My family is the typical American family: in love with our automobiles.
I remember growing up and my Mom, who was a single mom, always fixing our cars herself; teaching (me especially) my sister and I how to do our oil changes and tune ups and fix a carburetor. Of course our cars today don't really have a carburetor, and I do not know how to fix a fuel injection - but I can change my own tires and until I got the Prius - do my own oil changes if need be. Of course that's my husbands' job - but I could.
I have been driving for a really long time. I remember sitting on my moms' lap, from as old as I can remember, and steering while she did the pedals. But I never went to driving school.
I never had it in High School. They stopped offering it by the time I was old enough to take it. And I never rode around in one of those compact cars with the sign on top. I just took the tests and got a license. When I was 18.
This doesn't mean that I wasn't driving, or didn't have a car when I was 16 & 17. It just means that I got my license when I was 18.
I passed with no problems. Have a safe driving record - except for a few serious accidents (which in Florida is damn good).
I have noticed a few things about the other drivers on the road, which lead me to wonder if we should offer drivers ed in school again. I mean, I basically learned from video games too - and my mom. But not like on TV or in the movies. And I had a car for a good year before I could legally drive. And I did get pulled over for speeding and was driving without a license. I could have gone to jail for it. And I did run into the same cop that pulled me over that night, who kindly only gave me a ticket and told me that I had to have a license before the court date - after that meeting, but before the court date and still driving without a license. He smiled and shook his head - and was a nice guy really.
So I mean, if you are thinking about whether I'm a good driver - it s really your call. I got away with some stuff and basically paid society back by not being a menace on the road.
Maybe everyone else might do well to adopt my philosophy about driving. I'm not sure - I don't want to be one of those people who thinks they have everything figured out and feels compelled to tell everybody else what they should do and how to live, when really they could use a tune up themselves. Truthfully, I could never be that self-convinced. Besides, I know I've changed my mind on a bunch of things based on changes in information, understanding and maturity, so I'm the first to tell you there is always room for change.
That being said - I still get really frustrated by some of things I witness on the road, and some of the behaviors I am subjected to and the resulting impact on my personal tranquility.
For example:
When I'm driving and some one behind me in an adjacent lane (one to which I wish to transfer to) behaves in this manner...
I put on my blinker (a courtesy and a law) to signal my intent to transfer to the other lane. They then, accelerate.
Not super hard (because then I could just wait until they pass me and make the transfer expediently), but ever so slightly.
Just fast enough to close out the safe gap to transfer into. And just slow enough to where they (in their mind only) don't look like a complete asshole by speeding up so I can't change lanes.
Slow enough to where my ability to transfer before I must be safely in that lane is of concern. I have to slow down to ensure that I'm behind him and over. It is so annoying.
What is the big deal? I'm not coming over into your lane to slow you down.... You wouldn't have even been bothered that I was there. But, no I had to be subjected to your rude, self-centered behavior, and as a result I had to adjust my driving behavior to accommodate you - how important you must be.
Then, people have this issue where they think it is OK to block an intersection.
Nothing is more fun than wanting to just pass through an intersection only to be blocked by some ignorant butt head who needed to pull all the way up to wait at the light.
Or worse, runs through the red light only to block the cross traffic from passing through the intersection when their light turns green.
What is with that? It is not only illegal - it is rude and generally unsafe.
On the subject of unsafe... What about not pulling completely across traffic when making a turn?
Instead of waiting until they can cross entirely, people obviously think it is advisable to pull half way across and wait for the other side to be free.
The problem with this is - they are blocking the intersection to the traffic going in other directions and the other traffic has obstructed visibility, or just plain can't move because your highness sits in the intersection.
Also, because they come to a stop in the intersection, they must merge with traffic from a stop.
This means, that they either have to accelerate to speed violently, or that they will be under speed at such time that they are interacting with cars in the lane they wish to merge with.
This results in the traffic with which they will be merging needing to brake or otherwise avoid the offender.
Here's a thought: just wait until you can make it all the way across and then, you can accelerate the whole way into your new lane and interact harmoniously with the traffic already there.
This same phenomena occurs when pedestrians jay walk - but that is for another blog.
What about when it is obvious that a lane merge is coming (maybe the cones, and flashing lights could lead to this awareness) and instead of attempting to merge at a slightly reduced speed long in advance of the actual merge point, everybody keeps going the same speed to be the first at the end of the terminating lane to push into the traffic needing to merge.
As the merge continues, and the inevitable bottleneck ensues, no attempt to avoid being in the termination lane is made.
Instead, car after car vies for first place to push into line of the other lane, which quickly suffers the indignity of being "cut in line" by the pushy drivers in the lane that ended.
Well, as all this ultimately results in less than optimum fuel economy - the one who bought the Prius precisely to achieve harmony and economy gets a little 'miffed' at the selfish bastards who ruin my drive.
'til next time....
I remember growing up and my Mom, who was a single mom, always fixing our cars herself; teaching (me especially) my sister and I how to do our oil changes and tune ups and fix a carburetor. Of course our cars today don't really have a carburetor, and I do not know how to fix a fuel injection - but I can change my own tires and until I got the Prius - do my own oil changes if need be. Of course that's my husbands' job - but I could.
I have been driving for a really long time. I remember sitting on my moms' lap, from as old as I can remember, and steering while she did the pedals. But I never went to driving school.
I never had it in High School. They stopped offering it by the time I was old enough to take it. And I never rode around in one of those compact cars with the sign on top. I just took the tests and got a license. When I was 18.
This doesn't mean that I wasn't driving, or didn't have a car when I was 16 & 17. It just means that I got my license when I was 18.
I passed with no problems. Have a safe driving record - except for a few serious accidents (which in Florida is damn good).
I have noticed a few things about the other drivers on the road, which lead me to wonder if we should offer drivers ed in school again. I mean, I basically learned from video games too - and my mom. But not like on TV or in the movies. And I had a car for a good year before I could legally drive. And I did get pulled over for speeding and was driving without a license. I could have gone to jail for it. And I did run into the same cop that pulled me over that night, who kindly only gave me a ticket and told me that I had to have a license before the court date - after that meeting, but before the court date and still driving without a license. He smiled and shook his head - and was a nice guy really.
So I mean, if you are thinking about whether I'm a good driver - it s really your call. I got away with some stuff and basically paid society back by not being a menace on the road.
Maybe everyone else might do well to adopt my philosophy about driving. I'm not sure - I don't want to be one of those people who thinks they have everything figured out and feels compelled to tell everybody else what they should do and how to live, when really they could use a tune up themselves. Truthfully, I could never be that self-convinced. Besides, I know I've changed my mind on a bunch of things based on changes in information, understanding and maturity, so I'm the first to tell you there is always room for change.
That being said - I still get really frustrated by some of things I witness on the road, and some of the behaviors I am subjected to and the resulting impact on my personal tranquility.
For example:
When I'm driving and some one behind me in an adjacent lane (one to which I wish to transfer to) behaves in this manner...
I put on my blinker (a courtesy and a law) to signal my intent to transfer to the other lane. They then, accelerate.
Not super hard (because then I could just wait until they pass me and make the transfer expediently), but ever so slightly.
Just fast enough to close out the safe gap to transfer into. And just slow enough to where they (in their mind only) don't look like a complete asshole by speeding up so I can't change lanes.
Slow enough to where my ability to transfer before I must be safely in that lane is of concern. I have to slow down to ensure that I'm behind him and over. It is so annoying.
What is the big deal? I'm not coming over into your lane to slow you down.... You wouldn't have even been bothered that I was there. But, no I had to be subjected to your rude, self-centered behavior, and as a result I had to adjust my driving behavior to accommodate you - how important you must be.
Then, people have this issue where they think it is OK to block an intersection.
Nothing is more fun than wanting to just pass through an intersection only to be blocked by some ignorant butt head who needed to pull all the way up to wait at the light.
Or worse, runs through the red light only to block the cross traffic from passing through the intersection when their light turns green.
What is with that? It is not only illegal - it is rude and generally unsafe.
On the subject of unsafe... What about not pulling completely across traffic when making a turn?
Instead of waiting until they can cross entirely, people obviously think it is advisable to pull half way across and wait for the other side to be free.
The problem with this is - they are blocking the intersection to the traffic going in other directions and the other traffic has obstructed visibility, or just plain can't move because your highness sits in the intersection.
Also, because they come to a stop in the intersection, they must merge with traffic from a stop.
This means, that they either have to accelerate to speed violently, or that they will be under speed at such time that they are interacting with cars in the lane they wish to merge with.
This results in the traffic with which they will be merging needing to brake or otherwise avoid the offender.
Here's a thought: just wait until you can make it all the way across and then, you can accelerate the whole way into your new lane and interact harmoniously with the traffic already there.
This same phenomena occurs when pedestrians jay walk - but that is for another blog.
What about when it is obvious that a lane merge is coming (maybe the cones, and flashing lights could lead to this awareness) and instead of attempting to merge at a slightly reduced speed long in advance of the actual merge point, everybody keeps going the same speed to be the first at the end of the terminating lane to push into the traffic needing to merge.
As the merge continues, and the inevitable bottleneck ensues, no attempt to avoid being in the termination lane is made.
Instead, car after car vies for first place to push into line of the other lane, which quickly suffers the indignity of being "cut in line" by the pushy drivers in the lane that ended.
Well, as all this ultimately results in less than optimum fuel economy - the one who bought the Prius precisely to achieve harmony and economy gets a little 'miffed' at the selfish bastards who ruin my drive.
'til next time....
No comments:
Post a Comment