Behaviour

A message in the DriveSmartBC inbox observes that there is such an incredible shortage of common sense about the practicalities of driving, as well as so many people who seem unable to think clearly any more. You cannot get people to drive better just by saying "drive better".

I watched a woman run a stop sign the other day while I was out for a walk. Drivers do make mistakes, but I knew that this was a route that she travelled often and she should be familiar with stopping there.

Ah courtesy, where have you gone? You are certainly scarce on the highways and byways of our fair province! When was the last time another driver did something nice for you to facilitate a movement? Did you wave to say thank you afterwards? We can all get along nicely with a bit of courtesy now and again.

I've written before about the three Es of road safety; education, engineering and enforcement. The enforcement component was the subject of a comment to me concerning a visible police presence on our highways. The observation was that the use of unmarked police cars contributes to what seems like minimal enforcement and creates an "I can get away with it" mindset.

Whenever we hear of a high speed crash involving a new driver we shake our heads in dismay. How could young drivers consider operating their vehicle at such speeds? Don't they know that it is dangerous to drive like this?

The left lane is so popular lately that when I keep right I often find myself behind fewer vehicles at the next red traffic light. In fact, at one particular intersection on my commute many times I can be first in line. Everyone else seems stuck in the left lane trying to get ahead, fuming, following too closely and making sudden lane changes.

Few of us like to live life on the edge. We save money for a rainy day, plan ahead in our lives and expect that everything around us has a built in safety factor. If it turns out that an insufficient safety factor injures us we expect someone to be responsible for it.

The theme last week among those that I follow on X seemed to be "doesn't play well with others." Whether the subject of the post was a driver, cyclist or pedestrian their behaviour showed that they had no intention to behave properly.

Dan is a friend that I occasionally get together with to discuss road safety. He's a commercial trucker and driving instructor with a lot of experience behind the wheel. The last time that we had lunch together he made a comment that struck me and I promised to borrow for a column topic. "Don't let that become your default setting" made a lot of sense to me.

Everyone has a pet peeve related to driving, right? I know what mine are, but I was curious about what others might say if I asked, so I did. My faithful weekly newsletter readers responded without hesitation and I want to share their thoughts with you.