A man is driving on the highway when his wife calls him on his cellphone. “Honey, be careful. I heard on the news that there is a car on the road driving the wrong way.” To this the man replies, “One? There’s millions of ‘em!”

I’ve never seen that happen, but I have seen lots of other bad drivers on B.C.’s roads. I’ve seen drivers text message while they steer with their knees. I’ve seen drivers zipping along with pets on their laps. I once saw a woman driving through PoCo while doing a crossword.

I hate drivers who race to stop signs, leaving me guessing whether they’ll slow down, much less stop.

And I save my choicest words for the ones who tailgate — as though I can do anything about the gridlock ahead. Those ones almost always add spice to the thrill of reckless driving by taking a hand off the wheel to flip me the finger. The worst thing about these drivers is that, like the man in the joke, they think every other driver is the bad one. I discovered this when I filled out the BCAA “Worst Driver Survey” (www.bcaa.com). Turns out, I’m not guilty of all the sins I’ve listed above, but I was surprised to find how much I resemble the drivers I’m so quick to criticize.

All of us should take more care with our own lives and those of the people who put their lives in our hands when they hop into our passenger seats. The number of people killed by cars is shocking. If the same number died every year on planes or ferries or ski lifts, we would ban them. If that’s not enough to keep you behaved behind the wheel, keep this in mind: Your children are watching.

I’ve learned through hard experience that rude gestures directed at other drivers are likely to be repeated by a six-year-old. We were navigating our little car through traffic filled with fellow B.C. Lions fans when a truck full of young guys cut in. For days my son regaled his teachers with stories of how he discovered there was a way to say bad words with your hands.

The fact is that children don’t learn how to drive at driving school. They learn from their parents. They keep absorbing all the lessons we inadvertently teach them every time they’re in the car. Want your teenager to run every yellow light, tailgate or speed as fast as traffic will allow? Then keep doing it yourself. Then think of your parents. As my mother got older, she became a more deliberate driver. She observed the speed limit and stopped at every sign. She was a target for honkers and tailgaters. My mother was 75 and she drove slowly because she felt vulnerable.

I’m determined to turn myself into a better driver. From now on, I’m going to remind myself every day that the slow driver ahead of me could be someone else’s mom. I’ll also remember that there’s a future driver in the car seat behind me who is watching my every move.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 30th, 2007 at 1:01 am and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.