Drop those bad, gross and dangerous driving habits
On Driving.ca I have a series called Lorraine Explains — but there are some things I need you to explain to me. These things — these habits — I will never understand. Tell me how these things work:
You find yourself taking the wrong exit on the highway. So, you back down the ramp. There are few things more terrifying than seeing reverse lights on a major roadway.
If you leave a highway, you can get back on! There are even signs! Nearly every exit will have a corresponding get-back-onthe-highway ramp. If you find yourself backing down a highway ramp, please drop your vehicle into drive, continue to the top and hand in your driver’s licence.
It’s a blizzard outside. News reports are begging people to stay off the roads. You decide you need to go the mall, for jeans or new boots or something, I don’t know. But if it’s not for insulin or a heart transplant, if you’re not a works employee or someone who saves lives, why are you out?
If you truly have a choice, make the right one and make it easier for those who have enough to do without hauling your SUV out of a ditch.
Everybody has their pet peeve for things others do behind the wheel: messing with infotainment, putting on makeup, texting. But people who pick their noses are in a class all their own. Do you get that your car is not made with that oneway glass, like in a police interrogation room? This is so gross, there is nothing else that needs to go in this category.
Because most modern cars no longer have an ashtray or a lighter, it only makes sense that you throw your cigarette butts out the window. Wait — no, it doesn’t. If you want to make your vehicle a rolling stink chamber, that’s your right. But tossing lit cigarette butts out the window is disgusting and dangerous. Kids and pets pick things up, and if you ride a motorcycle or bicycle, you already deal with the danger of being hit accidentally by flying rocks and road debris, let alone purposely getting nailed with a lit cigarette. Try driving your car without a windshield: that is being on a bike.
The internet offers up pictures of people who have gone to great lengths to try to protect their car from dents. My favourite are pool noodles strung along the sides. With the advent of sliding doors on vans and the increasing rarity of two-doored cars, it’s easier than ever to not blast open your door and ding your neighbour. How hard can this be? If you’ve parked in such a way that you need a can opener to get out, park somewhere else. If you can’t tell that you’ve hit and damaged another car, hand in your licence. If you don’t give a damn because your own car is a wreck, hand in your human card.
A corollary to the door dingers: You’re parked on the street and you — or your passenger — jump out. Would it kill you to hesitate and check for cyclists? They have enough to worry about, like drivers making right-hand turns without using their mirrors. Why is it so hard for a driver to be aware of what is going on behind or beside them? Admittedly, some seem to have a hard enough time registering what is happening right in front of them.
I had no idea this was a thing, but I’ve seen it three times now in the past few months: People who sport those stick figure families cross out or scrape off an ex-spouse. I hate car decoration of any type, but hey, fill your boots. (And no, your stick figure family isn’t relaying information that will get your child kidnapped — that’s an urban myth.) I don’t care if he was a lying S.O.B. or she done you wrong; advertising your animosity this way, especially if you have children, is petty and ridiculous. It also says far more about you than the scrapee. Apply new stickers — or better yet, don’t.