When should you stop driving?  

 As we get older we can see our friend's driving deteriorating, but how do we check our own driving?   

AARP has some things to check for.

  Feeling nervous or fearful while driving

  Dents and scrapes on the car or on fences, mailboxes or garage doors

  Difficulty staying in the lane of travel

  Getting lost often

  Trouble paying attention to signals and road signs

  Slower response to unexpected situations

  Medical conditions or medications that affect driving

  Easily distracted while driving

  Frequent traffic tickets or warnings by police in the last year or two

 Check it Out

When riding in someone else’s car, check the seat belt to see how to remove it before you start out.  So many have different methods of unlatching and it’s good to be prepared in case you need to do it quickly.

Check door latches as well.  I once rode in a friend's Datsun 280Z.  When we got where we were going I couldn't find the door handle.  My friend watched me for a moment, then pointed at ankle level.  I never would have found it.  A newer SUV I drove has the door "handle" concealed as part of the door decor.  In an emergency every second counts.

In rental cars, check for the hood release and check out the filler access for the gas tank.  Some are quite tricky.

After once being stuck on the Santa Monica Freeway, heading west into the sun, with a filthy windshield, I would also suggest making sure your rental car has washer fluid.  Fortunately I had a bottle of water with me.  I pulled over and gave the window a wipe down with a Kleenex.

 Holiday Parking

The holiday shopping season is fast approaching, and parking lots drive me crazy for lots of different reasons.

First you have to deal with children and distracted adults running every which way.  You have to keep your speed down and your eyes open.  No one needs a law suit just before Christmas. 

Remember to keep those bags of goodies you've purchased out of sight.  If you have a trunk which opens from inside the car it's a good idea to key lock it so the latch release won't work and keep packages, cd's, tapes, etc. in the trunk.  Out of sight, out of mind.

A friend of mine was mugged in a parking lot.  She was targeted be cause she had both hands full of packages.  The mugger followed her to her car and waited until she got her key out.  He then knocked her down, stole her purse and her car and left her lying on the asphalt.  No, she wasn't a frail old lady, she was a healthy young woman who stands about 5'll".

Plan on parking far away from the stores.  Somehow those spots right up front fill up first thing in the morning and the people who park there shop all day long.  Expect to walk and you won't be disappointed.  If you happen to luck out and get a space near an entrance, thank the parking lot angels. 

I spend lots of time driving, and many years ago started noticing the crazy things people do on the road.  I started giving these drivers names.

Turn Lane Traveler 
This driver moves into the turn lane but doesn't stop and wait for an opening, he continues driving hoping someone will stop for him.  It drives everyone in the legitimate lanes crazy, because they know sooner or later he will dart into traffic.

The Mouse 
I know you’ve been behind this driver.  You’re traveling along a curvy mountain road and you come up behind a driver who is obviously timid about the twists and turns in the road.  No problem, you just wait for the next straight-away or passing lane.  Unfortunately when you finally come to a place where you should be able to pass, our timid little mouse of a driver suddenly regains her courage and steps on the gas.  If you are the mouse in this story, please allow the cars who have built up the line behind you to pass before you hit the accelerator.

Left Lane

Did you know many states including the State of Washington have a law stating drivers should use the right lane except when passing?  I didn’t either – until I entered back into the states from Canada.  There it was on I-5, posted on a big sign for all the Canadians to see.  I wish they would post it where the Washingtonians could see it as well.  Most of the drivers here seem to think the left lane is for Sunday drives.

Passing Lanes

On my way to Yakima I discovered a phenomenon I haven’t seen since they widened the Pacific Coast Highway, it was a three lane highway.  These are nice for passing, but dangerous too.  Make sure if you are using the center lane on one of these to keep your lights and your turn signal on while you’re in it.  Do everything possible to ensure other drivers can see you.

Nobody Passes Me

You’re coming over the pass on I-92 from Yakima to Seattle.  In the left lane an elderly gentleman is traveling a bit slower than you want to go.  He makes no move to move over, so you move to the right and start to go around him.  Just as you’re eye to eye with him he steps on the gas and hurtles away.  Fine, now he’s doing the speed limit, so you follow along and notice after a few minutes that he’s beginning to slow again.  So, you do the right lane thing again and once again he punches the accelerator and takes off. 

This happened to a friend of mine several years ago.  She was never sure whether the man didn’t like the fact that it was a woman passing him, or that it was a black woman passing him, or that it was anyone passing him.  (She was pretty sure it was the woman thing.)

Fog

A few years ago,returning from a lovely holiday dinner at my daughter’s, I was caught in a thick fog while coming over the pass.  Now mountain roads are bad enough when you can see them, but in fog they become scary indeed.  I was a bit surprised then when a gray car loomed out of the mist without a light of any kind showing.

It amazes me that there are still drivers out there who don’t know enough to turn on their lights in fog.  Yes, you may forget to turn them off and have to deal with a dead battery, but it’s far preferable to dealing with dead bodies.

Lights in fog are necessary for visibility, not so you can see, but so you can be seen.  I even took to tapping my brakes every few minutes so the brighter lights would make me more visible.

 

Stocking the Car

I keep a supply of extra windshield washer fluid in my trunk in one of those plastic crates.  (I learned the hard way that if you don’t keep the bottle from rolling around it can lose its lid and end up spilling all over.)  Also in the crate is a roll of paper towels, a roll of toilet paper, a garden-variety kneeling pad, and a small tarp.  I carry a case of bottled water as well.  I just bought a fleece blanket, gloves and a wool cap to carry with me in winter.  A pair of old winter boots would be a good idea too.

The kneeling pad has saved me when changing a tire or installing chains.  The tarp was meant for use in case I had to lay down to fix something, but has found other uses as a ground cover at a wet picnic, and once sadly to wrap a dog who had been hit by a car, so his owner could take him to the vet without getting her car seat messed up.

For long trips, snacks like apple slices, oranges, grapes, carrots, celery, crackers and cheese or peanut butter, I also like to snack on Crunchy Raisin Brand.  Bottles or water are better than sodas, they actually quench your thirst.

 

Blocking

It's against the law to block an intersection, so why do so many drivers do it? It happens all the time, but is more noticeable in rush hour traffic where the practice can cause major tie ups. Please, make sure you'll be able to clear the intersection before you enter it.  Yes, you might miss the light, but it’s worth a short delay to keep traffic mobbing smoothly.

Freeway Merging

Few things frighten me more than to follow a driver at 25 m.p.h. into 60 m.p.h. freeway traffic.

  Please remind your friends and relatives when they are entering the freeway they should be merging into traffic at freeway speed.  Freeway speed being the speed of the cars which are already on the freeway.

  There is a good reason for this - it is much easier to blend into the traffic if you are traveling at the same pace. If you are going too slow, someone will have to slow to let you in, which means the car behind them will slow, and eventually somewhere back behind you traffic will come to a halt - just because you didn't know how to merge into traffic.