Is My Driving Offensive?

Every morning I drive to work and see an example of someone who does not understand common driving protocol. Common driving protocol is not the same as the law or NTSB safety guidance. The law is like a standardized test; it's a general set of rules based on sound principles, meant to apply to the largest possible population. It does not always make sense, depending on the situation. NTSB guidance informs the law, and is based on minimizing worst-case scenarios. It's the source of "defensive" driving.

I employ "dynamic" driving. When I drive, I pay attention to everything happening around me. I check my mirrors, I move over a lane to let faster cars pass, and I try to enter a highway at a speed matching the flow of traffic. Flow is the key to driving, in my opinion. There's the set speed limit, and then there's the prevalent speed. I maintain that it's safer to travel at the prevalent speed. The law doesn't agree and the NTSB can provide statistics showing how the prevalent speed (assuming it's faster than the posted speed) can be a percentage more dangerous in the case of a crash. My common sense response is that it doesn't matter if you're going faster or slower than the posted speed limit as long as everyone is going roughly the same speed. When you have much faster or slower cars, everyone around them has to adjust for them, and that's when chain reactions can happen. Personally, I prefer to be going just a tad faster than everyone so that the action is in front of me. If I'm going slower, cars pass me from behind, and it's harder to keep track. If I'm going slightly faster than most cars, less cars are coming up from behind, so more of my attention is focused on what's in front of me. I'd love to have some kind of way to reward the drivers that operate like I do on the road. I see it on occasion - someone moving over ahead of a merge, slowing down to make room for a truck, moving out of the left lane to let faster traffic through, etc. If there was a system of rewards in place, more people might start driving conscientiously. I'll probably still be going faster than them.

Not Resolved, But Motivated

I'm not big on resolutions, but I have some plans for this year. Some of it is completing what I started in 2011, some is correcting missteps, and some of it is just getting new stuff to make our lives easier.

First - I planned to lose 40 pounds in my 40th year. I lost 30, but then I gained back a few of those around the holidays. I need to eat better food and in smaller quantities this year. I also need to get back into an exercise routine. These are difficult with all of the temptations of modern life in a fairly populated area. On the other hand, I have a very inexpensive gym in the building at work and I am still enrolled at Weightwatchers.com which now has an Android app. No excuses - this needs to become the norm.

Second - we have a lot of clutter in the house. Mostly, it's in the areas that are primarily my domain: the garage and the basement. Since winter is here, the garage has to be the first priority. I need to get rid of anything we are not regularly using or might not use in the coming year. No matter what, I need to make space to get both cars in the garage. When Spring arrives, we need to get a shed. That's a big expense, but it'll not only free up the garage in a big way, but it'll help to sell the house at some point. In the meantime, I'll continue chipping away at the basement to make it a more functional space. That needs to become what I envisioned for it when we moved in.

Third - the mighty Vue can't last forever. Jennie's car is accumulating miles pretty quickly, and we'll need to switch to a newer vehicle for taking all the trips we take. I have my sights set on a particular car and model, so we just need to sort out finances and make it happen. Also, I currently have two bicycles and there's a third that I am coveting. I need to keep the newer of the existing bikes, sell the other bike (or part it out), and start a fund to get the new bike.

Other stuff - I'd like to get Jennie a DSLR camera that she can learn with and maybe supplant some of the trips to the photo studios for pictures of Eli. She has a great eye and this would be money well spent. I'd also like to start over or resume my CCNA training from last year. Finally, I'd like to take Eli camping, on a train trip (maybe Texas?), and on a plane (L.A. trip we've been intending to take) this year. We'll be putting quite a few miles on the bike and bike trailer, too.

Happy new year to you and yours!

~Chris