Driving techniques and courtesy

I think we need to have a media campaign on driving techniques and driving courtesy. There are two things that really drive me crazy while driving to and home from work here around Austin TX.

One is the courteous driver that lets six cars pull out in front of him on Lamar Street and Dessau-Cameron. At first glance it seems like he’s being a really nice guy. But then you see the twenty or thirty cars that are behind him, trying to get to or home from work. He’s made all of them have to sit through a couple more lights and impeded their progress. If a person is going to let a car cut in (from a drive-in restaurant or shopping center), they should limit it to one. That lets the cars behind him keep moving; then when the light turns red again someone else can be courteous and let another car out. Doesn’t that make a lot more sense?

The second thing that drives me crazy is people that pull into a turn lane but stop with at least a car length between them and the car in front of them. This means that other people trying to get into the turn lane can’t and they end up blocking people that are in the regular forward moving lane. I mean come on guys; you are stopped so you can move up next to the car in front of you!

OK, I’ll stop ranting now. I just had to get this off my chest.