These Are The Skills Driver's Ed Should Teach

– On highways or any 4+-lane roads, please keep to the right lane except when overtaking.

– Please use turning signals whenever you turn or change lane. And please, please check all your mirrors before turning or changing lane, spatial awareness when driving is paramount.

– When overtaking, make sure your differential speed to the car you are overtaking is at least 5 mph, regardless of whether that will take you over the speed limit by 2-3 mph (no cop will give you a ticket for that), and if you are being overtaken, don’t accelerate to match the speed of the car overtaking you, that’s dangerous and idiotic. Just wait to be overtaken and then overtake back if need be.

– When turning left or right don’t first drift 3-5 ft to the right or left, respectively, so you can purportedly see better the turn you’re making. You’ll scare the hell of the person following you or in the other lane behind you, assuming you don’t actually hit them.

– Stop messaging on your phone while driving. If it’s urgent, stop at the nearest gas station, parking lot, service area. etc. You can be certain SMS fun is ruined for life when your distraction injures/kills your or someone else’s loved ones.

– If you have to emergency-stop on the highway, do not stay inside the car, leave and either go to the other side of the safety barriers or keep a safe distance from the car away from traffic. Make sure to turn on the hazard lights. There is an amazingly high chance that a distracted driver will hit a stopped car on US highways, and part of it is explained by human instinct:

– If you get in your car after dark, spare 2 seconds to check if your lights are on in the dashboard. The amount of people that drive at night with just the front driving lights on is staggering. Also, if your dashboard has a blue headlight your high beams are on, and you better not have any cars in front of you (for all lanes) if that’s the case, as you will be blinding everyone. Finally, if you drive some nice European car they will have a rear fog light represented by an orange light indicator in the dashboard. If that indicator is on and there is no thick fog, you are being a major asshole to everyone behind you!

– Learning to zipper merge would be nice…

Having been stuck on the side of the road before, as the sun set, I probably should’ve learned the whole “don’t stay in your car” thing. I did in fact stay in my car, flat tire and all.