ALT-5 Whatever Happened to Driving Etiquette
Driving etiquette is out the window, and cut off by someone not paying attention to what they are doing.
People are in a rush all of the time, and I'm guilty of it as well. We have something that needs to be done and we're trying to do it as quickly as possible. I'm surprised that were not using stopwatches yet.
I consider myself to be a very observant and logical driver. I drive like I'm playing chess and I'm constantly anticipating things that could happen and how to react to them. I do this because it keeps me calm when something does happen. If you are reading this and thinking "this guy's crazy, I can't do that and drive." Guess what? You are a bad driver, yes you. You should constantly be aware of what's going on around you while driving.
I was driving a few weeks ago and pulled up behind a guy in an SUV. He was the only guy in front of me and we had the arrow. I could see through his window that he was reaching for something and didn't see the light flashing so I politely tooted my horn. Not to be obnoxious, just to let him know. The guy looked at the light, then at me and just stayed. This made me quite angry, and I blew my horn very obnoxiously at him. After the arrow it was just a green light and he still stayed, and waited until the light was just about to go from yellow to red to speed off like a maniac. He just happened to be stopped at a stop sign right on the street I turned on to and doing the same thing. No traffic and the guy wouldn't move. Here's where my driving etiquette became very bad. I pulled up along side him and was so angry that I couldn't even manage to roll down my window to yell at him (and I'm glad now). Number one I shouldn't have lost my temper. People have bad days, and who knows what was going on with that guy. Number two I had my wife and child in the car, and thinking of what could've happened if that guy got out of the car was enough to snap me out of losing my temper while driving again. I felt horrible; I was yelling towards him on the passenger side and yelling in my wife's ear(directed at him of course). My daughter was in the back seat, and it was just like an awakening that it's not worth it. We are being worse then the bad drivers out there by reacting like that.
I live in the heart of downtown, and there are a lot of one-way streets including the one I live on. When I want to leave my street I have to go around to the adjacent one. This is a wide one-way street and the norm is if you're going right, pull up to the right part of the street to give the person on the left room to edge out and vice versa. I was getting close to the stop sign and begin to veer left when this person in a Mazda protege just zoomed by me proceeding the wrong way down the one-way street. I blew my horn to indicate that it was a one-way and the person just stuck up their head as well as their middle finger. I wasn't even angry I just wanted to let her know, obviously she didn't realize it. I understand that mistakes happen, especially if you're driving somewhere for the first time. But if someone is blowing their horn at you, you may want to know why.
Please just try to be more aware of what's going on around you, and no don't turn up your radio to keep you calm while driving. If you've got it on too loud you won't be able to hear sirens or horns blowing or something going wrong with your car.
