Why did you change the way you drive?
Throughout our lives we have made many changes. We change our friends, where we live, our choice of foods and our jobs. For many of us we also change how we drive. Sometimes our changes to our driving skill is for the good, other times it’s not. It may even be said that many drivers have become sloppy or lazy.
When each of us learned to drive we learned to follow the rules of the road. We had to learn those things in order to pass our road test. So, what happened to you after you passed the road test that you no longer follow certain rules? Why make those changes to your driving? Was it about being lazy or was it about feeling you weren’t going to be caught doing something wrong? Maybe you thought it wasn’t a big deal so why bother.
Coming to a stop sign there seems to be 2 bad habits. Most drivers fail to even come close to stopping. It seems many drivers will slow down “enough” so they won’t get a ticket, then get moving again. One of the real purposes why drivers should come to a full stop is to give themselves enough time to look for other vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists who may be crossing their path. Slowing down enough without stopping essentially means you’re not trying to stop. Your focus is about going again as soon as you can, which means you may not be looking as well as you should. Why did you change? How long does it take away from your trip to come to a full stop, check to see if it’s clear and then go? Not as much waisted time as you may think.
What about where you stop? Most drivers tend to stop nowhere near where they are supposed to stop by law. They either stop way too soon (beside the stop sign) or way too late. Mostly too late. And by the way, the stop sign tells you that you have to stop. It doesn’t tell you where to stop. Stop legally first, check for crossing pedestrians or cyclists and if you can’t see well enough to see if other vehicles are approaching, creep forward after stopping to get a better view. It only adds a couple of seconds but helps to improve road safety.
What about turn signals? We were all taught to signal turns and lane changes but that doesn’t seem to happen so much these days. How much of an effort does it really take to communicate to other road users of your intentions? It’s also common courtesy. In many cases your signal can help you. Other drivers know of your intentions and slow down to let you make lane change. I’ve seen it happen a lot and have taught my novice drivers to do that. It really does work, so why stop doing it?
Even making turns seems to have gotten worse. Many drivers cut the corner or make a wide turn and end up in the next lane as opposed to the corresponding lane around the corner. Why so sloppy? When did you decide it was okay to drive like that? It’s not.
There really isn’t anything wrong with embracing the way you were taught to drive. Just because you became fully licensed doesn’t mean you need to re-invent the wheel with how to drive. Refine your skills you were taught and remember, being sloppy or lazy puts you, your vehicle and other road users at risk. Driver training never taught you that.