A Little Courtesy Please?

Once upon a time, when I was a very wee Dragon, my Daddy taught me a lot about driving, neat stuff like when I’m being overtaken by another car or truck I should always flashed my lights to signal it was safe to pull back into the lane. This is still a very polite, not to mention safe, thing to do. When is the last time someone “flashed” you over? When is the last time you did the same?

Based on a few month’s filled to the brim with road trips both east and west and north and south, that light flashing appeared to be few and far between! What has happened to all the little road courtesies that used to be commonplace on America’s highways? Simple things like changing lanes to allow a merging vehicle to merge, staying to the right except to pass, using turn signals appropriately, and passing safely seem to have gone the way of the Dodo.

Today’s drivers, no matter their age, are often seen swerving within their lane while fiddling with a cell phone. They tailgate trailers – almost exclusively horse trailers – so close that should something happen up front and out of sight, there is no way they will be able to stop in time. We are working on a manual delivery system to eject fresh horse manure directly onto the windshield and paintwork of such folks. Once perfected it will be sold at all truck stops as an after-market accessory, easily installed in just minutes with a few common tools.

And if drivers are not tailgating, they are cutting each other off by pulling back into their lane too quickly. There used to be a rule of thumb, never pull back into the lane until you can see all of the vehicle you are passing in your rear-view mirror (not the side mirror!). Now here is where it would be really useful if passing drivers would look into their rear view mirrors occasionally to check when it is safe to pull over. Or, perhaps, to notice when the passed vehicle is flashing them over. Oh, did you think that was the makeup mirror?

Tailgating has to be one of the single most annoying and impolite tricks that modern drivers have embraced. If you are in the habit of leaving a nice comfort zone between you and the vehicle in front, have you noticed how quickly it gets filled up? Nature may abhor a vacuum but Nature was not thinking about I-81 with the traffic moving at a steady 73 MPH. Give yourself and the other guys a break and keep a safe stopping distance between you and the next vehicle. Weird stuff happens on the Interstates, stuff that at 45 MPH is inconsequential but at 75 MPH can be, and often is, fatal.

And for crying out loud, wear your seatbelt. There is nothing as messy as swerving to miss an accident and then mashing the ejected driver under your wheels. That blood and brain tissue is just really difficult to get off the rims and paintwork. Seat belts are uncomfortable for most women 5′3” and under and they make some men feel creepy, but they also save lives. People who would never dream of flying without their seatbelt can be very cavalier about ignoring it in a speeding vehicle. So, enough of those lame arguments that you are afraid of being trapped in a vehicle in a wreck. The alternative is being bounced around inside a steel box until you are pulped or being tossed out onto the highway or into a tree trunk. Neither one of those latter alternatives is conducive to a long and prosperous life…

And about those aforementioned cell phones, what did you do before you got one? Do you really have to be in touch with other people 24/7 and at the risk of causing a fatal accident? If you need to make a call, pull off the road. If someone calls you, wait until you can pull safely off the highway, then call them back.

There is no safe way to talk on the phone while driving. Maintaining your end of the conversation interferes with your concentration while driving, some studies say as much as 50 percent. So, how about pulling off at the next exit, park, and then return the call that you didn’t answer, as you were concerned about your safety and the safety of those driving around you?

Ok, can we all agree to work on this stuff? I don’t expect perfection from anyone, but the highways would certainly be safer places if people adhered to some of these simple rules of the road.