If you become a licensed driver, and you spend a few years on the road, you’ll probably start to detest certain traffic situations. That’s not your fault. It just seems as though some traffic situations will irritate even the most even-tempered of drivers.
Some traffic situations cause more than their share of accidents, and that’s usually a major contributing factor to how you will feel about them. Others might take up your time and make you late for work.
In this article, we’ll talk about some of the traffic situations that often irritate drivers the most. We’ll also discuss what you should do to stay safe in those situations.
If you live in a smaller city, you might not have to deal with rush hour when you’re on your way to or from work. However, if you live in a larger city, like New York or LA, it’s probably a part of your typical day. You may run into it when you’re on your way to work in the morning or trying to get back home in the early evenings.
Rush hour means there’s a lot of cars on the road, and everyone’s often exceeding the speed limit to try to get where they’re going before everyone else. It’s this kind of situation that can test your patience as a driver. If you’re also not a very confident driver yet, you might feel hesitant to cut aggressively through lanes of traffic every time you see an opening, like some motorists will.
If you’re in the middle of rush hour, whether you’re on your way to work or heading home in the evening, drive defensively. That’s the most crucial thing you can do to keep from causing a collision. It’s when you start aggressively changing lanes without signaling when a spot opens up that you might hit another vehicle.
Also, make sure to have some sunglasses with you in the car. If you’re driving right at sunup, and you’re facing the sun, those glasses will protect you from the glare. You can also wear them in the evening if you’re in rush hour while heading home and you’re facing the setting sun.
Traffic jams might happen on the highway at any time, and they can irritate drivers as well. They might happen because there’s a crash up ahead or for some other reason.
If you’re in a traffic jam, make sure to use your turn signal if you’re going to change lanes. Try to control your temper. If you’re stuck in traffic and crawling along, it’s easy to imagine a road rage incident happening, especially if you’re in a big hurry.
You can also consider getting off at the nearest exit if there’s one near you and you know how to take local roads to get to your destination. If you have your smartphone with you, you can also use Google Maps to get directions. If you don’t have your smartphone, then you can always use your car’s navigation system, assuming you have a newer-model vehicle that comes with one.
You might also run into some road work that’s happening on the highway. You might have multiple lanes of traffic closed down while a crew repairs a lane or repaints the asphalt.
If you run into roadwork, you should try to demonstrate patience, just like you would with any other traffic jam. You can also try to get off the highway at the next exit and take local roads to your destination.
Remember that even though road work might frustrate you as a driver, the crew will eventually repair the highway and get it into better condition, and that should benefit everyone.
When you’re driving through a neighborhood in the morning or afternoon, you might encounter several school buses dropping kids off. Whether that’s on a main road or a quiet side street, if you see a school bus extend its stop sign and flash its lights, you have to stop until it picks some kids up or lets them off.
That might slow you down a bit, but you must wait till the children reach safety. You might also avoid going out at this time in the morning or afternoons if you don’t want this sort of thing to happen. If you have to go out, you can always try to find an alternate route as well.
