not switch gears. I can't just cover them all, so you ask if you have any concern, OK? You can hear for example that you should never let your engine rev higher than, say, 2000 rpm. Others will tell you - you should rev it all the way up to redline before switching to the next gear.

While both these approaches can have their place in experienced driver arsenal, he does not limit himself to one single approach. Why? Because t...

I'm posting here a story of a guy who survived a serious car crash, caused by him ignoring road conditions while driving a performance car. He learned his lesson hard way, and now he wants to share his story with as many people as possible, so you guys can use his experience in your driving. It's a long story, but it's worth reading. It might in fact change the way you look at driving. You might even realize that defensive driving is not just an empty term.

After reading the story and watching the video, I invite you to think what exactly were his mistakes and what in his driving could he have done differently to avoid the accident.

Video: http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=2059db710625a3e544358a&skin_id=0&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

S...