Many of us have pet peeves when we drive. I don’t like tailgaters. Rude and unsafe, tailgaters distract me from driving because I keep watching them and wonder why they are pushing me. I see a tailgater in my rearview mirror at least twice a week. What makes me smile though is that if the tailgater finally passes me, usually in a huff, he or she will generally sit in front of me or next to me at the first red light.
Another pet peeve for many of us is the left lane hog of the highway. Before the imposition of the 55 mph on everyone in America, Lane Courtesy was one of those unwritten rules of the highway. Drivers drove right except while passing automatically without thinking. When the 55 mph speed limit was imposed however, people began driving in both lanes not caring about lane courtesy any longer. The National Motorists Association sponsors Lane Courtesy Month every June to remind folks that this rule of the road should be a part of everyone’s driving routine.
Recently a video and article surfaced on Autoblog about a Texas man who just couldn’t take a particular Left Lane Hog any longer. He took matters into his own hands, not in a mean way, but perhaps effective in the long run (except he had to use his phone to call—which law enforcement would consider distracted driving).
Courteous driving should be the standard but courteous driving probably means something different to all of us. The Car Coach, Lauren Fix recently wrote an article on “The Ten Commandments of Courteous Driving”. Her very first commandment is lane courtesy “Pass on the left and move right as fast as you can!” Maybe a personal 10 commandments list is a good place to start on deciding your own standards of courteous driving.
Distracted driving has been in the news a lot lately. Thinking through and deciding what distracts you and how to minimize that should definitely be a part of everyone’s 10 Commandments of Driving. I have certainly done that and feel that it has made me a much more attentive driver which in the end I hope makes me safer on the road.
Road & Track ran a story recently about Distracted Driving being the Lesser of Two Evils. What struck me in the article though was how the article’s author Jack Baruth described the difference between driving in traffic 10 years ago and driving in traffic today. Hilarious but sad…not just because of distracted driving but also because folks just don’t need to be glued to their tech 24/7.
Tailgating, Left-lane hogging and distracted driving are my pet peeves. In order to combat these, I do my best every time I drive to role model what I want others to do while they drive. The Golden Rule applies in every situation.
I would love to hear your pet peeves and unwritten rules of the road. Email them to me at nma@motorists.org and I will put them in a blog post next week. When you write please list your first name and city and state or that you want to be anonymous.
Have fun while you drive safe!
