Remedial driver training

Good morning….do you ever feel that other drivers have forgotten everything they learned when they were taught how to drive?

As someone who logs a lot of highway miles and is in a lot of different cities throughout the Midwest each month, I think that remedial driver training might be an idea whose time has come.

I think we’re all much more distracted now than we were ten or fifteen years ago.  And I say “we” because I catch myself doing things that I know are not quite right, but do them anyway.  Here are a few of the common offenses I observe and occasionally commit:

THE ROLLING STOP:  This is most common, we approach a stop sign, see that no other car is coming from any other direction, and we proceed through the intersection without stopping.  I complain about this, but at times am just as guilty as anyone.  Yes, the coast is clear, but that’s now how this should work!

RUNNING YELLOW LIGHTS:  Same principle, if I can get through that light while it’s yellow, it’s all good, right?  Not really, as there are other motorists who are timing the red light they see and are prepared to take off quickly, making for a lot of near misses.

DRIFTING FROM ONE LANE TO ANOTHER:  Maddening to see people trying to operate their phones while driving at highway speed, and not realizing that they are slowly but surely making their way into your space, at 70 miles per hour or more.  These folks often jerk their vehicle back into the middle of their own lane but I have to believe it’s very easy to overcorrect in those situations.

SPEEDING:  Guilty as charged, Your Honor.  I spend so much time on the highway for my job that I drive much faster than I used to.  Much of the time I’ll limit speeding to five miles an hour over the posted limit, but that’s still speeding, even if everyone else is passing you as though you were sitting still!

PARKING:  Five years ago, I traded one Honda SUV for another.  The current one is shorter by a little bit, but unfortunately, I still have some challenges parking straight in my spot in a parking lot.  So I often look for two or three spaces together so that I don’t inconvenience anyone else.  But others park at strange angles, often making it difficult for me, a larger than average man, to enter his own car because the other car is too close.  This is one of those things that is an absence of observation by others.  And I won’t get started about drivers of enormous trucks and SUVs insisting on backing in.  Fine much of the time, but when that driver is unsure of their sight lines the results are not always the best.

OTHER:  Yes, I sometimes eat a snack in the car, and often have something to drink along for the ride.  But I see people attempting to eat things like sub sandwiches and other foods that require a bowl and spoon occasionally. Seriously!

That’s probably enough examples, but as a man of 66 years of age, I’d bet that I could use some refresher training in the art of safe driving.  And I’ll bet some of you could, too!