Disruptive Passengers Cause Distracted Driving

Our roads are full of Disruptive Passengers! The following list of things passengers who no longer drive and never-licensed passengers will do in a car is probably a drop in the bucket:

1. Grab the steering wheel
2. Reach over and blow the horn
3. Touch or grab the driver for conversational emphasis
4. Give hand signals to the driver
5. Expect driver to take vague directions, one intersection at a time
6. Sit forward from the back seat, grab driver’s shoulder and shout in his ear
7. A second passenger in center front seat allows a foot to fall on top of the gas pedal or relaxes the left leg against the steering wheel
8. A group shrieks in boisterous laughter, everyone talks at once and everyone wants to be heard—at the top of their lungs

How is a safe, designated driver supposed to deal with these situations?

Let’s begin with the driver’s own ability to assert himself. Will he be able to take disciplinary action? Can he deposit his own mother back on her doorstep without having taken her shopping because she won’t behave herself?

What if he drives a party wagon? Can he, without guilt, refuse to leave the rendezvous until all passengers have promised to behave themselves? Can he turn around and deliver a carload of disruptive passengers back where he found them, refusing to continue to their original destination until they settle down? Can he pull over to the side of the road and demand order? Can he do all of these things without becoming flustered?

All passengers who must depend upon others to drive them should be licensed to ride. They need to learn the safety rules of the road and how not to distract their designated driver from his important position at the wheel.

Items 1 through 7 are for a single passenger or two.

Your passenger sees a turn he thinks you didn’t see and tries to help you by grabbing the steering wheel for a missed turn. He gives you these vague, unintelligible hand signals and says, excitedly, “Turn here! Turn here!” and shakes the hand up and down. Or he will wait until you approach a four lane intersection while driving in the right lane, then shout, “Turn left!” He should know you can’t turn left out of a right lane. He should pass a passenger’s test.

You ask your passenger for the address of his destination. “Oh, I know how to go,” he will say, “just get in the car and I’ll show you. Go up…”

So you say, “Which way is up?”

A designated driver must demand the physical address of his passenger’s destination, then find it on a map. If he insists on telling you how to go, abort the trip. That sounds mean, but wouldn’t you rather be mean than dead?

Some passengers may have to ride in the back seat. That’s not far away from the driver. The driver will hear. If he can’t hear his passenger in that tiny, closed in area, he may be deaf and unqualified to drive. It isn’t necessary to sit forward to carry on a conversation with the driver. It isn’t really necessary to converse at all with the driver. A passenger, whether in the front seat or the back seat should neither touch nor carry on a conversation with the driver. Both actions are dangerous.

Item 8 involves a number of disruptive passengers.

A party group of senior citizens riding in a van, shrieking with laughter, screaming jokes that might not have been heard by the party, can pose a very dangerous distraction to a driver. It is not necessary to scream and shout when travelling with a group. Remember, you are riding inside a small area with the windows up. Lively conversation at a normal volume will be heard well enough. If the group didn’t hear your hilarious remark the first time, don’t keep screaming it! It can’t be that important. Safety is more important.

Giggling quietly allows your safe driver to hear the traffic. Also, giggling quietly shows just as much of your sense of humor as the typical hee-hawing of partying seniors.

Map Reading

Know where you’re going. Read a map on the kitchen table. Using a bold marker, write directions briefly on a white sheet of paper so they can be read easily en route. Then read and memorize these directions before you leave the house. This is a necessity for both driver and passenger.

If you can’t read a map, you must learn! Confused motorists and their equally confused, dictating passengers are a menace in traffic.

Step 1.

Look at the map of your city. Read it right-side-up. With your finger, start tracing from the bottom of the map to the top. Your finger is tracing to the north. Now, go outside early in the morning when the sun is just coming up. The sun is rising in the east. Now, turn your body so that the sun is shining on your right shoulder. You are now facing north. Turn around with the rising sun over your left shoulder. You are now facing south. Now turn away from the rising sun so that it warms your back. You’re facing west. That’s where the sun will go down at the end of the day. Do this exercise until you have memorized it. Your knowledge of north, south, east and west will help unlock the mysteries of map reading.

If you head south on the road, your finger traces downward on the map. A right-side-up map always has north on top, south on the bottom.

Look at the alphabetical list of addresses on the map and find your own address. Using the letter codes and number codes on your listing, match the letter codes across with the number codes down the side of the map, and try to pinpoint your own location on the map.

Now, read the address of your destination, look it up on the list, read the codes, then pinpoint it on the map. With your finger, trace a route between your starting point and your destination. Then write your directions boldly and briefly. They must be easy to refer to while you’re driving.

By brief, I mean you should write something like, “L @ lght, R @ Elm St, 5 mi to + Fox Blvd—rather than “Turn left at the traffic light, then turn right at Elm Street, continue for five miles until you come to the intersection of Fox Boulevard…” You cannot safely read lengthy directions in traffic!

Never stop in traffic to ask directions. Some clod might tell you to go three traffic lights and turn up. Cars can’t fly so you can’t turn up. Counting red lights can be unreliable and dangerous. Route your trip before you leave the house.

If you find it necessary to ask directions, pull into a parking lot, park, then read the street signs and check your written directions. This is the time to ask someone for help—in a parking lot, parked and out of traffic. A good reason not to question a pedestrian is that he probably couldn’t help you anyway. That’s probably why he’s walking. Ask a store clerk or another driver who is in another parked vehicle.

Thank you for reading my suggestions for Safe Passengering and the importance of learning to read a map. It is my hope that Passenger Training will become a requirement. I also hope that traffic police will be trained to take note of passengers who are causing a problem in traffic or who have been a direct cause of an accident.