Winter is Here: It's Time for Everyone to Drive Like Idiots Once More

Even behind the wheel of one of these you still need to drive carefully. Photo courtesy of Land Rover.

I've posted on here before about how you shouldn't be a winter driving idiot, because the message just doesn't seem to be getting through to drivers. Winter is upon us again, at least around here, and yet again I've seen a number of people driving exactly the opposite of how they should.

Motorists, Pedestrians, Cyclists, etc.

Image courtesy of Volvo Cars

For some weird reason, the people who taught me to drive a car reinforced one truism over and over: I was handling a large, heavy machine capable of dolling out great destruction and even death. Driving wasn't treated as a right but rather as the privilege that it is. I was also taught to be respectful of others' space on the roads.

Freeway Merging: the Fine Art Utah Drivers Don't Understand

I've lived in the beautiful state of Utah for the better part of the past thirteen years, but I don't think of myself as a Utahan. I grew up in New Mexico and I think I will always identify as being from the Land of Enchantment. That being said, there are some truly wonderful things about Utah, including the Moab Jeep Safari, some killer pastrami burgers and more outdoor activities than you could possibly want to do.

Not to be negative, but there are some drawbacks to living in Utah just like there are drawbacks to living anywhere else. One of the first crazy negative things I noticed when I first moved Utah way back in 2000 was that it seems that people here don't know how to drive on the freeways. There's some bad driving on surface streets here, but where Utah drivers become especially bad is when everyone starts travelling at faster speeds, which is just so very comforting.

A Brush With a Horrible Driver

Integras are fun little cars, but they unfortunately seem to attract bad drivers

Just yesterday I was driving somewhere with my wife and kids, unfortunately at rush hour, when I came upon a horrible driver. By horrible I mean much worse than your average bad driver, which unfortunately seem to come out of the woodwork here come rush hour. I generally try to avoid driving around at that time, but there was nothing I could do to avoid it yesterday.