Be ready to give up your right-of-way.

You’re coming up to a 4-way stop, and you have the right-of-way of the two cars that arrived at the same time.  But the idiot on your left thinks he got there first, and is starting to pull into the intersection.  Do you: a. Gun it and get in front of him to show him a “thing or two”? b. Honk your horn and quickly pull into the intersection? c. Give him a loud, long honk, and maybe a crude hand gesture, but don’t pull into the intersection?  d. Remember that you absent-mindedly did that very thing just a couple weeks ago, and let it go?

Or you’re in stop-and-go traffic, trying to leave a safe following distance between you and the next car.  Maybe more, so you can hopefully avoid being rear-ended.  But people keep taking advantage of you and cutting in.  Is it time to forget about the extra-space safety precaution?  Nope.  In stop-and-go traffic, it’s more important than ever.

This all boils down to being willing to give up your right-of-way to give yourself a better chance of avoiding an accident.  I can’t say it better than this well-used poem:

Here lies the body of William Jay,

Who died maintaining his right-of-way.

He was right, dead right, as he sped along.

But he’s just as dead as if he’d been wrong.

                                    Author unknown