Take advantage of what you’ve got
I love a bargain. If I don’t have to pay full price for something, I’m there. With four kids you learn to take advantage of things when you can to allow you to get ahead. I also try to get to where I’m going on time, if not early. I try to take advantage of whatever situations I can to get an advantage as a driver. Do you feel the same?
I recently was out on the freeway with my son during the evening rush hour. Traffic was typical for that time of day and we were traveling below the speed limit. Since my son was with me, I decided to use the restricted lane to get to our destination a little sooner. The restricted lane can be used if there are two or more people in the vehicle. This actually can become a bigger advantage than most people think.
Moving into that lane allowed us to move at a safer rate of speed. That allowed us to keep better space around the vehicle. When traffic is moving slower, drivers tend to tailgate, thinking they’ll reach their destination sooner. Umm, no. However, being able to reach the speed limit in the restricted lane allowed us to avoid those nasty tailgaters. You can’t really ask for more than that; saving time and keeping more space around the vehicle.
As we continued in the restricted lane I asked my son to look for other drivers who had two or more people in the vehicle and were not in the same lane as us. There were quite a few drivers who decided to stay in the slower traffic even though they did have the opportunity to be in the lane that flowed better. Why wouldn’t they take advantage of this lane?
One of the reasons the government added the restricted lane was to try to get drivers to begin sharing rides. Instead of having each driver making the trip by themselves, giving a friend or co-worker a ride saves many things including fuel, vehicle wear and tear, and it reduces the number of vehicles on the road and also driver stress. Having someone to share a ride with also can make the drive a little more pleasant. And in this case, it can also save you time.
As a smart driver, we need to take advantage of what we’ve got within our driving environment to make our driving safer and more effective…without putting restrictions on ourselves of course.