Chances are, you’ve likely thought to yourself about how bad other drivers are at some point in your life. Perhaps, this is something that you think about daily.
Your thought is certainly valid because many drivers just aren’t doing it right. Whether they’re being foolish, ignorant, or careless, it makes the road unsafe for everyone else when they do something wrong.
However, it’s fairly simple to make a driving mistake because there are so many different aspects of driving. According to Epermittest, “the DMV knowledge test covers a great variety of topics”.
This means that every driver has a lot to learn, including you! To help you ensure that you aren’t a bad driver, let’s take a look at a few things many other drivers just can’t seem to get right!
Paying Attention to the Road
Arguably the biggest thing that drivers struggle with is paying attention to the road.
A good and safe driver will be paying attention to the road at all times. This is critical for anticipating and avoiding an accident because you can see what’s ahead of you.
While this may seem like a given, many drivers take it for granted and believe that they don’t need to always be watching the road. After all, they may never have gotten a ticket or caused an accident before, so where’s the harm?
Unfortunately, the problem with distracted driving is that many drivers don’t have consequences for their actions. It’s the time they’re unlucky and do cause an accident that it’s too late to start focusing!
There’s never a good reason to take your eyes off the road. Regardless of what’s happening in the backseat or on your phone, it can always wait!
Distracted driving is now a leading cause of accidents and there’s no reason for you to contribute to this statistic!
Tolerance and Patience for Other Drivers
Another concept that many drivers fail on is having tolerance and patience for other drivers.
This isn’t necessarily a written rule, but being intolerant and impatient simply makes the road more dangerous. Heightened emotions lead to clouded judgment, which results in poor driving decisions.
On the other hand, tolerance and patience will make the road safer for everyone. To understand this, imagine needing to change lanes to get off the freeway.
When everyone is in a hurry to get to work or wherever they need to be, they’re only thinking about themselves and what they need. This means that you probably aren’t concerned about what other drivers need.
When every driver is selfish, it creates a disruptive environment. This will make it difficult for you to change lanes because nobody wants to let you in.
When you aren’t let over to get in the exit lane, you’ll feel rushed and stressed. You don’t want to miss your exit, so you might make a risky maneuver by forcing yourself over.
If you cut someone off by doing this, they’ll likely get upset and potentially retaliate. Alternatively, tolerance and patience would mean that you’d have no problem making your exit!
Every driver should take a step back and realize they aren’t the only person on the road! Working together makes life easier for everyone.
Maintaining Consistent Speed
Many drivers also fail to maintain a constant speed. You probably know exactly what this looks like.
Picture the driver on the freeway going 50 MPH in the fast lane. You may get stuck behind them, so you opt to change lanes to pass them.
As you begin to pass them, they’ll also begin to accelerate so that you can’t pass. You’ll continue to step on the gas to the point of going 70 MPH and they’ll still be right next to you!
Not only is this frustrating, but you’ll wonder why they couldn’t have gone this speed the entire time. This speaks to the point that drivers sometimes fail to go at a steady speed.
Some drivers judge their speed based on how other cars around them are driving. This means that they’ll slow down or speed up to match the speed of traffic.
However, this is the wrong way of maintaining speed. Drivers should be at the speed limit and stay there for the whole time that it’s safe!
Don’t be that driver that can’t seem to maintain the speed limit!
Parking Properly
Many drivers also seem to fail miserably at parking.
You’re likely very familiar with this. How many times have you thought you found a good parking spot only to discover that a nearby car is sticking two feet into the spot?
In theory, parking shouldn’t be difficult. There are marked lines as to where a car should fit. However, some drivers opt to ignore these lines and park as they see fit.
Whether they are in a rush, don’t notice, or don’t care, their carelessness is an inconvenience to anyone else trying to park. This is frustrating because parking is simple and there’s not much to it.
Then there’s parallel parking, which is a whole issue in itself. Pulling into a parking spot gives enough drivers trouble, but parallel parking is more challenging.
Some drivers never understand this skill and spend much longer than they should trying to fit into a spot. This can cause traffic to back up and it’s also hard to watch.
Parking is a practicable skill and there’s no excuse for being bad at it!
Adjusting to Hazardous Weather
A final struggle for many drivers is adjusting to hazardous weather.
This means any time that it’s raining, foggy, snowing, hailing, icy, or anything else that makes driving a little harder.
The correct response to this is to slow down, but some drivers just don’t seem to get this. There are two ways this tends to unfold.
In one situation, you’ll have drivers that go significantly under the speed limit. Then there are the drivers that don’t change their speed at all.
Both approaches are wrong and dangerous for different reasons. You should always slow down to what the conditions allow, but that doesn’t mean driving at a snail pace!
Practice driving in inclement weather to understand what a safe speed is. It won’t always be the same, so knowing how to determine what works is a critical skill to learn.
Closing Thoughts
As you likely know, there are a lot of less than stellar drivers on the road. Some driving concepts seem to baffle drivers and this can happen to you as well.
Some common issues include paying attention to the road, having tolerance and patience for other drivers, maintaining a constant speed, parking properly, and adjusting to poor weather.
While not being strong at a driving skill is understandable, there’s no reason not to improve! Commit to being a great driver and practice what you aren’t strong at!
There’s so much room for error on the road, and mistakes happen every day. It’s important to take action immediately if you do find yourself in an accident. If you’re injured in an accident in South Carolina, be sure to reach out to the team at Joye Law Firm for help.
