Lets face it, unless you regularly get into accidents, odds are you think you are a good drive. In fact you probably think you are a great driver. That you are one of the best drivers on the road and everyone else are the fucking idiots. I hate to burst your bubble, but like me, you’re one of those fucking idiots on the road, because like me, odds are you’re not really that great of a driver.

Everyone starts out at the same place when it comes to driving, we all suck. The first time behind the wheel is a rats nest of nerves and over thinking it all. First time drivers make jerky moves, react too late and all around suck. But somehow all of us transform from sucky drivers into beautiful perfect drivers who know how to merge, can parallel park with ease and always keep our lanes. But that just isn’t the case, in all of us there’s still that crappy ass driver that first got behind the wheel. Drive long enough and you feel like driving is automatic. And on some level it is. But that isn’t an excuse to thumb through your email as you’re stopped in stop and go freeway traffic – yup guilty. That doesn’t mean you can take your attention off the road when you’re driving because you’re engaged in a conversation – that’s me again. And that doesn’t mean you should try to beat yellow lights at intersections without red light cameras. Just today I gunned it through an intersection that I knew didn’t have a red light camera, just nearly beating (or was it missing) the change from yellow to red.

If you don’t believe me how crappy ass a driver you are try this experiment: find a friend to drive with for a full day. In the morning you ride shotgun and watch how they drive, really watch them. Then midday switch and let them watch you.  At the end of the day if you were really honest with each other you’d find that you’re a lot poorer driver than you think you are.  But this whole rant isn’t about you, it’s about me.  I’ve realized that I’m not the best driver in the world, my parallel parking often involves bumping the curb, my u turns are never perfect and I’ve cut off my fair share of people because I wasn’t driving like crap. I know this, and knowing it is the first step…right?

The thing is, I’m actually a really good walker. I’ve been walking for a lot longer than I’ve been driving and aside from some encouraging words from my parents I sort of figure out the whole walking thing on my own.  Sure I stumble and trip now and then, I’ve bumped into people in a crowd, gotten into that dance you get when you meet someone coming from the other direction and both decide to go the same way. But no one has gotten hurt with me walking and the scary fucking truth is in a car my absent mindedness or crappy ass driving could actually kill someone.

So does this mean I’m going to not drive? Well I’ve been trying to drive less (and that decision goes beyond weather or not I’m a good driver), and really I’m not as crappy a driver as I’ve portrayed myself. I’m a fairly OK driver with periods of crappyness. I’ve really tried to become a lot more cognitive about my driving and have worked on changing how I drive so I drive slower and pay more attention. But losing the idea that I’m some sort of great driver is important, it makes me much more aware when I do things that aren’t great and reminds me to do things like put down my sidekick and focus on my driving.

So I’d ask you the same question…. How Good a Driver are YOU…Really? Because I have a feeling you and I are the same fucking idiots we honk at and yell at on the road.