Do This Instead of Giving the Finger to Bad Drivers

Giving the finger to bad drivers is a time-honored Masshole tradition. But I think it's time to replace it with something new.

Ideally, we shouldn't be flipping anyone off while driving. We should all be minding our own business, obeying traffic laws, and following the speed limit. Road rage is a real threat, after all. But this is Massachusetts. And that's not going to happen. You might be doing everything in your power to drive safely and defensively. There's always going to be some other jerk that isn't.

These types of drivers always used to get under my skin. Truth be told, they still do. And there seems to be so many more of them on the roads these days. Motor vehicles are larger than ever, but roads and parking spaces are still the same size. Too many drivers have their eyes on their phones instead of on the road. So there's plenty to get pissed off at. I've just found a new way to deal with it.

Gone are the days where I'd lay on the horn and flip the bird after being cut off or what have you. I've found a replacement behavior, and I'm going to share it with you by telling you a story. Recently, I was at a 4-way stop. You know the rules: first to arrive, first to drive; right of way goes to the right. I was both first to arrive and to the right of the other car. And it was only the two of us.

The other driver was driving a Corvette. It wasn't a cool, vintage Corvette. It was a "I'm having my midlife crisis and can't afford a cool, vintage Corvette, so I'm driving this instead" Corvette. You can imagine the personality of the person who drives that car. It's the personality that doesn't care to follow the rules of the 4-way stop. Even though I had the right of way, he decided to roll through.

Luckily, I'd already come to a full stop and proceeded to make my way through the intersection. So now he had to wait in the middle of the intersection for me to pass. I didn't flip him off. I didn't even look at him. I kept my eyes on the road, my left hand on the wheel, and with my right hand, I gave the "tsk, tsk, tsk" finger wag. To which the other driver replied with a loudly-bellowed "F.U."

It was so, so satisfying.

You see, flipping the bird is old hat. It's an expected behavior, therefore it's taken for granted. The finger wag? It takes the other driver by surprise. And it infuriates them, because they know they're wrong. But here's the catch: you have to follow the rules of the road and be in the right for it to work. So drive carefully, drive safely, and bust out a good ol' finger wag when your fellow drivers don't.

One New England state is the worst when it comes to distracted driving. And another state isn't doing so great, either.

I'll tell you this right up front, though: neither state is Massachusetts. Which is a welcome change of pace, frankly. Already this year, I've written about how bad road rage is in Boston (it's not the worst, mind you, but still). Massachusetts also made a recent Top 10 list of impolite states. And the Commonwealth isn't exactly known as the safest place to drive, either. It can be very dangerous at times.

That's why I was surprised to see Massachusetts not pop up at the top of this recent piece put together by Assurance. It's called The Worst States for Distracted Driving, and it focuses on the type of activities drivers indulge in behind the wheel that lead to distracted driving. Things like selecting music, eating, checking the GPS, and, of course, texting while driving.

Here's the methodology behind the Assurance report: "To understand how prevalent distracted driving is on roads today, we surveyed over 3,200 U.S. drivers about their distracted driving habits from texting and checking their phones to applying makeup and changing music. Further, we wanted to find out which states had the most distracted drivers based on how often residents in each state are texting while driving."

So what's the New England angle? The Granite State tops their list, with half of all respondents admitting to texting while driving. And the Ocean State landed on the shortlist of "texting most often" that the report shared. I've shared the graphic below, which you can also see on the full report here. But let's look and see what other states are guilty of distracted driving or, more specifically, texting while driving.

50% of all drivers in New Hampshire copped to texting while driving. That put them in a first-place tie with Mississippi. Not the kind of company you want to keep.

Missouri drivers aren't much better. They were only a point behind New Hampshire and Mississippi, with 49% of drivers admitting to texting behind the wheel.

Alabama rounds out the Top 3 with a tie for third. 48.1% of drivers are guilty of texting while operating. Neil Young should rewrite this song as a PSA.

Louisiana also landed in third with 48.1%. As the state's Highway Safety Division states below: "Stop always means stop." That means texting while driving, too.

Rounding out the Top 5 is Illinois with 46.2% of drivers admitting to texting while operating their vehicles. Better than the others mentioned, but still not great.

While Rhode Island didn't notch a high percentage, they did land on the "Texting while driving most often" list. Residents averaged 8.4 instances of texting while driving per month. Be careful out there!