Like most Americans, I commute to work daily.  And increasingly, I get the feeling I am taking my life into my own hands.  Or more accurately, placing my life into the hands of the strangers with which I commute. Not only do I see less evidence of traditional American driving etiquette; traffic, traditionally regarded as an annoyance and productivity drain has morphed in to a seriously dangerous proposition.

Breaking traffic etiquette is quite different from breaking traffic law because it is (unfortunately) not criminal.  Therefore, the only enforceable penalties are me screaming profanity at the top of my lungs in an attempt to penetrate my windshield and yours or mean stares! 

Maybe I am waxing nostalgic, but when I think back to years ago when I learned to drive, people seemed to follow the rules of the road for the most part.  Of course, you drove across your occasional jerks but it was more the exception than the rule.  These days, I routinely see people attempting to weave their way out of gridlock, driving 50 MPH in the fast lane with a caravan of ten angry drivers in tow, or merging onto the expressway and immediately changing lanes with no regard to traffic flow or conditions as if their model of car only works in their favorite lane.  I could do this all day but I am really interested in the why??? 

Good driving etiquette is not enforceable but it could be powerful.  Although, it is only a theory, I believe if we all got on one accord and drove following the same general rules of the road, we could all get there sooner, safer and saner (is that a word?).

What are your traffic nightmares?

What are your pet peeves on the road?

Are you one of those people in the other cars who I hate?

How can we improve the situation? 

Are we going to have to wait until our cars can find their way to work like a Roomba before the situation improves? 

When is public transportation going to step into the 21^st century in the United States?

Slower Traffic Keep Right!!!

Some individuals may not have self-awareness or driving skill (for that matter) to identify themselves as slower traffic.  So I have attempted to list a few tips to help identify whether you should move your ass over!

1. If you are reading this while driving, you may want to click that right turn signal.
2. If you feel like you might need lean over to reach under the back passenger seat at some point during your journey, stay to the right.
3. If you are now or recently have had car troubles (this includes people who clearly have had no maintenance done to their vehicles in the last year) merge right.
4. If you have any fears other than the customary dread of mobile morons about expressway driving, only use that left blinker in extreme circumstances.
5. This does NOT only apply to the far left lanes.  If you are in the “middle” lanes and people are passing you on both sides as if you’ve got it in reverse, put it in drive and get to the right.
6. Share your Stay to the Right TIPS!  Comment below or send mail to blog@qaiyimjamal.com.

I am as guilty as anyone of multi-tasking behind the wheel (maybe not this badly); but a distracted driver is a dangerous driver.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 9:29 pm and is filed under Transportation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.