Here are a few diving tips from one driver to others that may help make our roads safer and more stress free.

It is very important that drivers remember when a traffic signal is rendered inoprerative, that the affected intersections become four-way stops. Once stopped you may proceed in the an orderly fashion based on arrival. This is similar to the four-way flashing redlight in Clements on route from Leonardtown to Rt301.

During the outages caused by Hurricane Irene I witnessed more close calls than I would have imagined.

Another local driving nuance for this area is passing on the right in an area not marked as such. I not sure if drivers realize that this is illegal in the MD State driving code. Although it goes basically unchecked the number of close calls is rising. The new cell phone laws requires drivers to pull over. The road boundry to the right creates a safety zone for bicyclists, emergency stopping and safety zone for phone use. Please be aware that passing on the right in an unapproved zone is illegal and any accident would be considered your fault. I have seen to many children and pedestrians almost killed because of this. It is quite startling.

I challenge local law enforcement to start citing for this infraction to help reinforce that passing on the right in unapproved zones is illegal.

Have any of you ever been burned by a cigarette?

Although throwing trash on to roadways is illegal, many smokers toss their cigarette butts out the window. I have twice. Once when I was a smoker and once by a cigarette tossed out the window. It burned me just below my eye while riding my motorcycle. I hade my visor 3/4's down and a pair of sunglasses on.

Have any of you ever gotten ammonia in your eyes?

Image following behind a car at 50mph with 2 seconds of following distance. All of the sudden you feel a wet sensation on your face and then your eyes start to burn. I can assure you this is not a pleasant feeling when riding a motorcycle at any speed. After stopping and clearing your eyes you realize that the car that you were following decided to clean their windshield. A very small detail to the driver of the car with very dangerous affect to the following motorcycle.

Know your surroundings and the cause and effect of your actions.
Please take the time to think about the situtation you are in as a driver. Do you best to pay attention and be in the moment. When driving, drive. When reading, read. Try to be in the moment of all task that you are invovled in. Try not to mix tasks that take attention away from the true tasks at hand.

Be safe and drive well!