A driver is responsible for the following:

   * To make sure your vehicle is registered and insured to the state minimum of 15/30/5, or $15,000/$30,000 for personal injury/death, and $5,000 for property damage (More on this in Chapter 5.)
    * To ensure your vehicle is maintained—your lights, brakes, and other components must work properly.
    * To make sure you acknowledge and follow all the laws, such as keeping to the posted speed, maintaining the proper following distance, signaling, stopping, and yielding.
    * To respect the right-of-way and presence of other people on the road, such as other drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists
    * To choose not drive when they are in a negative emotional state, inebriated by drugs or alcohol, or fatigued.

A Motor Vehicle is a Potential Weapon

In the wrong hands, or in the hands of an irresponsible person, motor vehicles are as dangerous and as deadly as a loaded gun. When they are not properly maintained, or driven, vehicles pose a risk to the driver and to everyone else on the road. When they are parked incorrectly, they can also pose a risk by rolling away or blocking traffic.

Knowing how to drive is just as important as knowing when not to drive and how not to drive. Vehicles become weapons when people drive while impaired by drugs or alcohol, ignore the posted speed limits, ignore stop signs, drive aggressively because of road rage, or use their vehicle to hurt someone, intentionally or unintentionally.

The average vehicle weighs over 2,000 pounds. The amount of damage a vehicle of this mass can cause, even at low speeds, is arguably as great—if not greater—than what a gun can do to a human body.

Further, in the case of an “at fault” collision in which bodily injury or the death of another person is the result, the driver responsible can face fines and/or jail time. What is more, the offender must also live with the knowledge that he or she has hurt or killed someone else in an avoidable collision.

Vehicles are objects of great weight and danger that must be handled accordingly, with care and responsibility. When they are not handled appropriately, they become deadly weapons. To operate a vehicle responsibly is to follow all the laws. It is also to maintain and take care of your vehicle by keeping it insured and in good working order. In addition, it is to treat other drivers the way you want to be treated.

Parking Responsibly

Parking your vehicle with care and safety in mind will reduce the risk of damage caused to you or your vehicle, as well as damage and/or injuries to other people and their property. Keep these things in mind when parking your vehicle:

   * Park your vehicle so it rolls towards the curb if it is accidentally moved.
   * Keep your vehicle out of traffic.
   * Always put your emergency brake on.
   * Always use turn signals to point out that you are turning. Do this even in parking lots. When your signal is on, you are telling people that you are moving into a parking space.

When you are parking downhill, turn the wheels as far as they will go towards the curb. Do this before you turn the ignition off. In cars equipped with automatic transmissions, you want to place your shifter into the park position. In cars equipped with manual transmissions, place your gear selector into the reverse gear and then engage your emergency brake.

When parking uphill, turn the wheels as far as they will go away from the curb. Let your vehicle roll back until your front wheel touches the curb. This distance should be no more than a few inches. Then, if you are driving a vehicle with an automatic transmission, place your shifter into the park position. If you are driving a vehicle with a manual transmission, place your gear selector into “1st”gear and engage your emergency brake.

In the event that you are forced to park on a hill with no curb, you must position your car in such a way that it will roll away from the center of the street if the brakes fail or it is moved. The same is true for parking in steep driveways.

Whether your vehicle is facing downhill or uphill, in case of the emergency brake failing or an unexpected collision, your vehicle will roll and stop at the curb. This will minimize the damage to your vehicle and the danger to anyone else involved.

When you are parking, always try to park straight and out of traffic. Parking too close to someone else's vehicle can result in a scratched paint job or a dent in your door. In the case of an ill-tempered motorist, you may even find a new racing stripe scraped into the body of your vehicle—this is often referred to as having your car 'keyed'. Again, with parking, as with everywhere else on the road, courtesy and respect are important.

Obey the Literal Interpretation of Laws

Why stop completely at all stop signs?

Everyone has done it at one time or another. We don’t see anyone else coming, or it is so late that we doubt there are any police out on the streets to catch us in the act. The rolling stop—or the California stop, as it is often called—is when you fail to bring your vehicle to a complete halt before a stop sign. There are various reasons this is not safe or prudent. To begin with, it is against the law.

So how long do you have to stop? Lawfully, the answer is that there is no given amount of time. But when directed by a sign or signal, all drivers must come to a complete stop until it is safe to progress. The protocols for stop signs are as follows:

Whenever a driver is approaching a stop sign, he or she should slow down and stop at a stop-line, marking, crosswalk, or intersection until certain that there are no other vehicles or pedestrians present. The driver then needs to look left, right, and then l and a driver has looked in all directions, he or she can move the vehicle through the intersection carefully, but must be prepared to yield to other cars or pedestrians.eft again before proceeding. This should take at least three seconds. After the intersection is clear.

Therefore, stopping really means ceasing all movement until a driver has looked in all directions and has prepared to yield.

It is also important to remember (and look out for) all the other people who use the intersection, including other motorists. Pedestrians may believe you see them preparing to walk across the intersection, when in fact you do not see them at all. This makes it even more important to stop completely and make sure there are no motorists or pedestrians walking or driving in the intersection. If you do not stop completely to check for other motorists or pedestrians, you are risking a failure to see them, and this can result in a collision or worse.

The yield sign is that little red and white triangle that means wait your turn, but yield is also the term used to describe what someone who does not have the right-of-way should do. So what does yield really mean? Do yield signs mean the same thing as stop signs? Let us explore these questions.

When you are approaching a yield sign, maybe where two highways merge or at an intersection, what do you do? First, you must reduce your speed. Be certain to look for motorists or pedestrians before proceeding. If there is no traffic present, you can continue. But what if there is traffic present?

If you slow down after coming upon a yield sign and see traffic present, you will need to come to a stop or slow your vehicle long enough for the right-of-way traffic to clear. Once the traffic is clear, you can continue. Remember traffic means other motorists and pedestrians. Further, remember that pedestrians always have the right-of-way, so yield to them always.

In many driving situations, cars or pedestrians either have the right-of-way or need to yield, but the terms are not always posted on a sign. Sometimes people forget to yield, making the person who has the right-of-way either slow down or take some other measure to avoid a collision.

It is a good defensive driving practice to yield the right-of-way in certain circumstances. In other words, yield to those who fail to yield! Always be prepared to stop if a pedestrian bolts across the road. The same is true of other motorists—never assume a motorist or pedestrian will yield even if it is lawful for them to do so.

Yielding at Signs

The purpose of this sign is to operate as a stop sign when right-of-way traffic is present or to give you notice to slow and look for right-of-way traffic before continuing. As mentioned, if there is traffic coming in the lane you are crossing or merging into, you must wait until it passes and the intersection or lane is clear before continuing.

Similarly, at stop signs, you must yield to pedestrians, any vehicles that have stopped before you, and any traffic already in the intersection before you continue.

You must stop at a yield sign until the roadway or intersection ahead is free of traffic. This includes any pedestrians. Once the roadway or intersection ahead is clear, you may continue.

Finally, as we have briefly discussed, yielding is necessary when you do not have the right of way, but sometimes it is also necessary if you do. If you are traveling through a green light and a motorist cuts in front of you to turn left, just yield. Let them go. Securing your right-of-way is not worth risking a collision.

Treat Other Drivers the Way You Want to be Treated

Our mothers gave us some of the best driving advice we will ever receive. The old axiom states, “Treat others the way you want others to treat you.” Of course, the Bible says, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Either way you want to look at it, it is sound advice.

Would you want other drivers to cut in front of you? Do you appreciate it when someone rides your bumper or gestures for you to move out of the way? Of course not! Courtesy is simple and can save lives.

However, courtesy and treating others the way we want to be treated is not always proactive. It is also a matter of reaction. How do you react when someone cuts you off in traffic? How about when the driver ahead of you is traveling well below the posted speed limit or, conversely, the driver behind you is tailgating because you refuse to exceed the posted speed? Before you succumb to road rage, try to understand that each driver on the road has an agenda. The tailgater could be late to work, rushing to the hospital, or foreign to the area. We are all only human, and it is important that we do not take these situations personally.

This is not meant to imply that dangerous behavior such as tailgating or cutting someone off is acceptable. But these are things we have all done, whether we meant to or not.

If you do not hold yourself in enough esteem to treat yourself well or care how others treat you, try treating everyone else the way you would a family member. Would you tailgate your mother or your grandmother?

Treat others the way you want to be treated. Let trapped people out of busy business complexes. Let that poor woman trying to merge into your lane, after suddenly losing hers to construction, pull in front of you. Let that person tailgating you pass and smile, knowing that we all have different agendas. Above all, we must all share the road.