Topic
The framework behind the book, and the guidance that points the same way
The six principles of road navigation are the framework behind the book and behind every article on this site. Three of them prepare the driver before the vehicle moves: confirm the destination, plan the route, and familiarise yourself with the journey. Three of them run continuously once it is under way: long-range observation, anticipation and positioning, and short-range observation.
They were developed as a practical, preventative method rather than an official system. The thinking came from quality assurance, where the aim is to design errors out of a process instead of recovering from them afterwards. A few minutes spent confirming and planning prevents a great deal of difficulty later in a journey.
What makes the framework durable is that it describes what the driver does, not what the equipment does. Devices, applications and displays will keep changing. The six principles will not.
The articles here set out the framework, show how each principle can be supported by ordinary tools such as digital maps and Street View, and compare it with official DVSA standards and THINK! road-safety advice, which arrive at very similar conclusions from an entirely independent starting point.
Three principles are applied before setting off; three continue for as long as the vehicle is moving. Each one is a piece of route planning or observation the driver does, whatever satnav is in use. The six principles hub is where the framework is set out in full, with a page for each principle.
Check that the address the satnav has accepted is the place you actually mean, before the journey starts.
Look at the route offered, compare the alternatives, and change it if it does not suit the vehicle or the day.
Zoom out and take in the shape of the journey, so an instruction later on arrives in a context you recognise.
Read the road and the signs at a distance, and use the next-turn information rather than the current instruction alone.
Work out what the junction, the traffic and the lane guidance are about to ask of you while there is still time to act.
Be in the right lane, at the right speed, in good time, using the markings and signs as well as the screen.
How each principle is put into practice with today’s tools →
How each principle can be put into practice with whatever tools a driver happens to be using.
Where DVSA standards and THINK! road-safety advice line up with the six principles.
How a career in quality assurance turned navigation into a preventative, error-reducing framework.
Why planning, observation and anticipation are still the driver’s work, whatever the device does.
How independent research maps onto each of the six principles in turn.
Familiarisation, long-range observation, positioning and the other terms used throughout the framework.