September has been declared by the National Motorist Association as Driver Courtesy Month! We hope to encourage all drivers no matter their age to drive courteously every time they sit behind the wheel.
Using the Golden Rule of Driving—drive like you want others to drive—will start the process! It’s a mindset that you decide long before you hit the road.
To help get the process started, the NMA has developed an online quiz called Are You a Courtesy Driver? Completing the quiz allows you to be eligible for some great prizes. After taking the quiz, encourage your family and friends to do so too! Use this link when you email them:
Here are three of the questions: /courtesyquiz-e/
- On a limited access highway, when do you move back into the right lane?
- What should you do when you come upon slower traffic?
- When an aggressive driver comes up behind you, what do you do?
So, what is driver courtesy?
As mentioned before, it’s the Golden Rule of driving and encompasses many aspects of driving that teens might learn in driving school and more mature drivers should know from vast experience. All are unwritten rules of the road and many are actually now the law.
- Lane Courtesy—Drive Right, Pass Left
- Use Your Turn Signal
- Drive a Steady Speed on the Highway
- Don’t Tailgate
- Pay Attention at Stoplights—don’t Multitask
- Don’t Text and Drive
- Use the Zipper Merge
- Pull over and Move over for Emergency Vehicles
- Turn down bright lights when another vehicle approaches
- Use fog lights only when there’s fog
- Park between the Lines
- Yield to the Right at Four-way Stops
- Control your Urge to Road Rage
- Thank other Road Users who Helped you by Waving
All this month, the Driving in America Blog will dig deep into driver courtesy. Next week, I’ll take a look at each of these areas. If you would like to add your driver courtesy idea to the list, comment below or contact me at nma@motorists.org.