The innumerable hours I’ve spent driving over the past two years have forced me to come to one glaring realization – the driver’s seat is truly the best seat in the house to the grand production of human stupidity that is expressed so consistently on the road.
Sure, no driver is perfect, but people could stand to, at the very least, try not to make the world a more difficult and dangerous place through their driving.
The most obvious displays of absolute idiocy begin in our very own school parking lot.
First of all, please just learn the correct direction to drive down the lanes of the parking lot. Stop going the wrong way and coming head-on at me while I’m going the correct way, then forcing me to awkwardly back up or find a way to move over so that you can get past me. You’re in the wrong, so you should be the one making the most effort to correct it.
And seriously, the parking lot isn’t a free-for-all. We’re civilized beings; we should be able to exercise enough competence to take turns merging instead of trying to cut off every single car in our paths.
By the way, once you get out of the parking lot lines and onto the actual road, that’s when you get to stop tailgating people. Revolutionary information, I know. Yes, I’m looking at you, high schoolers in the new giant trucks and tiny sports cars that your parents entrusted you with despite your inability to operate them well.
And to the many drivers out there who must be unaware of it, there’s an amazing feature called a “blinker” built into cars.
It’s this crazy light mechanism that indicates which direction you’re going to move in so that you don’t merge lanes irresponsibly and crash into other cars. It also lets other drivers know you may be slowing down to take a turn so that you don’t get rear-ended.
Or, it’s there to express which direction you’re planning to move in at a stop sign- which is extremely important when the person across from you thinks you’re going straight, but then you decide to turn left to everybody’s unfortunate surprise.
There are so many benefits to using the blinker, which some drivers apparently require a reminder of. It’s an excellent resource to make other drivers not hate you.
Then, there are stoplights. They seem easy enough, right? Green means go, yellow means slow down and red means stop. People typically have a good grasp on this concept. That is, until they are faced with the right turn lane, that is.
This is basic driver’s education, people. If it’s green you’re always free to turn, and if it’s red and there’s no sign prohibiting turning right on a red light, then you slow down and either yield for pedestrians or pause to make sure the path is clear of cars before you turn.
Based on the number of times people have nearly hit me when I’m just going straight because they made the erroneous decision that they have right turn right of way (spoiler alert – it’s my right of way for a reason), this is not always common sense for drivers.
While the aforementioned mistakes are obnoxious, they really do pale in comparison to some drivers’ purposeful recklessness.
Don’t be the jerk that speeds and weaves carelessly between cars just to ultimately end up about two more cars ahead. Because congrats, you’re winning the race that isn’t happening and no one asked for.
I highly doubt you’re in the kind of life-or-death situation that level of recklessness could be validated by, so don’t put everyone else on the road in a potential life-or-death situation by your terrible driving, thanks.
When it comes to driving, just pay attention. The world won’t end if you’re late, your life won’t fall apart if you don’t answer that text message right now and cutting a minute or two off of your drive time isn’t worth reckless driving.
It’s impossible to know when the day will come that you stop being so invincible to your actions, so don’t tempt fate and endanger others by being an ignorant or selfish driver. The consequences literally have the potential to destroy lives.