Did you know that one of the most important things that you do each day is to drive? If you haven’t – yes it is. My instructor used to tell me – you are not driving a vehicle that can take you from point A to point B. You are driving a weapon each day. You can find all sorts of online resources to give you an array of stats about driving.
If I were to speak one word about driving, I would say it is designed to create order in a seemingly disorderly world. The rules around driving now enforced across the world by means of driving tests, seeks to emphasis this very idea – getting humans to think, behave and conduct themselves on the road in an orderly manner. When you drive your own vehicle, in addition to the insane power at your hands that is assisted by your engine; you learn key habits of responsibility, sharing and adhering to the rule of the law all while driving. Either you do it, or will be forced to do it from the demands of the vehicular traffic or by law enforcement that patrols the roads each day, across the world.
The vehicular traffic that one encounters each day while driving can teach you so many things about the society that we live in each day. I remember during the boom days how the traffic in Dubai or for that matter Alberta used to be crowded and during the bust cycle, the traffic congestion was very lean. You should drive on a ‘holiday’ or one of the special days such as Christmas or Easter Monday to know the dangers of intoxicated driving. There are many such patterns that one can infer from driving – the rush hour traffic in the morning or evening or the peaceful non-rush hour traffic dominated by various transportation vehicles.
From the moment that one seeks to drive from his house to his destination, the expectation is to reach there safely. As soon as you leave your home, you leave everything to chance and we battle with the expectations of such a chance. While we rely on chance, it is imperative that we adhere to the expectations of the game- traffic rules. However we cannot expect others to follow the same, only pray that they do. However driving shouldn’t be expected to be a one way street. You cannot only give and expect the same in return – will be the common refrain. However this belief is misplaced. You cannot change the driver next to you or far from you. However you can try to be safe in a practicable or predictable manner and aim for a proactive defensive approach.
Being proactive is one of the greatest virtue of driving
Being proactive is one of the greatest virtue of driving. You should make it an art to read the opposing vehicle or the one next to you. You should learn to keep a minimum but effective stopping distance from the vehicle ahead of you. Being proactive behind the wheel in my opinion can also develop a sense of passive aggressiveness which can come a long way to improving one’s driving.
Photo Credit: RS2Photography Flickr via Compfight ccTo summarize, driving is never a one way street, however one should always expect it as one.
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Tenny Thomas 