Drive Like It Matters

Everyone knows the symptoms of bad driving. Not everyone knows how they contribute to the problems on the road. Here's some hints:
1) If someone else has to take special action to avoid you, you've messed up.
2) Driving is a social activity unless you are on the closed courses seen in TV ads for sports cars. That means everyone has a responsibility to each other. Not merging at the speed of traffic messes up everyone behind you, and the traffic already in the lane you are merging in to. Signaling is a way to help others get where they are going in an efficient manner. Signaling is not for your own benefit, so don't bother to do it after you've begun your turn.
3) You do not have permission to ignore common courtesy or safety because you are "busy" while driving. This includes: changing discs, looking at your passenger while talking, yelling at the kids in the back seat, drinking coffee, talking on the phone, curing cancer, etc. Don't get me wrong - feel free to do those activities if you can manage it while keeping everyone else from getting hurt or dying.
4) If you don't know where you are going, it's not alright to stop in the middle of the road. Pull over and figure it out. And you don't have permission to veer across 2 lanes because suddenly you see the exit you want. Go to the next one and keep all of us alive.
5) If you are in the left lane of a divided highway, you better have a plan for getting out of it quick. It's not the lane for those going fast. It's the lane for those going FASTER than the other vehicles. If you are passed on the right side, you messed up.
6) If you are in the right lane of a 3 or 4 lane highway and you are not exiting soon, you are causing problems for the other vehicles merging and exiting.
7) If you hear a lot of vehicle horns, figure out what you did wrong. One horn might be some other idiot. More than 2 per day directed at you means you messed up. Since driving is a social activity, you have to abide by societal norms.
8) If you think you don't make mistakes while driving, you are wrong. Everyone does. The person that thinks he/she does not make mistakes merely makes so many that he/she cannot agree about the mistakes for fear of feeling inadequate. This person then blames everyone else.
9) A test: with each thing you do while driving, ask yourself if you'd be mad if someone else did it. Be honest. There's something about the golden rule in this.

You might not know you are part of the problem, but your friends and family know. They just don't know how to tell you.