. . . . although if I wasn't paying attention there have been several occurrences where there would have been one.
Um . . . . no kidding? Not paying attention while driving can lead to crashes?!??!?! Aw, damn!!!
Carrying on:
Driving in the US is generally poor because nobody in officialdom gives a whit if you actually know anything about it. It can't be changed because elected officials would have to change it, and no elected official is going to end his career by telling 95% of his constituents that they're not going to be renewed when their license comes up unless they do this or that or the other to actually get some skillz behind the wheel.
In most states, you get a learning permit at 15, where you get to drive with a "real" driver as your passenger, but only during daylight. After a few months you can drive in the dark. At 16, you can "solo" after taking an exam where you demonstrate your skill at parking, backing up, using a stop sign, and going around the block in actual traffic. That is the
last driving test you will take
for the rest of your life!!!!!!!!! If you renew in person (every 4 to 6 years) you might have to retake a sign recognition test and a simple vision test. Or you can elect to renew by mail (cheaper) and never see any examiner of any kind ever again.
In Driver's Ed they give lip service about keep right except to pass, slower traffic keep right, etc. I've heard people say they don't have to move over because they're not slow, they're doing the speed limit, and they don't see the contradiction there at all. Mostly the left lane people are there because
they don't want to be held up in the "slow" lane, and they have no clue what's going on around them. That thing on the windshield is a makeup mirror, not used for anything else.
Wait. Scratch that. It's used to monitor the kids in the back when they get into a "He's touching me!!!!" whiney game. While doing 5 under in the left lane.
When teaching my son to drive, I'd ask him about stuff behind him. If he had to look, or was wrong, I got a quarter. If he was right without taking another look in the mirror, he got a quarter, because he was already paying enough attention to know.
As for improving driver skills and attitudes, until an agency other than the various legislatures becomes responsible for licensing, it isn't going to change. Something similar to the FAA in aviation, but not at the federal level. Driver licenses are a state's pleasure to issue, not the federal government's. (But can you imagine if the FAA renewed pilots by mail, without ever seeing them again for years and years? The airways would be kinda like our highways!)
I have 3 pet peeves with drivers:
1. Locked onto the cruise control. They're passing the truck, but only by .00003 miles per hour, and it's going to take weeks to get by. Mash the damn pedal and go on by. It's allowed!
2. Same cruise-control-lock driver will speed up
after they move over, and now they're going as fast as you wanted to go, so you don't pass them, and now
you're the jerk blocking the left lane! (Easily solved by mashing the damn pedal and going by.)
2.b. If you're going the same speed as somebody else, do it in the same lane, not next to them.
3. Same cruise-control-lock driver moves over in front of you just as you reach him, because he refuses to tap the brake and disengage so you, going 10mph faster, can play through before he makes his pass. That's not to say I think I'm entitled because I was already there, it's to say how does it hurt to let the obviously quicker traffic go on through instead of holding them up? Besides, he has now forced me into an avoidance of some kind (see rules below.)
4. Approaching a 4-way stop sign from intersecting streets: Other driver arrives well before you, you're obviously slowing down for the stop, and his way is clear. He waits for you to stop, sits another couple of seconds to make sure,
then proceeds. He could have gone quite some time earlier and not forced you to wait for that rigamarole.
5. Opposing traffic at a light with no dedicated left turn lane (right turn for you Brits and some Asians): lead vehicle both directions are flashing left turn signals. One goes, the other doesn't, and now he's stuck waiting for a break in traffic and I'm stuck behind him, where if he'd turned simultaneously with the other guy, I'd be clear to go straight ahead.
6. Rather than actually pay attention to cross traffic and the lights while sitting at a red light, the driver in front will "wake up" when the light turns green, then examine the intersection for cross traffic to make sure all is well. Meanwhile half the alloted time for your green light has elapsed and
nobody has even entered the intersection, much less cleared it.
7. Entering an intersection you
know you can't clear, then blocking cross traffic when their light turns green. You have to be a real ass to say that your 3 minutes waiting for the next cycle is more important than 47 other people who can't take their right-of-way because your fat SUV is sitting across their lane.
OK, so I lied about having
three pet peeves.
All you kids learning to drive, here's the rules you need:
1. The windows are made of glass so you can see through them. What is out there (cars, trucks, pedestrians, motorcycles, road signs) is way the {stuff} more important than what's inside the car (radio, phone, conversation, food.)
2. Know everything that's going on around you. That INCLUDES to the sides and the rear! You might be dead in less than 2 seconds if you don't. ALWAYS keep that in mind.
3. YOU are responsible for the lives of everyone you go by, and everyone you carry as a passenger. YOU and YOU ALONE control whether they live or die. If you don't accept that, then let somebody else drive. Really.
4. Driving down the road is not a competition. If someone is going faster, let them by. You'll still have your gonads afterwards. Really. They don't disappear.
5. If someone will have to take avoiding action (including just slowing down) after your planned maneuver, then you don't have room. You're assuming that they're paying attention, and that's a stupid assumption to make. When you kill someone for a shot at gaining two seconds in traffic, you'd better be ready to explain to their family what you had to do that was so important.
There are no other rules that really mean anything. Yeah, red means stop, green means go, but all the rules come down to paying attention and not relying on other people to keep you alive. Simple as that.
