- “Idiot!”
- “That guy has no driving sense!”
- “Who gave them the driving license?”
- “He is driving like an idiot!”
These are the most common exasperations we use while driving. I agree that there are even worse cuss words we use, but let’s not even get there!
Okay, I agree that I am the best driver out on the road!
But let us take a deep breath and a step back and examine what we can consider doing to improve myself and ensure that even if there are idiots on the road, my driving aces a tricky situation and everyone is safe.
Driving at a safe speed, maintaining proper lane, following the law, keeping safe distance, keeping our nerve are a few cliches that all of us would have heard.
Majority of us know the basic safety measures that we need to follow on road. Or do we?
When there is a mess up on the road, I may be equally affected whether I was driving accurately or not. In every situation, we either already know or we need to reflect what could have I done to avoid the situation. Or how I could have been more prudent in avoiding the situation.
If we have the right of way and the other car cuts into our lane, we blame the other driver and rightly so. But in this we have to accept that this sort of driving is a commonplace thing and we have to be prudent enough to ensure that our vehicles – whether 2 wheeler or 4-wheeler – are safe.
Many people ask me to teach them how to drive properly or how to drive fast.
Driving fast is not necessarily unsafe, but there is a proper method to achieving it, that includes knowing your car and its limitations, understanding rules, understanding our own limitations in reflexes, our own mental agency. Driving is a learned skill – driving fast is sharpening that skill mindfully over years.
Listen to the feedback given by others. They can be right or wrong but taking the feedback first is important.