Be courteous, but don't ignore the rules of the road in an attempt to be courteous. I realize that some of you need the "good Karma" points, but ignoring right of way just so you can be like, see I let that guy go even though I had the right of way is not where you earn them. Go serve lunch at a soup kitchen once a week to earn your gKp, the right of way is a good rule that works, if we all use it properly.
Right of Way
The right provided to the driver who has the way to get where they are going and out of your way as fast as possible.
Well not exactly, it really is simple, when two or more vehicles enter an intersection at the same time, the vehicle to the right has the "right of way".
Now we humans have come up with some pretty ingenious devices for ensuring that the driver who has right of way is given it, such as traffic control devices (stop lights) and of course stop signs and yield signs, but often times this causes us to not understand right of way. Strip away the devices and the rule still applies, provided we are alert enough to realize that if we approach an intersection and there is no device, we figure we must have automatic right of way. Which would be true, if we were not talking about all intersections having no devices. This being the case, all intersections have effectively stop or yield signs implied. They do not need to be there in physical reality, because they are implied by right of way. If you approach the intersection at speed and another car approaches the intersection at speed, the most likely result will be collision, or at least a near miss. Therefore to avoid this, we must assume that someone will need to yield to the other driver.
Can you see where this is going. I is called "Right of Way" as in they that approaches the intersection at or nearly the same time will yield their "right of way" to they who are to their right. It works really just like that. If we were capable of understanding this one rule, we could eliminate most if not all traffic control devices, increase traffic flow dramatically, and in general most likely earn some "good Karma points" for being a good driver.
Where this breaks down is in the ignorance of the rule, distraction while driving, and just plain self importance of other drivers who do not adhere to the rules of the road.
I would like to think we could do this, but I am not that dumb, so accept that it is a rule that should be followed when approaching a four way stop, and stop waving people on, because you want to be nice, it would be much nicer if you would just follow the rule, and get the hell out of my way.
I will have more to say about this in the future, that I am certain about, but I just wanted to get the ball rolling for now.
