Driving consistently

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Most of the time I indicate or check for oncoming traffic but sometimes I don’t. I’ve only driven two hours this year. How do I make sure I do this all the time?

Fear of death, and of accidentally hurting or killing other people, generally works for me.

i drive only when it can't be avoided. then it is strictly a "point A to B to A mission," never for pleasure [all the other brassholes on the road see to that!].

read a book about driving. you have to undestand the theory behind driving.

Principle #1: drive as if something every possible danger is actually there, unless you check for it, and check for each one before proceeding. So always assume there is someone that can hit you in a place you have not checked, so you can't drive anywhere unless you check nobody is there to collide with you.

Developing good, consistent driving skills is a matter of habit, and of always being ready for the unexpected. Are you new to driving, or just out of practice? If you've driven more in the past, then maybe do more frequent practice for a while, until you feel your habits are improving. If you're new, then you need to drive more frequently so you can build safe habits. Also, study basic driving principles, such as was suggested by idntonkw.

I drove for many years, every day to and from my job, but since retirement I have gotten in the habit of letting my husband do most of the driving. But he has had some medical problems the past few years, so I had to drive him to and from surgeries. At first it was difficult to get back towards the confidence I once had. I'm still not really there, since I still drive infrequently, and it's a different car than I used to drive. But after a few times, I felt more and more confident, and my old habits reasserted themselves.

It really does require practice. Also alertness. I can't drive and listen to music or let my mind wander. I need to focus on what's happening around me and where I'm going.

I think consistency is key.
Some people only indicate when other cars are around, some never indicate when leaving a roundabout. Some don't stop at a stop sign if they can see there are no cars coming.
This is IMO bad behaviour, and can cause the driver to get sloppy and perhaps forgetting to do The Right Thing when it is needed.
So my advice is concentrate on following all the rules slavishly, and it will start to become a natural habit after a while.

/Mats

I'm not going to claim anything will create literal absolute 100% perfection, and I myself and certainly not that flawless, but there are some things which can help.

Among them:

1. When driving only think about driving; not about what you are going to do when you get to where you are going, not about who said what to whom yesterday, not about who you are going to call/text later today, et cetera.

2. If what's playing on the car's radio/CD player is pulling your focus away from driving then turn off the radio and keep it off.

It is as the others have said a matter of practice, and, it is a matter of focus.

1. Practice consciousness while driving. Drive with radio turned off. Don't let your thoughts wander around while driving - try to concentrate 100% on driving.

2. Practice makes perfect. Two hours / year is too little. Try to drive more often and on regular basis.

If you own the car it was built to be driven more anyway. Cars actually wear out in different ways just from sitting around.

I think memorizing my routes & picking lanes that way does a lot for my consistency, but so does the fact that I drive a lot & enjoy my car.

what kinda car, if you don't mind?

I have a Volvo V50 T5 all wheel drive with a 6 speed manual gearbox. Swedish cars either make it easy or keep you alert & this one does both. Mine isn't this nice though.

^^^sporty car vroomvroom i drove a volvo back in the 70s when the name stood for "Vehicle Of Low-Velocity Output" (they WERE pretty slow back then).

Much of the advise given [such as above] is really good.

I might mention that some newer cars have built in panic stopping capability where the car detects an accident about to happen and forces the car to immediately stop.

wish i could afford those newfangled autos that have all that safety stuff [what i call brain-cramp insurance].

Driving lessons

By driving a lot more than an average of 45 minutes a month. It's one of those skills you only properly learn by doing it often.