Here are some simple rules to follow when driving:
Signs are there to tell you important things about the road you are on or the road you are about to encounter. They tell you things like, “Right lane for right turn only” and “use right lane except when passing” Read and heed.
Markings on the roads themselves are there to tell you important things. The arrows tell you things like which way(s) you can go from a light at an intersection. Some markings on the roads tell you where you should stop to avoid sticking out in the path of oncoming vehicles. Look and take note.
Our automobiles are packed with all sorts of helpful gadgets to keep us from killing ourselves and those around us. Blinkers are there to give the people around us WARNING that we will be turning soon. They are not there so that you may signal AS you are turning into that parking lot that you forgot was so close. You should have your blinker on if you are approaching an intersection you plan on turning on if there is a car waiting at that intersection. How many times have I had to wait for some granny to finally get to the intersection only to discover that she was turning so I could’ve been on my way much sooner? Blinkers are your friends.
If you are unable to concentrate on driving while talking on your cellphone or having a conversation with a passenger or messing with the radio (and you should be able to recognize this by how many near-misses you have had in traffic while engaging in any of the preceeding activities), then don’t do it! You are operating a huge, heavy projectile capable of causing much damage to whatever or whomever it comes into contact with. Hang up and drive!
A four-way stop doesn’t have to be an exercise in rocket science. If you got there first, GO! If you get there at the same time as someone else, and you are on their right, GO! If you get there at the same time as the other three people, wave someone through, then GO!
If you are exiting a mall parking lot and there is a stop sign for those who are leaving (meaning that the incoming traffic does not have a stop sign), you must wait. And when you mess up and you run the stop sign and cut someone off, you should expect to have that person make gestures (not the obscene sort) and frustrated expressions on his/her face. You, violator, do not have the right to be angry at the person whom you cut off, and if you are unable to read the letters S-T-O-P on a big red sign in front of your face, then get off the road. (that is just something personal that wanted to get off my chest)
Aside from all of that (and this is not really a driving ability problem), if you have a child who is under 5 years old or a certain weight, get a goddamn child car seat. And for those of you who think that carrying an infant in your lap in the front seat is just as safe, in a collision, that baby that weighs 8 pounds can easily become 60-100 pounds INSTANTLY crashing through the windshield or being thrown clear of the vehicle.
I just had to rant about people and their driving idiosyncracies. Not that I am without the occasional fault. I simply do not understand how people develop the habits of bad driving ability!!!
Navigating an automobile shouldn’t be hard AT ALL!! You either get in the front seat (driver or passenger) or back seat. Then there’s the trunk, or bed if it’s a p/u, etc.
They’re pretty small, so they wouldn’t really need a map or anything to get around in. Unless maybe you are talking one of the super SUVs.
Ooooh, navigating while IN an automobile.
(sorry,I know I’m new,but I couldn’t resist).
I agree with your post, there are a LOT of idiot drivers out there.
Get a vehicle equipped with a Driver’s-side Direction-request reminder, commonly known as a “wife.” This will tell you to stop and ask a local every thirty seconds while mangling your collection of pristine, unused Rand-McNally roadmaps after opening and unsuccessfully re-folding them.
Thank you!!! I wanna scream all these rules to everyone while I drive around town. My own peeve is when the traffic lights are out. DON’T IGNORE IT JUST BECAUSE ITS NOT WORKING PEOPLE!!! Stop for christs sake. Lately the ones around my town have been going out due to our blustery weather. People will just zoom on through w/ out stopping. From all directions. Its scary.
Then theres the obvious. Look behind you when you are backing up. I’ve got backed into twice while being stuck behind a line of cars in a parking lot. Person usually gets in car, starts it, then proceeds to put car in reverse and back up. They don’t even check behind them before they start going.
Perhaps this isn’t a problem in “the states” but WAY too many people up here do NOT know how to merge from the on ramp onto the highway.
Hint, if you are the MERGER, that is the person entering the highway, it is YOUR responsibility to adjust YOUR speed to merge in, NOT the person who is already ON the highway!!!
No-it’s a problem down here, too. People want you to do the George Jetson thing and fold your car up into a briefcase just cuz they arrived at the end of the ramp. Now if I could only get the thing to go into hurdle drive.
Be thankful that the people around you can operte safely when snow is on the ground. New York state is the furthest south you can proceed before encountering the black hole of winter operation skills. In PA, Jersey, and points south, they are as clueless as a football bat.
I’m one who always looks before backing up, and I now look twice just to make sure there are no pedestrians around. I’ve never hit anyone while backing out of a spot (a car or pedestrian), but I had a close call with a little kid (maybe 4 years old) running ahead of their parents in the lot. I drive a very small car, a suzuki swift, and an SUV had parked on each side of me while I was in the store, meaning that I couldn’t see much besides directly behind me. I started backing out very slowly, watching over my shoulder out the hatchback. All of a sudden a breeze blows up a little bit of blonde hair. His parents came strolling along about 10 seconds after him. I still shudder thinking about what could have happened if I hadn’t been paying attention, or if I hadn’t been looking in the right spot when that breeze blew.
One of the wonders of our modern age is the freeway. Thanks to today’s engineering technology, we are able to travel across the state without stopping–but the freeway is a system, and a chain is only as strong as its weakest link! Here’s what YOU can do to make the freeway run more smoothly.
When entering the freeway at an “on-ramp”, do not stop. Do not slow down. Do not enter the freeway at 40 miles per hour, causing traffic to rush toward you at 20 miles per hour. Instead, use your right foot to depress the gas pedal until you are traveling at the same speed as everyone else.
You may have noticed that the freeway has at least two lanes. You may also have heard references to “the fast lane” on television, but you may not have realized that this referred to the freeway! You should be going faster than everyone to the right of you. If you are going slower, change lanes to the right until you are no longer an obstacle.
You may be familiar with speed limit signs, but on the freeway, the speed limit is both a maximum and a minimum. If you are afraid of traveling at freeway speeds in clear weather, or if you are incapable of keeping your vehicle at a constant speed, we regret to inform you that you do not qualify for freeway access at this time. Please try again after you have hired a chauffeur.
Oh, this is chock full of useful information. Too bad the people who need it most apparently can’t read.
Just about an hour and a half ago I was nearly run off the road by some idiot who can’t grasp the concept of two lanes turning in the same direction. He ran right across my bow and nearly scraped me into the gutter. Frickin’ moron.
With regard to the admonition to look before you back up:
my brother was visiting me before Christmas and he and his wife and small son decided to do a little shopping at the mall. He was waiting patiently in the line of traffic snaking through the mall lot looking for parking spots. Suddenly the brain-dead driver of the pickup truck in front of my brother’s car slams it into reverse, supposedly he saw someone getting ready to leave their spot, and backed up over the hood of my brother’s rental car. Crushed it good too. I hope Santa dropped a whole train load of coal on his truck.
In the past three years, I have been hit twice by drivers so engrossed in the converstion they were having on their cell phones that they didn’t see me stopped in front of them. The last one totalled my car, and I’m still recovering from the injuries, two months later. She admitted that she was going at least sixty when she hit me. (If she admitted to sixty, it’s probably higher.) She just didn’t see me, she said, so involved was she in simultaneously speeding and yakking on the phone. I fervently hope that the next one who hits me whilst on the phone has it rammed up their nose.
I would like to address a not to the next person who crashes into me: * I realize that you are the single most important human being that has, or ever will, grace this earth, and I know how vitally crucial it is to be in constant communication with your friends. I know you must have incredibly important things to do, which must be done immediately, else you would not be tailgaiting me, and swerving all over the road trying to pass me at such an unsafe speed. Knowing just how special and important that you are, I ask for your own safety that you divert a small portion of your attention to the 2,000 pound vehicle which you are piloting. While I know that seconds count when you are trying to get to the grocery store, perhaps you could pull your car over to the side of the road while carrying out your essential conversation. Just a suggestion,
Be thankful that the people around you can operte safely when snow is on the ground. New York state is the furthest south you can proceed before encountering the black hole of winter operation skills. In PA, Jersey, and points south, they are as clueless as a football bat.
Well, I don’t know about that ,we have a saying (well, MORE than one actually) about some of the idiotics up here,One of them happens to go something like this:
4 wheel drives??? Oh yeah,those are the ones that are alway UPSIDE down in the ditch.
Then there are the short “oneliners” about bad Alaskan drivers:
Ditch divers
Tundra Travelers
4 Wheeler (for some reason, the vast majority of bad drivers up here,particularly in the winter months,are the 4 wheel drive trucks,SUVs, jeeps and the like).
Sigh,I was hit in September,before it snowed even. Girl that hit me was a BONA fide idiot!!! Should never have been given a license…
Okay,so I’m innocently driving along in the far left lane of a 3 lane one way street, heading east in Anchorage.
She (idiot driver girl) is in the center lane heading east and is about 1.5 car lengths ahead of me.
She suddenly and inexplicably decides to turn into a parking lot, to MY LEFT. She turns across my lane without even looking,and with her being so close, I couldn’t stop and ran right into her (thank goodness I own a big old caddy, the poor thing STILL got “owies” though, me too ).
When I got out of the car? She says “Oh,I didn’t know there was a LANE there”. (and the big shiny metal objects moving past you at 35 mph, on your left were…???).
All of New Mexico is one state that doesn’t use them. I don’t think Arizona or Colorado have them either. For that matter, I’m willing to bet most of the Southwest and West don’t use them.
I apologize for the confusion caused by rule #3, above. As an equal opportunity traffic re-educator, I tried to avoid tailoring my directions to any specific state or county.
Here’s how it works up here:
The sign on the freeway says “speed limit 60”. In practice, this is the lower limit. You should not be going slower than 60 MPH unless the road is unsafe due to ice, snow, or fog. The upper limit is to be inferred from the speed of other traffic, generally 5 or 10 MPH above the posted limit.
If you’re in a line of cars traveling at 65 and someone passes you going 80, he’s probably an asshole–but if the line of cars is traveling at 65 and you’re going 50, you are the asshole.
Well, hell, forget I said anything, then. Different subjects entirely.
asterion: Are you including California as part of “most of the west”? Only reason I ask, I thought that this was where I’d first seen a minimum limit sign (the dual speed limit signs I referred to above) back in… maybe 1986, IIRC. My memory being what it is, I wouldn’t put money on this, however.
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