ONE OF THE constants in the comments and complaints this column receives about traffic is that all the bad driving we encounter is the other driver's fault. Alexandra Besaw, who is 20 years old, asked us to look more closely at our own driving habits before complaining about teenage drivers.
"I've noticed over and over again that people who write to your column constantly blame teenagers for all of their ills," she said. "A lot of teenagers are stupid and inexperienced. They'll do idiotic things without much thinking beforehand for the consequences or the stress it causes their parents.
"[But] the majority of teenagers learn how to drive from their parents. When I get cut off, the vast majority of the time, it's an older person - not a teenager. When I'm at a four-way stop and the person blows through the stop sign, it's an older or elderly person - not a teenager. Instead of people ranting about how horrible teenagers are on the road, they need to look at their own driving habits. It's a lot easier to be hypocritical than it is to be objective and to change one's own driving habits."
Besaw notes that her parents are conscientious and considerate drivers who have taught by example.
"I don't speed excessively, and if I do, it's no more than 5 mph over the limit on Interstate 70 just so I don't get run off the road," she said. "I don't cut people off. I have patience. I give sufficient room for those in front of me. I use my turn signals. I don't `race' other cars when I'm getting onto an exit and they're trying to get off."
The moral of the story?
"I drive by the example my parents [provided me]," Besaw said. "I have a feeling many of your readers need to learn this lesson before they realize their teenagers are speeding and driving like maniacs ... just like their parents are."
Anna Sudduth Fink offers another theory about why teen drivers might drive dangerously: teen drivers resort to aggressive driving behaviors because of how they are treated when they are just learning to drive.
She said that her son just received his learner's permit and that the family is in the middle of the "hair-raising period of teaching him to drive." She said that they try to stick to lesser-traveled roads.
"My concern is the lack of courtesy other drivers show him while he is driving the speed limit," Fink said. "As a new driver, we are traveling roads at the speed limit. One evening last week, he was passed three times in no-passing zones, honked at twice in addition to constant tailgating. This is unnerving to an experienced driver but particularly a concern to new drivers."
