Why Doesn’t Everybody Drive This Way?…

DRIVING ODDITY #6: Pet Peeves About Others’ Driving Habits

Here are a couple of good driving habits that not everyone does, but boy, I sure wish that all drivers would just pick 1 or 2 and try them, because they’d really help out there on the roads…

These “good-driver behaviors” were taught to me primarily by my Dad during the days when I was going through Drivers Ed, and then engrained into my brain practically every time we were in the car together from that day forward!

It’s funny now, and I have to say I agree with most of what my Dad taught me about driving…

 

• Whenever it’s rush-hour, I try to stay in the next-to-the-fastest lane (2nd from the left, because the left-most lane is reserved for HOV in Nashville). That way, since the HOV lane is never as crowded as the other 3 lanes are, I know that in the event of a sudden stop, odds are good that I could swing into the left-most lane if I needed to in order to avoid an accident.

 

• Whenever it’s raining out, I stay in either the left-most lane or the right-most lane. Never in the center lanes! The theory is this: If there’s a sudden stop, an accident, or hydroplaning, then I could veer to the outermost shoulders to avoid other cars.

 

• Here’s a good one!… I call this one the “who’s bigger?” rule and it goes something like this… When 2 or more vehicles are driving one-behind-the-other, if the lead vehicle is larger than the vehicle in the rear, then the driver of that vehicle (usually an SUV or pickup truck) should drive in such a manner that the littler car immediately behind you can actually SEE around you.(That’s a good one, right?…) It’s perhaps the most courteous thing that an SUV driver can do. (I drive an SUV.)For example, whenever it’s bumper to bumper traffic, or stop & go, I always drive on the right-most side of whatever lane I’m in JUST SO the driver behind me can see the cars in front of me. I think this is a relatively nice gesture — because I don’t want to block the view of smaller vehicles behind me AND I want them to see what I see. Whether it’s brake lights up ahead or a smooth traffic flow, either way, I think it’s helpful for drivers behind larger SUVs to be able to see this type of stuff.I take great pride in noticing when the drivers in smaller vehicles behind me are staying left-most while I’m staying right-most in the same lane… But I get frustrated when other drivers don’t do it for me. Whether it be a bigger SUV blocking my view, or a regular SUV whenever I’m driving Jim’s car, it just seems like the courteous thing to do… but not everyone “gets” it.

 

• Along these lines, whenever I’m in traffic, and I notice that a sudden stop (or slow down) is about to take place for some reason, then I purposely veer very obviously to the left or right — just to make it obvious to the drivers behind me that something’s up. Hopefully they’ll spot my unusual behavior, and be ready to stop/slow down on their own.

 

• I also try to live by my dad’s “#1 Rule of The Road”… He said: “You should drive such that your actions never force another driver to touch their brake.”Translated: I should always get out of the way of faster drivers. And I should never cut people off whenever I’m merging into their lane.The only downside is my tendency to get agitated when others don’t give me the same courtesy. C’mon. Share the road, dude. Let’s ALL be courteous. Peace out.

 

• Which leads me to my biggest pet peeve: Whenever slower drivers don’t respect your need for speed (I mean, you COULD be rushing to get the hospital… what do they know?!) and they maintain a below-the-speed-limit pace in the FAST-lane.Ugh!!!! Just who do they think they are?! I know my friend Laura who tends to do this (still love ya, Laura!) once explained it to me this way: She felt she was doing her civic duty to “help others maintain the legal speed limit” if she was massively slowing down lines of cars in the fast lane.My first thought: Doesn’t it get aggravating doing such a “good deed” while everyone’s tailgating your a#s??? My second thought: Most of the people who do this probably just see it as some form of a game… “How many people can I pi$s off today?” Well, it works. But let me just say this, you need a few lessons from my Dad!