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As I think back on it, my driving habits have peaked and valley'd over the years. I went from being overly cautious as a new driver at 15 years old, to being a speed racer in my twenties, and finally in my late 30's to present I took my radar detector out of the car, drive the speed limit and practice courteous driving. This is not to say that I won't hesitate to smoke past someone going overly slow just to get them away from me. As we get older, and supposedly more emotionally mature, I would think that the pettiness of losing a parking spot or being pulled in front of would go away, not always.

There are many definitions of things we experience while on the road. The top three categories, each having sub-categories, are;

1.Innattentiveness.

2.Fear of driving.

3. Ignorance of laws.

4. Displays of anger.

Pretty much everything we come across while driving will fall under those main things and their sub topics. The first category includes passenger distraction, eating, talking on the phone, reading, spilling a drink, leaving the blinker on for no reason, etc. Did you know the Germans don't have cup holder's? They also have the Autobahn which has a better safety record than American roads. This is because they take driving seriously, know the rules, and follow them. And they don't eat or drink in the car, good lesson.

Fear of driving includes drivers afraid of highways yet get on anyway and drive 40 MPH. These drivers basically hold up flow of traffic and rhythm everywhere they go. They don't go on their turn at a stop sign, they slam on breaks at yellow lights regardless of speed of traffic behind them or how close to the intersection. I've seen people skid to a halt and end up in the middle of the inspection, a cop was handy this time and they got pulled over-yeah. They are overly nice to the point that it ruins rhythm by letting all the cars waiting to come out from a store go in front of them, making everyone on the main road wait. Courtesy is fine, but do that kind of thing one car at a time.

Ignorance of laws, you've seen them I'm sure. A green arrow and a red light on at the same time equals confusion. And if the light is red and you are turning right, unless there is a sign saying otherwise, feel free to turn if no cars are coming. Some people will make turn lanes where they don't exist or make a turn from the middle lane because they missed their turn, yet everyone else suffers from their mistake. I went ahead and lumped in stupidity under this heading so I'm sure you can add to that all day.

Anger, these are the road rager's, the ones that don't seem to understand reasonability or patience. They take their personal problems to the road and we all have to suffer it. These are the speeders, the weavers and the reckless one's that don't seem to care about any destruction that may be left in their wake.

There are all forms of habitually bad drivers and we don't have much choice but to experience it for a short time.

Learn more about this author, Rob Purifoy.
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