Over the past 15 years, America has abandoned just about every social rule, every kind of etiquette, and every normative behavior that used to make public interaction bearable. I’ve decided it’s time to open Uncle Josh’s Finishing School. Unlike the establishments of yore that taught society girls the finer and fussier points of manners, my school will concentrate on remedial education.Today, we will be reviewing the rules of the road. Matriculants, open your desks and take out your copy of the Uniform Vehicle Code and your state Department of Motor Vehicles’ manual for new drivers. We will be referring to these texts. I call this a ‘box-in,’ and drivers do it every time I’m on I-89. It’s not just annoying and inconsiderate to camp in the passing lane, it’s illegal in half the country.Learn to ‘Code’The Uniform Vehicle Code is a model law. It’s not an actual state or federal law. It’s a universal template on which every state bases its rules of the road.Your state has a driver’s handbook through its Department of Motor Vehicles. These are nearly identical from state to state. The only exceptions will be local idiosyncrasies, such as New York City’s ban on turning right on red.For this article, we’ll use the Vermont manual. Your state’s manual will have nearly identical laws and rules.This lesson is for all of you. Whether you’re my Boomer grandmother, my Gen X peer, a Millennial, or Gen Z, many of you have forgotten the basic rules of the road.Road rules are not just about being nice. They’re the difference between life and death. While it’s true that millions of foreigners and illegal aliens have flooded our roads with dangerous, unskilled driving, we Americans are barely better.Automotive anarchyHere’s how it looks from a big picture perspective. Over the past 10 years, but much more rapidly since “COVID,” I’ve noticed that American drivers are acting as though all the road rules they knew their whole life just disappeared. All of a sudden, no one knows who has the right-of-way at a four-way stop with a sign. All of a sudden, no one understands that a red light means “stop” — they sail through a solid red light not looking in either direction. All of a sudden, no one remembers that the left lane on an interstate is not a travel lane but a lane for passing.I don’t think Americans have actually forgotten these things. Instead, I suspect our culture’s lurch toward selfish narcissism, accelerated by the psychosis of our response to “COVID,” has led to people just not caring about anyone but themselves.Trouble is, that selfish attitude won’t protect the selfish driver. It’s not just the other guy in the other car who could get hurt — the selfish driver could die too.Let’s review the most neglected rules of the road.RELATED: Crash course: How cars work Matt HimesRight-of-way at 4-way stopsImagine an intersection with cars at all four corners. They’re all stopped at a stop sign. Who goes first? Let me tell you what this is like in Vermont. This is a blue/progressive state, and that mindset infects everything, including how people walk in stores or drive on streets. It’s a baffling mixture of people trying to be “nice” to other drivers in a way that seems more about showing off “being nice” than it is about making driving safer and more predictable.At that four-way stop in Vermont, you will see all four cars inching/stopping/inching for up to 10 seconds. Then, someone at one of the four forks will start waving another driver through. That’s the “being nice” part. But it’s a trap. No one else at the intersection remembers that right-of-way passes to the right, so you can’t predict if you’ll get T-boned.This isn’t “nice.” It’s dangerous. The reason for having road laws is to give universal predictability. Ignoring road laws means that no driver can predict what another driver will do. This is begging for a wreck.Here’s how you know who goes first. This is taken from the Vermont DMV manual. It is the same right-of-way in every state in America:The first driver to arrive at the four-way stop has the right-of-way. If there is confusion, then:The driver on the right has the right-of-way when there are two drivers at the intersection.If there are more than two drivers, you will have to make eye contact with someone and “negotiate” who is the first to go.After the first person goes, the right-of-way goes clockwise, to the right.Right-of-way at T-intersectionsThe driver on the “through road,” the road that does not terminate at a stop, has the right-of-way.That means if you’re on a road that ends at a T, the traffic on the other road, the “through” road, has the right-of-way. You must stop, even if there is no stop sign.Right-of-way at unmarked intersectionsWhen two roads merge, either with a T, or by curving together and becoming one road, the “through” traffic on the main road has the right-of-way. If you are on the access road approaching the main road, you do not have the right-of-way. You must yield to traffic on the through road.Left-lane ‘camping’ on the interstateThis is a particular annoyance to me as a Vermont driver. We have only one major interstate, Eisenhower Interstate, I-89. This means I-89 gets, for us, “a lot” of traffic. It’s the only efficient way to get through much of the state. I have to drive 40 miles to get to a home improvement store, for example, and I must take I-89 if I don’t want to have to go 30 miles an hour through villages if I take Route 2.But I-89 only has two lanes in each direction. That means that if driver Gloria is “camping” in the left/passing lane, driver Gloria has arrogated the entire interstate to herself. She forces every driver behind her to be unable to pass her as she does five miles below the speed limit, matching her speed to the truck in the right-hand travel lane.I call this a “box-in,” and drivers do it every time I’m on I-89. It’s not just annoying and inconsiderate to camp in the passing lane, it’s illegal in half the country.That’s right. It is illegal to use the left lane as a travel lane in at least half of U.S. states. Do you know the law in your state?Even if it’s legal in your state to use the left lane as a travel lane, it’s a poor choice. It’s rude and inconsiderate to other drivers. Put yourself in their shoes. Remember how it’s frustrating to you to be prevented from passing because driver Gloria feels like camping in front of you and a line of cars. Don’t do that to other drivers.Inconsiderate behavior like this is a major cause of the breakdown in civility, and it also provokes dangerous road-rage incidents.A plea to the policeThe good will of people willing to be responsible for themselves only goes so far. We need active law enforcement too.To my eye as a driver, local and state police are doing a poor job. Despite the fact that cellphone use (not just calls, but texting and reading on the phone) has skyrocketed, most police I notice spend most or all of their traffic enforcement time doing the old-school “pull over and hide on the highway and nab speeders.”I don’t see any evidence that police are taking the other, growing dangers more seriously. Have you seen cops enforcing traffic infractions like left-lane camping, stealing right-of-way at intersections, or pulling over Jayden who’s piloting a Nissan Armada while looking down at his iPhone?Sure, it’s harder to detect and enforce against distracted driving than it is to nab someone on the radar. But there has to be a way to do it better.
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