Just because it has yet to happen doesn’t mean it won’t

Q I’m an older woman who is a self-professed bad driver. My friends who are good drivers agree. I don’t like driving and avoid it whenever possible.

My problem is that I become distracted by my own thoughts and get into a state of flow that has nothing to do with the task at hand, which is driving. It happens more on familiar routes or long stretches of a featureless freeway.

I have never had an accident on the road. Parking lots, yes.

— Kerrin Hogan-Evans,

Santa Cruz

A I bet this is more common than we think.

Q Oh, Great Arbiter of the Road, my question to people who claim they are good drivers: How often do you use your turn signals?

— Maurice Krumrey, Fremont

A Many others pose the same question.

Q Am I a good driver? No, because we all make mistakes. So please have patience with me. Please let me merge onto the freeway as I try to gain speed. If I turn on my blinker, please let me in instead of speeding up. And if I make a mistake and was not perfect with my driving skills please do not honk or flip me off. If we are kind to each other, we would all be good drivers.

— Daniel Chapman,

Santa Clara

A Kindness is indeed welcome. Road rage is unacceptable.

Q I don’t get angry when some other driver does something stupid, like cut me off. There is no point to honking my horn after it occurs. I don’t get riled up when that driver honks back in retaliation, or for whatever reason that I don’t understand.

I don’t always signal turns. If I am in a leftturn lane or exiting a freeway, I usually don’t signal.

— John Selin,

Belmont

A Be a thinker. Use your blinker.

Q When turning right on a red light, I do not always come to a complete stop. I slow to a creep, look left for cars, pedestrians or bicycles, glance right and continue on at a snail’s pace.

— Bob Fish, Danville

A No creeping allowed.

Q The self-proclaimed “good drivers” who qualify themselves as such because they can handle a car really well. They can zip through curves, stop on a dime, and parallel park in their sleep. Therefore, they feel entitled to tailgate, speed, swerve in an out, ignore other drivers, and so on. They are good at handling a car, but they are bad drivers.

— Scott Miller, San Jose

A On Friday: How a crash on the Bay Bridge turned a bad driver into a good one.

Join Gary Richards for an hourlong chat at noon Wednesdays at www. mercurynews.com/livechats. Look for Gary Richards at Facebook.com/ mr.roadshow, or contact him at mrroadshow@ bayareanewsgroup.com or 408-920-5335.