Dear Drivers

Hello everyone. I've been away from blogging for a while. No real excuse, so let's get into it.

DRIVING! I would think that if you are driving you are well aware of the rules. You would understand what you need to do on the road in order to keep yourself and other drivers safe. Of course thinking that will get you no where because it seems (atleast where I live, but I'm sure it's everywhere) that a good 70% of people don't know what they're doing out there. I get a bit of road rage, and it's not good. I tell myself I need to stop getting so mad, but then I start thinking about what's actually making me get this rage when driving and I realized that I'm being perfectly reasonable with my road rage.

I've wanted to make this post for quite a while, so I'm finally sitting down to do it.

Blinker: Use your blinker when turning. If you have hit your brakes to slow down and you haven't turned on your blinker, you've already screwed up. Blinker before brakes. Gives drivers enough of a warning that you're turning. Use them, even if you don't like the way it sounds.

Slow Moving Vehicles: When on a highway if you are going slower than the speed limit, stay in the right lane. Don't go in the left lane just to drive on the opposite side of the road. They put two lanes there for a reason, so if you are moving slower than the flow of traffic you can stay out of the way. You're not supposed to pass someone on the right so you being in the left lane slowing down the flow of traffic is making people pass you incorrectly.

Allow Some Space: On highways at high speeds, give the car in front of you some space. If you can allow the person behind you some space. Give two seconds between you and the car ahead of you. Or the rule I try to follow but is always ruined by other drivers. Give one car space for every 10MPH you are traveling. This is hard to do because other drivers like to cut you off at high speeds. Don't quite understand it. When you pass someone don't move back into that lane until you can see their entire bumper in your rear view window.

4-Way Stop Signs: The person to the right as the right of way. If 4 cars show up at the same time, whichever one has stopped first, has the right of way, it's very rare that 4 people show up and all stop at the same exact time, so be observant, which you should be anyway since you're driving.

Turning Onto a 2-Lane Road: I thought this was basic driving etiquette, and I could have swore this was on the written test for driving. When turning left onto a two lane road, you must turn into the left lane, then switch lanes if needed. When turning right onto a two lane road, you must turn into the left right lane, then switch lanes if needed. I thought everyone knew this. I get the weirdest looks when I'm turning onto a two lane road and the person straight ahead is also turning onto it and we go at the same time. I've had them beep and give me the finger and flail their fist at me. If they paid attention during the test they would have know. Either that or they did and they forgot or they just don't give a shit.

When a 2-Lane Road is Ending: If you've been following someone on a two lane road, and let's say the speed limit on the road is 35Mph, and he's doing 40Mph. Then all of a sudden you see the sign that indicates Left Lane Ending. DO NOT jump in the left lane to try and pass the person because it'll be your last opportunity. Should have thought about that for the mile or so you were following them just fine at that speed.

When Going Under The Speed Limit: Make sure you turn your 4-way flashers/Hazard lights on. This will give other drivers fair warning that you are going slower than the speed limit with enough time to slow down and not cause an accident.

Driving With Your Left Foot: The only time you should have to use your left foot while driving is if you have a manual transmission and you need to use the clutch. Or if you have one of those e-brakes that you use your foot to set it. I'm sick of following behind someone that decided they'd have their left foot hovering over the brake, so that every bump you hit causes your foot to tap the brake causing the light to come on. Making the person behind you hit their brake thinking you're slowing down. Plus sometimes you like to let your left foot get heavy and rest on the brake so you're going a constant speed but your brake lights are on confusing the drivers behind you.

High Beams: High beams are for dark driving situations when there are no on coming cars. When you see a car coming turn off your high beams, it's blinding to other drivers. Takes a few seconds for your eyes adjust back to the dark and a few seconds is all that's needed for you to run off the road or hit an animal.

Turn Off Your Blinker: So I've been following you for about 10 miles on a highway, we've passed 3 exits and your right blinker is still on. You need to turn that off. Pay attention, this can be confusing to other drivers thinking you're going to be slowing down and pulling off at the next exit, or pulling over on the side of the road.
I also want to say this is confusing when at a stop light and you have your left blinker blinking, I'm across from you also turning left. If that was the situation you and I could turn at the same time, but if you forgot to turn off your blinker you're all of a sudden pissed off at me for cutting you off when in actuality you would be at fault for anything that happened since your blinker was on.
This goes for any situation where your blinker is on and you forget to turn it off. Sometimes a certain turn isn't making your wheel turn enough to click the blinker switch causing it to blink. Just give it a look real quick. I don't know how you can miss it blinking, it makes quite a loud noise, I can hear it over my music when driving. If you can't hear it over your music, maybe your music is a bit too loud for you and you should turn it down.

Texting And Driving: Yes I went over this in my previous post. Just don't text and drive, please! If you want to text and drive, don't. Simple as that. Pull over or wait until you get to your destination. It's illegal to talk on your cell phone while driving what makes you thinking typing a message to someone is any less legal? You're not that talented, so get over it.

Pay Attention To Your Speed: Without cruise control it's easy for your speed to fluctuate a little bit especially in hilly areas. Just monitor it a bit. Nothing I hate more than setting my cruise control to 65Mph on the highway, and cruising along and all of a sudden someone comes flying up behind me, passes me, cuts me off gets ahead of me then all of a sudden is going slower than me. I then have to pass you, or wait for traffic to go around us so that I can safely pass you. Then you speed up again only to pass me. I hate playing leap frog with other cars on the road. Understandable if it's a slight difference but going 15Mph faster than me, to 10Mph slower than me, then speeding up again is a huge difference and not very safe on such a road.

Alright I think I have covered just about everything I can think of that's been bothering me about other drivers recently. I'm not saying I'm a god to the road ways. But I do try to follow these rules of the road, and when I see other people not doing it, it really aggravates me to no end.

If you can think of any other ones, feel free to post them in the comments. I know I've missed things that get to other people so please post them!