Forgotten Driving Manners

We've all been driving down the highway and waved someone ahead us just to not receive a thank you. We've all let someone out of a parking lot without a courteous hand wave in return. We've all been cut off, or seen someone fly by a funeral procession.

There are a few common courtesies that we all need to remember when driving home from work, school, or from shopping. Actually we all should remember these tips when driving at all.

This one really gets me going big time! Where I am from it is not a law to stop for a funeral procession. However you will always see a line of cars stopped on the side of the road to show respect to a funeral procession coming their way. It is not a law but it shows respect for the family in mourning and is one of those long forgotten driving courtesies. It usually only takes a couple of minutes out of your day to pull to the side of the road and let the procession go by. Do not pull in behind a procession and try to make it through the red lights along with them. Most towns that still stop traffic will have a Police official of some sort in the front ahead of the hearse and at the end of the procession to avoid this. Some towns have done away with the assisted processions altogether, but still showing respect for the dead, and their families is once again just one of those common driving courtesies.

Is it too much to ask of other human beings, that if I or anyone else stops in traffic to let you out of a parking lot during rush hour, or if someone waves you ahead of them in bumper to bumper traffic to take the two seconds to throw up your hand in a wave to say thanks or to even mouth the words "Thank You"? Is it going to take so much time and energy to show some type of gratitude for someone who just saved you another five minutes or longer trying to get out of that parking lot, or show some type of gratitude to someone that waved you ahead when they saw the lane was blocked even though it is 6 o'clock rush hour and they want to get home as much as you do. NO, it shouldn't be too hard to show some of that common courteousness that so many people complain about on a daily basis.

If we all took the time to show thanks for the little things, that so many people think mean nothing today, then more people would be willing to show you respect. It pretty much falls to the "PAY IT FORWARD" theory. You do something kind and good for someone and they in turn do something kind and good for someone else. It in theory is a big circle of human kindness at it's best.

We need to take the time everyday to throw up our hand to say thank you to the person in traffic that was nice enough to let us pass, or let us in the road to begin with. We need to take the time to stop and pull to the side of the road to show respect for someone who is making their way to their final resting place.

Honestly, we could make a difference be it a small one in the everyday mundane driving that we all for the most part do, just by taking a few seconds out of our day to be kind to each other on the roadway. You never know what your kindness will bring back to you!