More Than Just Your Hands On The Wheel

During this busy holiday season we can all take multi-tasking to unheard of levels.  Most of the time everything goes well.   If anything falls through the cracks, the hardest part is just bending down and picking it up.  Not so much when you are doing anything else while driving.

When you drive, you should drive.  When you are driving, you should ONLY be driving.  When you are driving, everyone in the car wants you ONLY to drive.  When you are driving your loved ones want you to safely get yourself and them where you are going.  When you are driving the drivers of other cars (who might not be paying enough attention to their own driving to be defensive), pedestrians and bicycle riders want you ONLY to drive.

Stupid things drivers do besides drive:

  •  Faxing documents
  •  Eating
  •  Drinking…..all sorts of beverages
  •  Talk on the phone (I don’t get why holding the phone and using the  speaker function is less of a hazard than putting it up to your ear.  It still using your hand for something other than steering and you have to push buttons)
  • Texting …..just so wrong….what is SOOOOO important?   You are writing.  Would you ever write a note while driving?  Pen/paper?  What is the difference from a distraction point of view.  And how can you intelligently think about your writing when you’re (assumedly) watching other cars, reading road signs, stopping for lights, merging…………….
  • Setting or operating navigational systems.  You do that enough you will never have to worry about getting there.
  • Grooming:  men, you do it too…..shaving, fixing hair, brushing teeth (I saw that one)  women…..makeup, hair, brushing teeth, changing clothes
  • Fixing the child in the car seat in the back.  Pull over.  It’s safer and you will be teaching the child better driving habits
  • Finding a station/song/movie scene on the am dial, the fm dial, the satellite dial, the cd player/the movie player
  • Finding the wipes to mop up after the child spilled the milk/ you spilled your pop/you dripped ketchup from your hamburger……..

 What you could do instead:

  •  Have your hands free to use the blinker and tell other drivers where you are going
  • Be aware when another driver is being kind to you and wave your “thank you”……..yes, I guess waving is a slight distraction, but at least your going with traffic.
  • Just drive, get there safe, be a great example to your passengers, answer all of the multitudes of important phone messages/texts when you can sit down and actually concentrate on your writing and speaking.

Be an adult and be safe out there.  I’ll be waiving at you.

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