It is so easy today, to get upset with other drivers out on the roads. When I was learning how to drive, I was taught to pay attention to the road and not let ourselves get distracted. But today there are so many distractions that I am surprised that there is not more accidents on the roads.

 

Used to be, that to get distracted from the road you were probably looking at something off the side of the road, or fidgeting with something in your car. Maybe you were talking to other people in the car when you went in the other lane with out even realizing it.

 

Today all of those still apply but, thanks to modern technology, we have more thing’s to distract us from our driving. Today we have our cell phones to talk on. We can not put them down to drive; we have to hold it to our ear just talking about nothing. At the same time not realizing we just cut a car off, or ran some poor slab off the road. Changing lane to lane with out looking to see where the other cars are. I personally like the ones kneeling comfortly, with their arm on the middle console, looking straight ahead with their phones plastered to their ear. They are the worst.

 

Then we have texting, which has taken the world by storm. We love to text while driving because we are such great drivers and just have to send that text, because the person I am texting to need’s to read what I have to say. Otherwise the world just may come to end if I don’t send that text now. What was that bump in the road? Who cares? Let me send one more text.

 

How about the portable DVD players? I have seen people with them on their dash and on their seat watching them as they drive. Do not have the time to watch that DVD last night, that’s all right I will watch it on my way to work. Was that a dog that just ran out in front of me?

 

I have seen people shaving while driving, with their electric shavers, looking in the mirror to see how they did. I used to get stuck behind a lady every morning putting her make-up on. After a couple of days of this, I started to honk and ride her ass; she paid me no attention and kept doing her make up. I hoped she would hit a bump and her make up would go up her nose.

 

 One day I pulled into a convenient store to get some coffee and the make up lady pulled in beside me. When I came back out to my car she was sitting in her car putting lip stick on her lips. As I was getting in my car I yelled to her that it did no help her looks at all. The look on her face was priceless.

 

I have seen people reading books while driving. I have seen one lady opening her mail while driving. She had one of those knives that cuts open the envelope, and then she would read it. I was beside her for about a mile on the highway just watching her read her mail.

 

I had a lady that hit me from behind while driving down the street. She said that she did not see me stop. I told her that I had not stopped or even hit my brakes till she hit me. She told me that she was talking to her cat when she hit me. I looked in her car and saw an animal carrier in the back seat.  I did not see the cat but assumed it was in the carrier. Later, when I told the cop about her talking to her cat, he said she told him that she was talking to the cat on her cell phone.

 

These are all the same people that oppose any kinds of new laws that forbid talking on their phones while driving. New driving on cell phone laws are being proposed in different cities everyday. I do not believe that we need new laws ,just better driving etiquette among drivers.

I can understand how some people get road rage and get into fights with other drivers. We all here about it and have had a moment of almost crossing that line. We all need to remember that the right to drive is a privilege. With that privilege is the responsibility to be the best driver that we can be, by keeping our attention to the driving. All the other distractions that we give ourselves need to be dealt with after we get out of the car.