Occasionally when you’re driving, you’ll make a mistake and perhaps need to adjust and it can create some awkward situations. Like today, my dad ended up in the wrong lane to go straight instead of turn at a light. He had to cut in line to make sure we could go the right way. It’d be nice if we could communicate “sorry, I screwed up. Excuse me. I just need to slip in there.”
Right now all we have for inter car communication is the horn, which has kind of an aggressive implication to it. This is for trying to de-escalate potential road rage.
“A bad driver never misses their exit”
Sometimes you make a mistake and miss your exit or end up in the wrong lane. That’s on you. Re-route, follow the lane you’re in, take the next safe turn/exit/lane change to get back on track; you don’t just cut in line, forcing others to correct for your own mistakes. That’s a great way to create unsafe conditions, end up in accidents, and hurt people. It’s not just about peoples ego/anger, it’s genuinely dangerous.
Your father doesn’t need a ‘sorry’ button, he needs to correct his poor driving behaviour and not endanger himself, you, or others on the road.
Driving involves a lot of soft decisions. Any action can be risky, even a regular lane change. But we still do lane changes all the time. Ultimately it’s up to us to judge.
Point is, I think there are cases where making a last minute lane change can be totally safe, eg if the cars in the other lane are already stopped.
What causes accidents are not the cars and conditions you see, but the ones you don’t.
Humans aren’t machines, they make mistakes. And cars have a lot more blind spots than we realize.
That’s why we have rules. If we are predictable and follow the rules, even when we don’t see anything that could stop us from taking a shortcut, then we’re being considerably safer.
Keep in mind that, on the road, it’s not just your own safety you need to ensure. An accident can also harm other people, so the more reason to prevent them.
But driving rules are not precise. For example, when doing a lane change, how much space should you have in the lane you are entering? It’s entirely up to us to judge.
So obviously don’t drive on the wrong side of the road whenever you feel like it, but if you for example want to squeeze into a lane of stopped cars (while your lane is also stopped), I don’t see the issue
1000% don’t make others pay for your mistake.
Yeah. My dad is an atrocious driver who has gotten lucky so far.
I’m the great driver I am because my dad is just like that.
He’s a shining example of what not to do.
Came here to drop that same quote. 🫡