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All right, real talk here. You think that you're a good driver, right? Yeah. Well, so does everyone
else. But today, we're breaking down why that's total BS and exposing the bad habits we all
pretend don't actually count. You know, buckle up, buttercup. This one's going to get real.
Hey, what's happening? How are you doing today? Thank you so much for being here. I am Chris,
and yeah, this is Cool Cars with Chris Mann, and I love cool cars. I love cars. I love
driving. I love driving so much that it's actually my regular day job career. I'm on
the road quite a bit. I mean, for work, I mean, of course, getting to work too. But being on
the road so much, I have seen a lot of different things. I've seen a lot of people make stupid
decisions driving. I've seen a lot of people get into accidents that really shouldn't have
gotten into accidents. And you know, just as well as I do, that if you drive on an
American road, a lot of people swear they are great drivers and they never do anything
wrong. It's always somebody else's fault. You always hear like all those stupid drivers
out there. Everyone's stupid. All those dumb drivers. Watch out for all the dumb drivers
out there. But let me ask you a question. Be honest here. How good of a driver are
you really? Like let's just say on a scale of I should be a NASCAR to I can't parallel
park, even if there's like a full school bus length worth of room to park your car. Now,
if you were to say like, say eight, nine or 10, well, congratulations. You're like 80
to 90% of American drivers because according to multiple studies, almost everyone, and
I mean everyone thinks they're better than average, which well, if you think about
the math on that, that's actually impossible. Yeah. Well, we can't all be above average.
That's not how averages actually work. Listen, I'm no math was, but at least I know that.
So it's cute that we all try, right? But what really goes into the psychology behind
thinking we're all great drivers? We can't all be great drivers. Have you ever heard
of illusion superiority? No. Well, it's not some kind of Marvel villain, although it probably
should be. It's a psychological effect where people tend to overestimate their own abilities
compared to others, especially when it comes to doing things like driving. You know, there
was a study like a long time ago. The one I found was from 1981 way back in the day, but
basically even back then, it showed that 93% of American drivers rated themselves as better
than average. Now, if you fast forward to today, a study shared by the Lawrence Berkeley
Center said 80% of daily drivers that over 80% of daily drivers think they're good or not
only good, but they're great drivers. Now, meanwhile, almost every traffic report says
that the roads have basically become, you know, and I know a freaking war zone out
here. So who's lying? Chances are it's probably all of us. Now, the funny thing or weird thing
or ironic thing, I guess, is that we think we're the exception. I mean, you know, we've
all done it, right? We're sitting in traffic thinking everybody else is an idiot today.
Oh my gosh, I'm driving and look at that idiot over there, cut me off. Look at that
idiot over there driving without his headlights on. Look at that idiot over there in the wrong
lane has his turn signal on and it's been on for like five miles. Is he ever going to
turn into that lane? Probably not. And my biggest pet peeve with people now, this is
probably maybe goes to mechanics and bad driving too, is when their car suddenly
has an issue and they need to pull over to the side of the road, to the right
side of the road. But for some God awful unknown reason, they decide that I think
parking my car in the middle of the freaking freeway is a good spot to just
break down. When you know your car is breaking down, you can feel it shudder.
You can feel something going on. You feel something going on. It's something
wrong with your car. And you don't think that I'm going to use these like
10 seconds before the car completely dies to start moving over to the right,
getting out of the way. No, I'm going to park it right here in the freeway.
Yeah, that kind of stuff. And yet all of us, and I mean all of us, when we get to a
stop sign, what do you do if nobody's there? Well, you kind of do a yield.
You kind of roll through a California stop, as they say. You basically say,
well, hey, you know, I looked both ways. Nobody's coming and I can just
cruise on through. It happens all the time. Or here's another one we all
do. You tailgate somebody and you think, I'm just going to give them
just a gentle suggestion to move, like move out of my way. But when someone else
rides your bumper, oh, what is this guy's problem? I'm going to break check this
guy. You know, it's kind of funny how we all think we are amazing drivers.
Like we are the best driver on the road out here today. But you know,
it's funny. It's that it's not always true. And you know, and I know it
that we think we're the best. But unfortunately, there are some of us
that don't even use your turn signals. And if you drive on these American
highways as much as I have, and if you have been driving for a while,
you probably know that people do get aggravated very easily when things
happen. But the real question is, why do we get so mad behind the
wheel of all places? Why is there road rage? Where does this come from?
What are you so angry about? Why does this happen?
So the AAA foundation found that 96% of drivers admit to doing
something aggressive behind the wheel in the past year.
Holy crap, 90. It's almost all of us. 96% is almost everybody
has done something aggressive behind the wheel in the past year.
Now, that's not just a few people. That's just not a like one guy
here, one girl there, one guy there doing it or whatever.
That is almost everybody. That is like almost everybody that drives
today in the United States has had some serious aggression behind the wheel.
Now, we've all been out there. We've all been driving behind
the crazies and we've seen it happen. We've seen lots of videos
on social media where people park. They get out of their cars
and they go fist to fist and they start fighting. And in some
serious cases, it actually leads to like death, fatality or
murder with guns being drawn out and crazy knives and things
like that. These things can escalate very, very quickly.
But why does this happen? Why do we get so angry? Why are we
so upset? We are very, very upset on the road more than any
other place in the world. And I guess it kind of makes sense if
you think about it because, well, first off, you believe that
you're a good driver, right? You believe that you are the best
driver on the road. I mean, of course you are, right? It's
you. You're the good driver, obviously, right? Yeah. And
because you believe you're a good driver, you also are
using your car to get somewhere. You're using your
vehicle as a means of transportation. You have to get
somewhere and you are definitely in a hurry to get there.
You've got place to go. Time is money, baby. We got to get going
here. I got time for this nonsense. We gots to go and
you're focused. I get it. You're locked in. You got to get
to where you got to go. You are driving. You are in a
zone, a zone of you driving down the road, going to your
place, the place you got to be in your car. It's you
moving to your next destination. And then as you're cruising
along in your zone of driving, someone has the nerve to drive
up behind you, cuts in front of you without even signaling,
cuts you off. How dare they? And then your blood pressure
spikes. You go from calm to combat in three seconds
flat. You honk at them. You flip them off. You yell
stupid driver. You're such an idiot. Learn how to
drive. And he gets so mad. But why? Why are you so angry? Why?
Well, it's because for some reason, all of us do this. It's
because we actually take driving very personally. Now let
me say that again. We take driving personally. It's our
car. It's our cool car. If you have a cool car, it's our
space. It's our control. And when someone breaks the
rules, we see it as an attack on our competence. But the
sad truth is, is that even though, I mean, I mean,
let's be real here, we've all been that guy at some
point. And that is a very hard thing to admit. And have you
ever been driving down the road and somebody's honking at
you, flipping you off, doing something crazy, you're like
wondering like, what did I do? I just drive it in my lane,
just minding my own thing, listening to my favorite
podcast, which hopefully cool cars with Chris, which
hopefully you're listening to right now while you're
driving. And you just cruise it along and someone's
getting mad at you. You're like, what did I even
do? Now there are some mistakes as drivers. We don't
even know we're actually making. And this is where it
gets a little interesting because we're talking
about mistakes that we make that we don't even know
we're actually making. Now you're probably thinking
that you're a great driver, you know all the
rules, you ace the test, you know what inside and
out, you've been driving for years, you know
everything about driving, you can probably teach
anybody how to drive, you know, because you've
been doing it so long, you're so great at it. But
this is where it gets a little sneaky. Most of the
bad driving out there, you know, it's not from
drunk people or 16 year olds, you know, learning
how to drive, you know, the first time doing
anything. It's us, regular experienced drivers who
just have, well, we've gotten a little lazy.
That's what it is. We're all lazy. And we're
also lazy with confidence. So we're very
overconfident as a driver. So I guess you'd call
that lazy confidence. That's a new coin. I'm going
to coin that one. Lazy confident person. That'll
be my new nickname as a driver, I guess, lazy
confidence. And here are some signs you can
tell whether somebody is a lazy, confident
driver. One is rolling stop signs. Do you do
a California roll? Do you come to the
stop sign and say, it's good. Nobody's here.
Cruise on through. Here I go. Let me keep on going.
That is one sign. Another is riding in the
left lane, like it's your own personal
driveway. Yeah, I mean, I seem to go super
slow. And I seem to go really fast. In fact,
one time when I was 16 years old, I was
taking my friends up to Disneyland for a
Disneyland getaway thing for a, I think
it was a sports thing or something like
that. Anyways, I'm driving up there and I
didn't know about the freeway system that
well. I wasn't very confident as a driver,
because I was only 16. And I remember that
to ensure I didn't get thrown off on any
unusual like freeway exits or get lost, I
pretty much stuck to the fast lane the
entire time driving up there, the far
left lane. And I remember as I was
driving back home, this car came up
behind me. And he was honking at me and
shining as flashing his lights at me and
going really crazy and telegating me. And
here I am a 16-year-old new driver. And I
didn't know what to do. I was kind of
panicked. Everybody else was kind of
chill in the car. I was late at night.
And I was like, what do I do? Like, what
do I do? And it turns out, I guess I
was going slower than the guy wanted
to be in the fast lane. He wanted to
go much faster. And I'm going slower.
And it was at night, so I couldn't really
see very well flashing lights and all
this stuff. So I just stood in my ground.
I stayed in one place. And as the guy got
around me, of course he honked and flipped
me off and he kept on going. And here I
am a scared little 16-year-old learning
how to drive. Just got my license, you
know, trying to navigate long distance
driving versus like being in town on a
freeway. And I totally get it when
people want to be in the fast lane
and they want to go as fast as they
want nobody to be in the way. And he
easily could have gotten around me
and eventually he did. But the fact
that I was in the fast lane and he
thought it was his own personal like
runway, his personal driveway, and I was
like stopping him from going like 90
or 100. I don't know how fast I was
going at the time, but it was probably
around the speed limit I guess. And this
guy didn't want to go the speed limit.
He wanted to go extremely fast.
Some other things we do is we
change lanes without signaling. Now
this seems to piss me off. People do
this. I always do this. I just like
try to always do this. But people do it.
Like, how do I know which lane you're
going to go in if you don't use your
turn signal? That's how accidents
happen. I tell two people like butt
into each other. They'll try to share
the same lane at the same time. And
that's what happens. But listen,
turn your turn signal on before you
start turning. Not during, not after.
Like it matters to that point. Of
course, speeding. Of course, something
we all do. Like speeding a little
because I know how to handle it. Like I
am the professional driver. My BMW can
go 120 miles an hour. No problem though.
In traffic, swerving around cars. I know
what I'm doing because I'm a
professional. Because I drive a BMW.
Hello. Of course, we all think we're
amazing. And of course, the big one
out there I see today. It seems like
in traffic at red lights because
we're all guilty of this. Everybody,
you cannot say you're not guilty of
this one. And that is looking at your
phone while you're in traffic. And
looking at your phone while you're at
a red light. Everybody does it. We
all do that. And I think when we're
not doing it and we see somebody else
do it, you know, we get a little mad.
We get a little angry. We're like,
how dare you? Look at you on your
phone. Yet the very next sign of
traffic, the very next stoplight you
get to, you're pulling your phone
out. You're checking Facebook. You're
checking whatever. You're checking
different things. I get it. I mean,
we've all done it. But did you know
that human error contributes to
around 90% of crashes? It's not like,
say, you know, bad road conditions.
It's not, say, bad luck. It's not
the boogeyman. It's not the other
guy. It's us. Because we still say
we're a quote, unquote, good
driver. So yeah, the stats don't lie.
We're overconfident,
under aware, and we're just often
winging it out there. I mean, one hand
on our coffee, one hand on our phone,
our knee steering the steering wheel.
I get it. I totally do. But hey,
I'm not here to roast you. I'm not
here to bash you. I'm not here to
tell you that you're a horrible
crappy driver out there in the
roads and you'd never drive again.
I'm not saying that at all. I'm
roasting all of us. We all need to
work on this, myself included.
Although I pride myself as a great
driver, I know I'm not. I know I make
mistakes. And the reason why I know I
make mistakes, because you out there
have told me that. You out there have
honked at me. You out there have
flipped me off. You out there have
said I'm a bad driver. But I'm
always trying to learn. I'm always
trying to improve. I'm always trying
to make sure I get to my
destination safely, efficiently. And
I know that I make mistakes. And I know
I'm not perfect. And I know that the
driving roads out there in the
United States can be treacherous. And
I know that not everybody out there
is on their A game. And I know. But
there are some things you can do to
defend yourself as a driver. One
simple thing you can do is give
yourself enough space cushion around
you that no clown is going to get
close enough to you. If someone's coming
towards you, you figure out a way to
get a gap between you and that person.
Basically, steer clear of them, especially
in the rain. If it's raining outside,
it's really pouring down. I absolutely
hate to be next to somebody on the
freeway. I will make sure I go out of
my way, slowing, fast, wherever it's
got to be to get away from somebody. I
do not want to be side by side next to
a car running down the freeway at 65
miles an hour, maybe even 70 miles an
hour in the rain because that's a
spin-outs happen. And when they spin
out and lose control, they hit that
puddle because they always do, they're
going to fishtail and they're going
to slide left to right. And if you
are right next to them, they're going
to collide into you. So to stay away
from bad drivers is simply just stay
away from bad drivers. And I know it
can't always happen with traffic and
things like that or the way the roads
are. I understand not every situation
is perfect, not every road condition
is perfect, not every traffic pattern
is perfect. Not everybody on the road
is perfect. And I want to say thank
you so much for listening all the way
to the very end of this episode. And
if you enjoyed this, which I hope you
did, please hit follow or subscribe
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Everything you possibly want, including
social media, everything is right
there at the wonderful world of
coolcarswithchris.com. And until next
time, happy driving. Be safe.
You know, tame that anger. Listen,
everybody makes mistakes driving,
including that guy right over there
and you too, possibly. So until next
time, I'll catch you on the very
next episode and be safe, drive
legal and I'll see you later.
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