Driver’s Ed

A crash course for drivers.

My dream job

If I could do any job I want, I’d get in a police car and spend the days pulling people over who are driving slowly in the left lane of the highway. Growing up, we were all taught to drive in the right-hand lanes unless we were passing. The left lane was for faster cars to pass slower cars. One of my kids just finished driver’s ed, and I asked her to let me know if they still teach this. Turns out they do. But no one does it. If you drive for any length of time in the…

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Move over for pedestrians

Coming from the Midwest, running in the Pacific Northwest has always been a frustrating experience. Running in Seattle, I’m always amazed at how lockstep the entire population is in not budging an inch in their cars when passing me when I’m running. There are no sidewalks where I run, so if I want to stay on the road, I have very little room to work with that isn’t into the driving lane. Yet I’m constantly amazed at how every driver who passes refuses to give me an inch. They all stay in their lane. I was reminded of this…

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At a stoplight, you only have one job

If you’re at a stoplight, you only have one job: make sure the person behind you gets through. Stay focused, and think of the people behind you. When the light changes, go, and go quickly. When the car in front of you starts moving, go. The goal should be to get you and the person behind you through the light. If that happens, you’ve done your job. To meander through is to think only of yourself and be in the way of the person behind you. Be courteous. All of the time.

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Driving while texting: Bad. With a live animal in your lap? Good.

While everyone’s concerned about people texting or talking on a cell phone while driving, I’ve never once heard anyone mention the safety issues around driving with a live animal on your lap. I’m not disputing the dangers of texting while driving. Things can happen quickly, and if you’re looking at your phone at the wrong second, it can change your life forever. But in Seattle, where people have more dogs than children, seeing drivers with pets in their lap is not an unusual site. (And if I had to guess, I’d say many of these people are the same…

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Spatial relations

Part of being respectful of others is respecting their space. Most people do this, but I sometimes wonder if it’s regional. I’ve lived in many place in the US, and in places like the Midwest, people seem pretty aware of their surroundings. During my last visit to Up North, every time I walked, ran, or biked on the main roads, every car that passed moved over into the other lane to give me some space. It was similar living in other parts of the Midwest. Contrast that to my last time in the Pacific Northwest, where cars militantly drove…

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Who doesn’t want to solve traffic problems?

Complaining about traffic is a national pastime. Especially during construction season (otherwise known as “Summer”) or for if you live in a high-density urban area. There are engineers who study the situation and try and create band-aid solutions which usually just create different versions of the same problem. Here’s a different approach: Driving is not a right, so let’s put people through some rigorous testing before we give them a license. There are a lot of drivers out there who’s inabilities are causing many of the messes. Why not just screen more aggressively and really make sure they’re up…

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Please be patient, student driver

I was riding my bike today, when I passed a car with a “Please be patient, student driver” bumper sticker. A sticker like this is asking people around them to behave differently than they otherwise might. How is this helping the new driver? Anyone driving a car is going to be subject to all of the unknown and mysterious whims, habits, rages, and peculiarities of every other driver on the road. The only way to prepare a driver for that is to throw them in and let them start experiencing the joy of driving first-hand. Obviously, the sticker is…

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Speed recognition training

Anyone who checks out their local Nextdoor.com site knows that it’s a litany of neighborhood “for sale” ads and people noticing “suspicious vehicles” creeping around their houses. But it’s also full of people discussing how much people are speeding through their neighborhoods. In our neighborhood, it won’t be more than a few days before someone reports that everyone is avoiding the main roads to cut through our neighborhood and everyone driving in our neighborhood is flying and driving at least 40 mph. (The speed limit in our town is 25mph on nearly all roads.) This always makes me wonder,…

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