For many people, driving is such a common activity that it has become second nature. I live in Atlanta, a fairly large city (urban pop. 4.5 million) where a majority of people drive (for various reasons), and here it seems that bad driving has become second nature for many. The interstates expand up to six or eight lanes as they pass through the city. Impatient drivers speed, tailgate, and weave between the lanes constantly. Other drivers contribute to the problem by driving slowly in the passing lane, distracted by the conversations they are having on their cell phones.

Every time I get in the car, I think about the fact that driving is one of the most dangerous activities we undertake on a regular basis. My approach to driving is shaped by that fact. I think others would do well to modify their approaches to driving accordingly.

People seem to become so impatient to get where they are going, or so frustrated with traffic, that they decide to put their lives and the lives of others at risk to save a few seconds or minutes on their travel time. They forget that traffic laws exist to promote safe, orderly driving. The speed limit is not the “suggested speed” that you “should” go; it is the maximum safe speed for that particular section of road. When you get ticketed for speeding, it is not because the police just want to meet a quota for pulling people over; it is because traveling faster than the maximum safe speed is, well, unsafe. The faster you are going, the less time you have to react to what’s happening around you, and the more likely you are to die in the event of a crash. Other driving rules exist for similar reasons.

To my mind, the biggest example is drunk driving. I cannot fathom how people can repeatedly drive under the influence and see no problem with it, or even brag about it. What’s worse, their biggest concern always seems to be not getting pulled over. They think that the worst possible outcome of driving drunk is being caught, arrested, and having a DUI on their records. What they evidently fail to consider is the reason why drunk driving is against the law in the first place. It’s because it’s unbelievably dangerous! The worst possible outcome of driving drunk is NOT getting arrested; it’s dying, or even dying in the process of inadvertently killing one or more other people. It is always worth the price of a cab to avoid putting your life and others’ lives at risk. (If you can’t afford the price of a cab to ensure your own safety after a night of drinking, perhaps you don’t need to be going out and buying drinks in the first place.)

The next frighteningly common dangerous driving habit is using cell phones while driving. This includes talking on the phone, texting, hands-free talking, and using apps (including maps). The common problem with all of these activities is the fact that they distract you from the road. The act of holding a phone up to your head is not what makes talking on the phone and driving dangerous. It’s the fact that part of your brain is focused on listening to and interpreting what the person you’re talking to is saying, and another part of your brain is trying to decide what you’re going to say next. Your brain has limited resources, so this listening and thinking detracts from your ability to watch the road and react when you get cut off, or the car in front of you brakes suddenly.

If you don’t believe me, watch a TV sitcom you’ve never seen before while talking on the phone, and then try to describe in detail what happened in the TV show. The point is, cell phones distract you from your primary goal when driving: carefully watching what is happening around you and responding appropriately. No text message is important enough to take your eyes off the road for as long as it takes to type it. You may think that you’re a great multitasker, and that these claims don’t apply to you. Wake up. You’re wrong. And even if you’re right, is it worth taking the chance that you’re not? I say no.

I don’t mean for this post to sound preachy, although it almost certainly does. I just think that sometimes people overlook the cold hard facts of driving (among other things) because they are unpleasant and difficult. Or maybe they never even think about it in the first place, and they don’t realize how dangerous driving is until they’re in a serious accident or someone they know is killed in a car crash. The way I see it, if you can drive more safely and be less likely to hurt or kill anyone while driving … why not?