Polite Driving

We hope that you've enjoyed past articles on this site such as Claiming Against an Uninsured Driver and First time drivers buying cars for wrong reasons.

In this article we in intend to discuss some road etiquette that we believe would make our roads a much nicer place to drive on.

How often do you see a queue of traffic in the mornings, building up because no one will take 10 seconds to let someone out of a side road? If you have to drive any significant distance we're willing to bet that you could be one of those people stuck in that jam.

So whats the solution? It's simple. When you see someone waiting to get out, let them out. If every driver on the roads let at least 2 people out on their way to work we firmly believe that the congestion in the mornings would be significantly reduced.

If you think about it, letting those people out may add at most, 1minute to your journey time. However, if everyone let 2 people out into the flow of traffic in the mornings, the queues would be shorter and would take less time to disperse.

So what other solutions are there to reducing congestion in the peak hours of travel.

1) Be Ready. How many times have you sat at the traffic lights and the person in front hasn't been paying attention and you miss getting through the lights? If everyone paid attention and had their car in gear ready to go when the light went green this would greatly help to reduce congestion.

2) Pay Attention. When you're sitting in a jam always check the person behind you doesn't need to be anywhere else. If there are multiple lanes, by inching forward by a few feet could mean the person behind can get into the lane they need that isn't jammed.

3) Don't Be Greedy. When two lanes merge into one, merge in turn. Don't treat everything as a race, if people merged in turn all the time, other drivers wouldn't need to slam on their brakes because someone believes they shouldn't have to follow the rules.

4) Know Your Limits. One of the most frustrating causes of congestion are people who don't pay attention to road signs telling them the speed limits. We all know there are roads that don't have many signs but if everyone drove to the speed limits, instead of 30 in a 60, everyone would be much happier.

So when you're driving to work tomorrow, why not let a couple of people out, you'll be helping every other road user out. Tell you friends and colleagues to do this as well, the more people you let out the more inclined they will be to let someone else out further on in their journey.

Date - 15/09/2006