yakface speaketh!

Here’s my admittance of guilt: I speed constantly. Everyday; all the time. I roll through stop signs, tailgate, make illegal u-turns, cut across several lanes of traffic, and even occasionally run red lights.

Yep. I freely admit I do all of that on a regular basis. So why do I still think of myself as a "good" driver?

I don’t know. Perhaps everyone thinks of themselves as a good driver (which would help explain why there are actually so many bad drivers on the road)? If you don’t think you’re a bad driver why would you try to change or improve anything? You wouldn’t (and we don’t).

Maybe that’s it. Maybe I’m just deluded. Could be.

But a big reason perhaps I feel that way is because I’ve had my license for nearly fifteen years and I haven’t caused a traffic accident in all that time. That seems like a pretty good achievement.

Full-disclosure: There was one time in a McDonald’s parking lot some old German lady ran a stop sign and T-boned me. I even saw her coming at me and honked my horn. She suddenly saw me and freaked out instead of hitting her brakes she just let the car slam right into mine. There was nothing I could have done to prevent that accident.

Also, when I was around seventeen/eighteen I fell asleep at the wheel on the way back from a road trip to Santa Barbara. My car spun off the road, but I luckily did no damage to it or anything else. I did learn a lesson I’ve never forgotten since: don’t ever drive tired and pull over to sleep if you feel yourself getting sleepy.

I’m obviously not perfect but in all that time, despite my apparently "reckless" driving style, I’ve never hit another car/person/animal/building/small child/etc. Besides the crazy German lady, I haven’t been hit by anyone else either.

Am I just really lucky? Maybe. But also the way I drive may actually help me avoid accidents.

You see, I consider myself an offensive or aggressive driver. I definitely do drive fast and somewhat recklessly, but I think I also pay more attention to the road than your average motorist.

I try not to talk on a cell phone when I’m in the car and when I do, I try to use a headset. If I have a passenger in the car I don’t look over at them when having a conversation.

Because I’m going fast, I’m always checking my mirrors for the police, or in case I need to make an quick lane change. I’m also looking out ahead for ways around/through the traffic and I try to stay aware of gaps in lanes next to me so I can cut around if a slow car is in front of me.

Growing up playing video games has probably helped to give me pretty good hand-eye coordination.

In fact, from my experiences, the people who drive a bit fast/recklessly aren’t the drivers you need to watch out for. Those people have to pay attention to the road in order to drive that way.

Its the people who are driving slowly that are the real danger. These are the people who are on the phone or are distracted by things going on in their vehicle. Perhaps they’re old and their vision and reflexes aren’t what they used to be. They could just be thinking about their work, their spouses, how much they hate their life, whatever.

The point is, a whole lot of people driving slow aren’t paying attention to what’s happening on the road. Driving slowly and/or leaving an inordinate amount of distance between themselves and the car in front of them are merely symptoms of this.

So what’s my point? I’m not sure. I’m just a little frustrated because although how I drive is clearly illegal, I feel my record indicates that I’m also actually a rather safe driver. But that doesn’t matter to the law and $350 for a ticket from red light camera is just too painful to ignore.

You’d think I would have really learned something from the first one I got. . .but like a rat in a maze I guess I haven’t been shocked enough times to learn that I need to turn right instead of left.

The sad thing is, I’m still driving the exact same way.

How do you change something about yourself you don’t want to change? Is that even possible? I’m thinking no.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 6th, 2006 at 2:32 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.