First of all, I would like to say that I do not claim to be the world’s best driver by any means.

I’m sure there are plenty of people who have witnessed me making a stupid mistake driving, but I have noticed that a large percentage of people seriously cannot drive at all. While I am focusing on driving in this area, I will comment that this problem is not a regional issue. I have seen far worse driving in other areas of the state, but the incidents seem to be less frequent.

What I find most interesting about the bad driver phenomenon is not that they seem incapable of driving safely. It is that these drivers seem to think that the road belongs to them and that it is the other driver’s fault simply for being in their way.

For example, over Christmas break, I was entering the left-hand turn lane at a busy intersection in Sevierville when a car crossed a double-yellow line about 20 feet in front of me and pulled into the turn lane from oncoming traffic. The car just sat in the middle of the lane on the wrong side of the road. Alright, that takes care of the bad driving part, but the really ridiculous part was that when I honked the horn at him, he got pissed at me, flipped me off, honked back and continued to sit there. It does not take rocket science to figure out that this guy could use a trip back to Driver’s Ed.

A friend of mine had a slightly less ridiculous incident here in Martin. She was driving slowly through the parking lot between McCord and Ellington recently and was almost backed into by another car. This actually is not surprising given that it can be hard to see cars coming in this lot.

However, the point is not that an accident occurred, it is that the other car honked at her as if it were her fault for driving by when they happened to want to leave.

Another thing that I wonder about as far as driving in Martin is that people do not understand the concept of having the right-of-way. This is particularly disturbing when considered with my next thought. What is up with the six and eight lane stop signs in West Tennessee?

This is the only place I have ever seen a stop sign with more than four lanes. Seriously, this is not a safe traffic law.

This seems odd because a new stoplight was just put up on Lindell and it seems completely pointless. The logic is simply non-existent.

I have included a few tips for driving: • The car has brakes for a reason. Use them. • A double yellow line means stay on your side. • Red means stop (of course at some point everyone has run a stop light).

Romila Chopra is a senior English and Communications major from Kodak, Tenn.