Reralae,
Sorry about sort of jumping past your question on driving. I believe one of the most important things about driving is not to let yourself be distracted. Phones, CD's, Ipods and any of that stuff needs to be done when your are not behind the wheel. Let someone else mess with it and you pay attention to what is happening.
Get to know your car, the sounds, how it feels, even the smells. Odd or strange things can clue you in to trouble before action has to happen. I know that sort of sounds Zen like but it is true.
Drive defensively, assume the other person is an idiot and not paying attention. They expect you to get out of their way and beleive they never do anything wrong. Even if you know the laws and rules of driving other folks don't and will not follow the rules. Those are the cases where you can end up Dead Right!
Know the road conditions and give lots of extra space on wet, ice and snow. I just had a car totaled because the driver behind me was going too fast and couldn't stop because the road was icy. I was stopped at a light and he was doing 50 on an ice covered road. Don't be that driver!
I know that all sound rather bleek but if you stay aware it won't be so bad. That accident was the first I'd been in for about 30 years and there wasn't anything I could have done about it.
So just be careful.