BEFORE YOU GOT your licence, as you read the rules of the road for the 20th time, you swore you’d never slip into any bad driving habits. Well, you did.
Here are nine things that should definitely be eradicated from the roads, before someone injures themselves with an over-enthusiastic tut.
1. Not indicating
Sure it’s just a roundab– no, always indicate.
See also: leaving the indicator on after a slight turn and carrying on down a road with multiple off turns. WHY?
2. Using the hazard lights as a parking permit
“Ah OK, well once you had your hazard lights on,” said no parking warden ever.
3. Tailgating
Or ‘driving up me arse’, in some Irish dialects. These people are insanely irritating and might even flash you to get out of the way on a tiny country road. You’re forced to pull into a ditch so they can drive by, leaving you there with your dirty tyres and unbridled rage.
4. Horn abuse
WHAT? Beeping didn’t solve everything?
5. Signalling with headlights
Lets be honest, it’s not the best system of road communication.
Sure, you do it all the time to thank people or warn them that their lights aren’t on. But then the paranoia strikes.
6. Drinking and eating
If you’re driving, all that reaching and spilling is not ideal. And well a passenger? If they complain again about your ‘sudden stops’ at the amber lights while they sip their coffee you’ll have a conniption.
7. Reading
A typical front seat passenger habit, spreading out their broadsheet newspaper like they’re laying it on a table. Sure chuck the bits you don’t want on the dashboard there or maybe across the gear stick. If it’s a road-trip you’re on, it’ll be a map. Christ, get an app.
8. Driving when you’re not driving
Is there any cure for the back-seat driver? Only those who are unaffected by the ability to operate a category B motor vehicle can refrain from spouting useless solutions to all of the current driver’s problems.
Many a back-seat driver has sustained whiplash from frantic glances to their left and right at a roundabout.
9. Not preparing for the lights
You’ve been sitting there at the red light, refraining from picking up your phone like the responsible driver you are, ready to go at any moment. The minute you’re drawn into a false sense of security and take your foot off the clutch and put on the handbrake, the lights go green. Oh, there’s the collective sigh and tuts of everyone behind you. Great.
