Drivers

There are a ton of drivers where I live.

Since I work in school systems I am afforded the chance to see many teen drivers first hand. The bell rings and tons of little foreign cars come rushing out on to the street. Add the walkers, the teachers, and parents and it becomes close to chaotic. These drivers all seem to be in a race to get out of there including the teachers and parents. Today alone I saw six close misses and too many cut offs to count. I don't see anybody setting a very good example for these young people either. All of the cut offs were parents and other adults. One of the close misses was a teacher.

There does not seem to be any patience in any of these drivers. Neither the adults or the teens. It's not just that they want to leave school because these drivers are seen driving the same way in parking lots and on city streets. They cut through gas stations and parking lots to avoid stop lights. They roll to a pause without making a complete stop at stop signs. They speed up to pass people only to cut them off, slow and turn in front of them. They ride your tail and wait till the last minute to hit the brakes.

Hardly any one uses turn signals any more and those that do tend to leave them on for miles. Speed limits are ignored and it feels like one is putting their life in peril just to run a simple errand.

Then add the high number of aged and nervous drivers in our area and you see the opposite. If others are in the car with them they talk more than drive. They seem to forget where they are going. They make several random stops or pauses and make regular erratic turns. They drive up to 10 miles an hour under the speed limit and never seem to notice the oncoming car when they pull out in front of them.

I can't imagine people taking time out of their busy day to drive the elderly and the elderly never seem to want to give up their independence either. Maybe we should try to help and offer to drive when we can. At a time when childhood obesity is so high maybe the young drivers should be walking anyway. If the driving age were moved to 18 maybe some of these young people would be forced to walk more and maybe to mature a little as well.

Man can I vent or what.

Originally this was published separately but it is really one so I blended them. The driver's blog was not finished. It turned out to be more of a cranky venting kind of blog than I had intended so here is the other half of my thoughts on drivers.

I forgot to mention my favorite drivers. Oh I have favorites.

I love the drivers who slow to leave space to let me change lanes.

I love the drivers that alert me when there is something not right. Like a low tire, burnt out taillight/headlight, something hanging out of the door, my gas cap open, trunk open or any number of other courtesies. It gives me joy to know people are still kind.

I love drivers who make the flow of traffic just a few miles an hour over the speed limit and the drivers who don't turtle down the diamond lane. What is the point of slowing people down in the diamond lane anyway?

I love people who let me out of a parking lot. Especially in heavy traffic hours.

I love people who don't hog two parking spots by parking over or hugging the line.

I love people who drive eco-friendly cars.

I love people who drive big vehicles (trucks/cars/SUVs) who can park in one space and even better if they can park in one try. Better still when the vehicle is full of people.

I love people who pay attention to the drivers around them. Maybe moving forward so I can pull into the turn lane prior to the light changing or leaving space in the lane so people can pull into a driveway or parking lot.

I love people who pull over for emergency vehicles. (What they were headed to someone you love.)

I love people who slow in school zones and parking lots.

I love when people smile at each other when something good happens.

I guess what I'm saying is that for every driver that bugs me there is a driver that makes my day. In a perfect world we would run into both kinds of drivers to balance things out but my world has never been perfect. It seems I am destined to see either the kind ones or the cranky ones all day. Life gives us what it gives us.

The first drivers blog just didn't give the good drivers the kudos they deserve. So please try to be one of the drivers mentioned in the second half of the blog. I love those people!