Until I started writing today's blog, I never realized how distracted I really was while driving sometimes. Since I drive the same roads twice a day five times a week, I notice that for myself I get bored very easily and tend to want to look at my phone, mess with the radio, look in the mirror, etc. I am really attempting to making an effort to put my phone where I can't reach it from the driver's seat, or pledge to keep it down and not even look at it at all while driving. Unfortunately once you are in the habit of looking at it, it's a difficult practice to break.
I really appreciate the cell phone companies putting out the public service announcements on commercials that your text messages can wait until you arrive. I would like to believe that they are reaching some people with those PSA's. I would imagine that they work better than the states and cities that are making driving while dealing with the phone illegal. I understand the idea and appreciate the effort, however, I would imagine that just makes those drivers more dangerous because now not only are they trying to text and drive but they are also now trying to hide that behavior from the police.
Everyday, while driving to work, I see accidents or notifications of accidents in our area that you would imagine are one or both drivers being distracted while driving. Perhaps we think that we are exempt from those accidents if we text or put makeup on while driving. Maybe we justify it with ‘it is only this one time’. It only takes one time to cause a lifetime of regret. As a human race we should really be smarter and realize that being distracted is dangerous and often times deadly to not only the distracted driver but also the people around them.
Brainstorming about distracted drivers has opened my eyes to the
fact that we, as drivers, have several bad habits that need to be stopped. The first one directly relates to the
distracted driver mention above but the other two are just general annoyances
that I observe with drivers in DFW on a daily basis.
“When that jerk cut me off, he caused me to drop my phone
and spill my coffee.”
Why are we, as drivers, so
distracted lately? We used to just be able to drive. We didn't have to talk on the phone, text, read the newspaper, put on makeup, eat and drink coffee all while driving. Would it be too much
to ask that people just drive? Because I spend over three hours a day in my
car and a majority of that stuck in some kind of traffic, I see more awful
driving than your average person observes. I see
people reading books, newspapers and computers while driving with their
knees. I see women talking on the phone
and putting makeup on while trying to steer with their elbows.
I see parents half in the back seat turned around while trying to give
their children something while the child is screaming their head off.
I see people doing other things while stuck in mostly stopped traffic
and I am less bothered by that because I figure that a fender bender is less
likely to be disastrous if you just roll into someone’s car versus the person
who is driving with their knees putting on makeup and drinking coffee while
driving 90 mph on the Toll way. That doesn't bother me as much, but it is still not ideal.
“They don’t want to hit me anymore than I want to hit them.”
Sigh. I see at least four people everyday that seem
to be operating under this philosophy.
You know the people… exiting a parking lot or a driveway without so much
as a yield, let alone a full stop before blazing out into traffic, weaving in
and out of traffic with two inches to spare before hitting another car,
etc. In fact, this weekend while out with my family, I almost rear-ended a man in a small SUV who pulled out in front of me in traffic and then stopped suddenly to turn into a driveway with no signal. If you haven’t observed those kinds
of people, then this is probably describing how you drive. If it is, stop. It’s annoying as hell. I would honestly doubt that these people are
in that much of a hurry that the extra one minute that it takes to stop or
yield would cause them to be late. And if it isn’t because they are running
late, then are they just doing it to be jerks?
Either way, it’s ridiculously dangerous for everyone on the road.
“I signaled – they should have let me over.”
A blinker is a signal that you are
getting ready to merge into another lane or make a turn. It isn’t a warning that you are getting over
RIGHT NOW or a signal to the person that they have to get out of your way
immediately. You still have to merge
into that lane. And please don’t even
get me started on people’s inability to understand the easiest driving concept
in the world: how to merge. Just
remember that the process of using a blinker is a basic understanding that
everyone who took an instructional course in learning how to drive had to
master. And at the time that I wrote
this blog, I am not sure of any car manufacturers, at least in America, that
are making vehicles with no turn signals.
Not using turn signals and/or using turn signals inappropriately are
both equally as bad.
