While driving to work one morning, I initially worried about a strange noise I heard. The sound intensified as I moved up in the fast lane passing people next to me, crescendoing to climax as I passed a very ugly car of unknown make and out-of-state plates. Although this man seemed at the time happy to sit in his place, a few minutes later, I heard the whine of his muffler and turned to see him careen forward in the far right lane, passing cars by the score and violating the speed limit by no small degree.
An equally short time later, I caught up with him at the junction of US-95 and I-15, as the traffic in that merge lane forced him to slow. I drove by and thought what an idiot he must have been. As I neared work, passing through a school zone, a large SUV came up behind me suddenly and then threaded between myself and the car at 7:30PM as soon as the opportunity provided for it, whizzing out of sight. I pulled up next to him at the next light and laughed as green showed for me while the left turn lane remained red for him.
My brother drives a newer model Saturn SL1 than I and once complained about lower fuel economy than I. On my last fillup, I clocked 39.1mpg for my 1.9L engine to his 34ish (we live in the same place). When last I rode with him, I knew what accounts for this discrepancy. My brother itches to move from a stop, quickly plateus in speed, then squeaks to a stop at the next light, whereas I drive more steadily on average. His excessive power requirements for short and unproductive bursts of speed account for lower fuel economy.
The "hurry up and wait" mentality is not the only driving malady I've seen. I remember driving from early morning religious seminary to high school when the carpool driver turned around to talk to us and hit a series of garbage cans aligned on the curb. Fortunately Florida doesn't use brick mailboxes like Nevada does. A later instance that same year, one of the other drivers sideswiped a pole in the high school parkinglot because she wasn't paying attention. Last year, I watched a woman put on mascara while driving 55 on NV-SR-445, and I cannot recall the hordes I've seen talking on cell-phones most of which I discover as I pass them (they are usually not maintaining their lane or speed). Driving is not an activity during which any human can multitask.
We used to joke about taking this course in college as a filler and a way to break up the stress occasioned by our courses of study. Sometimes I wonder if, in lieu of taking the driving test, they didn't opt for this course as part of a community college/high school joint program to help them develop advanced techniques from the get-go without establishing the basic theoretical basis on which to build good habits.
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