Shuffle steering is a technique that was developed to address a very specific set of circumstances totally unrelated to emergency driving. While there are a number of theories regarding how this technique evolved, it appears that the technique originated as a means to allow a police officer to keep both hands on the steering wheel while holding a radio microphone in one hand. By shuffle steering, the cord of the microphone is less likely to become tangled on the steering column as the wheel is rotated in one direction or the other. Once again, extensive research and testing has shown that beyond the police-officer-with-a-radio scenario, there is little or no benefit received by applying this technique. In fact, in situations where the steering wheel must be rapidly rotated in one direction then another multiple times – a common occurrence in a vehicle emergency/ambushes and other combat-related scenarios – this technique has proven to be far less effective than other steering techniques and, in some instances,  has contributed to the driver losing control of the vehicle.

At or below the comfort zone, shuffle steering will work. But beyond the comfort zone it is ineffective and could be counterproductive. At the most critical time in the emergency – at the time when the driver desperately needs the information supplied by the steering wheel – a driver who is shuffle steering is not in full contact with the steering wheel.

In an emergency, time is critical. Two tenths of a second is the difference between success and failure. Shuffle steering absorbs life-saving time.