A Friendly Driving Tip

-
The Morning Commute

I guess I should always throw in a disclaimer that I am no expert in highway safety. This is partially a rant about local drivers, that I've experienced in other places, but this is also partially a friendly driving tip.

Driving in snow is not that bad. If it's a dusting to an inch of snow, most tires are equipped to get you from point A to point B. The traction that we all know and love is for the most part gone mostly when it comes to stopping once a good amount of speed is built. Think about driving a boat. Unless you drop anchor, the boat's pilot gives plenty time and space to allow for the momentum of their craft to slow down with the help of good old American physics.

It's a cliche nowadays locally that people do not have a problem driving in adverse weather, it's the fear of other drivers. My feed is jam packed with traffic news when there's a slight sprinkle, much less a snow event. My friendly advice is this:

Consider the cars behind you.

We are responsible for driving with no distractions in bad weather. It is so very important to pay attention to what is happening in front of us. We need to always identify and predict things that are going on ahead of us. We know this, right?

What we leave out in all of this is a mindful eye to the people who are driving behind us. There are a lot of large vehicles on the roads today and I'm not referring to semis or military vehicles. I'm referring to SUV's and mini vans. People behind these drivers do partially rely on the people in front of them to help communicate what's going on outside of their visual range.

Waiting for the last second to brake for slowing traffic is a bad idea. In bad weather, it's a sure insurance claim.

Common sense can apply here. It does not take extra effort to mind those people behind us on the highways.  A tap of the brake light when traffic is slowing, giving a little visual room for the car behind us to see what's going on ahead, and not tailgating the car in front of us will all help those cars behind us.

Why people turn on the stupid in bad weather is beyond me. It just takes a little focus and 10 minutes out of our lives to save us all from a load of inconvenience.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

For My Friend

-
Image
I moved to Richmond in September, full of aprehension. Many of you by keeping up with my story know full well the ups and downs that I have faced. I was very fortunate to land a great job in October. After a lot of rejection, and fear for losing everything I started my new job with that same fear I had when I moved to this city. I was crammed in an office with Kelly Stern. He is such a kind, patient, gentle soul. He showed me around and I got comfortable working there really fast. I smile when I remember one of my coworkers talking about us giggling in there all day. I had fun those days. It did not take me long to find out that Kelly was gay. He mentioned living with Jeff, and I put two and two together fast. Kelly listened to my troubles, and gave me sound, firm advice. He has been so helpful to me also by taking me home from work almost every day and taking me by the grocery store to get supplies. I would not still be here if it was not for his help. I cannot think of a way to
Read more

The Drowning Death Spiral of Modern Political Debates

-
Image
There's nothing like a tragic loss of life for people to tout their political beliefs. And it's so much easier in this social media age. As I've noted many times before though, there's a lot less discourse now and a lot more shouting and yelling. The weekend tragedy in Orlando is a sad and depressing example of this showboating. In the midst of evil and intolerance, sides have geared up to discuss the merits of gun control again. Yet I don't really hear a coherent debate. What I hear are two sides screaming about two narratives that don't mesh together at all. Picture two children arguing. One wants a video game and the other one wants to eat. The focus is in two different arenas, food and fun. On one side of the gun debate are people who are strong advocates of constitutional jurisprudence. Passing increased measures to limit a law abiding citizen access to weapons, they believe, will not solve the problem of evil that exists when a bad person obtains o
Read more

My Wiiview

-
Image
You all may be familiar with my Wii saga. Janine told me on my birthday in March that we were going to purchase the console which made me very happy. I figured both of us would be able to enjoy the Wii so it was a better value. Being at least two hundred dollars cheaper than the other new consoles help make that an easy decision too. Little did we know that we were in the midst of trying to find one the most sought after pieces of hardware since Tickle Me Elmo. I remember going to at least 5 stores in March only to find laughter when asked if they had any of these Wiis in stock. The manager of one store even told me that if I get in early enough, there may be two consoles, but I better bring a bat because the soccer moms trying to find them as well may have rabies. So Janine and I pretty much gave up on finding the new Nintendo console until last week when I was shopping for her iPod Nano. Sitting there in the back of the store were three Wiis. So now I have my toy hooked up and after
Read more