“Drive Defensively.”  Initially, that advice seems to mean pay attention.  Stay out of trouble.  Do a good job behind the wheel.

All positive stuff.  If that’s what it means to you, stop reading now, because the truth is that the concept of defensive driving is downright pernicious.

Defensive driving’s promoters insist that you should expect poor driving from everyone else on the road.  Not only should you assume rudeness, obliviousness, clumsiness, illegality, harassment, and just plain outrageous behavior; you should look for it.   You must focus your attention of their mistakes, never mind your own driving.  They are the cause of all bad traffic.  They’re too slow, too fast, tailgating, on the phone, cutting you off – doing whatever they can to make you miserable and unsafe.

You must protect yourself and your passengers from the evils others do, because their lousy driving is a given.  It cannot be cured, and it won’t go away.  You, and you alone, are totally responsible for making the streets safe.  It’s like being on a team where nobody else understands the game, nobody else helps, but nobody else is held responsible – just you!

Or think of it in business terms.  You are the head of a department, and everybody who works for you makes mistakes all the time – often dangerous ones.  You are expected to cover for everybody.  It can’t be done.

It can’t be done in business, on a team, in a family, or among friends.  It certainly can’t be done on the road!  Defensive driving can’t work.  It doesn’t work.  Yet defensive driving is the core of our current driving paradigm.

3-20-2015