Be a Courteous Driver

Are you really more important than everybody else? Is your errand or task so important that you can cut people off or honk your horn or flip people off? Is running a red light worth the risk of killing yourself or someone else? Is that two minutes you save worth it?

Sometimes we are good and courteous drivers, but the other guy is not. In this situation we need to keep control and be careful not to escalate the situation. Sure, the guy or gal was a real jerk, but is tailgating them or flipping them off going to do any good? And it just may cause the situation to escalate into something dangerous.

When I was 16 I was driving home from work one evening on a fairly deserted road. This guy cut me off, so I got right up on his bumper and honked at him. He started going really slowly, and every time I would try to pass him he would speed up so I couldn’t get by. Finally we were at a stoplight, and he gets out of the car and starts coming toward me, yelling and screaming at me. Fortunately I kept my head and just accelerated around him, but it shook me up. If he had a gun or if I had frozen in place, it could have been a very bad situation. That taught me to try to keep cool – even if it is not my fault and the other person is acting horribly, it’s not worth the possible consequences to escalate and return the bad behavior in kind.

And sometimes it’s not that people are deliberately trying to irritate us. Some drivers are inattentive. Haven’t you ever been absent-minded while driving, or done something stupid? Then don’t be so quick to get angry with others when they do something dumb.