As I drive around Dallas, on my way home from work for example, I see all sorts of crazy stunts that people pull in an attempt to get home more quickly.  But more importantly I see people who are trying to get to their location faster than the guy next to them.  So in an attempt to help this issue, I have put together a few ideas that will help increase everyone’s driving experience.

Step 1: A Car Is Not a Time Machine.  I realize that your job is making you ghost work for half a department, and that you work up 20 minutes late because of it and because of that you are going to be late.  But the first thing you need to realize is that you cutting someone off, or running a stale yellow light, or even driving all the way up to the on-ramp and then stopping until someone lets you on does nothing but slow other people down.  When they get slowed down, then they do the same things which slow more people down, which then in turn causes everyone to be later, and traffic to last longer.  But when it comes down to it, even these things don’t save that much time, and I understand the opinion that “sure it only saves me 5 minutes, but when I am going to be 5 minutes late that is when it matters”, really though you need to base your schedule on your driving time, don’t base your driving on your schedule time.

Step 2: Stop Sign Procedure.  I see you doing it when I am driving, that is right you in the Mustang, or you in the Giganto-SUV, and heck even the guy in the sedan, no car type is perfect.  What is it you ask?  Driving all the way up to the curb and then “stopping at a stop sign”.  Nothing scares me more than when I am driving past a road that has a stop sign and I see some gigantic truck or SUV barreling up to the street that I am driving on, and then stopping mere inches before they hit my car.  There is a reason that stop signs are a good 5 feet before the street, that reason is that you are supposed to stop at the stop signs, meaning that when you approach a stop sign, if your front bumper passes that stop sign before you have come to a complete stop, you have run that stop sign, and I wish the police would write you a ticket for it.  Please, stop scaring the crap out of people, causing them to put on the brakes and then impede traffic behind them because you are in too much of a hurry to stop 5 feet earlier, when you are supposed to.

Step 3: Observe Roadsigns.  I know you think that because you were not paying attention and then it is all of a sudden time for your exit that you can zoom across four lanes of traffic and then squeeze into the tiniest of space between cars and somehow magically make your exit and not get in a wreck yourself.  What this does though is create a slowdown that will last for hours.  It literally will take until the next day for this sort of thing to go away, so please don’ do it.  If you find yourself in a situation where you are about to or have missed your exit, turn, lane change, or whatever; please do the rest of us a favor, calmly make your way lane by lane to the next exit, take that one, and then turn around and try again, or take back streets or side roads.

Step 4: Getting Pulled Over.  It happens, even I get pulled over from time to time.  But what you should to to help prevent traffic issues when you are pulled over is not to pull onto the shoulder, or onto the side of the road, or into a turn lane.  Those do nothing but put the officer’s life in danger, and put them on edge, but it also causes traffic to rubberneck and slow down even more.  Instead do the following when you see the flashing lights in your rear-view mirror.

  1. Put on your hazard lights
  2. Slow down and make your way off the highway if you are on one
  3. Stop in a well lit public place that does not impede the flow of traffic

There are federal laws on the books that allow you to travel to a location that you feel is safe before pulling over, you should use these laws to not only help keep yourself safe, but keep the officers off of the roads where they can be clipped by cars.  Once you explain what you did and why, I promise you most officers will be alright with it, and the few that are not, well they were going to beat you anyways.

Using these four handy tips we can all help to make sure that our commute every day is a little bit safer, speedier, and sweeter in the future.  I would like to thank my mom for imparting such good driving morals on me when I was younger, and I am proud to say that I not only drive the speed limit, except when driving exes home from the airport, but I keep both hands on the wheel at all times.