These days, driving is anything but groovy

As you turn right and correctly start off in the right-hand lane, the car behind slingshots around you. That's an accident waiting to happen, and it presents itself all too frequently on local roadways.

The traffic light turns green and you pause briefly before pulling out. You're just making sure the intersection is clear of yellow- or even red-light runners, but the driver behind you is incensed because you made him wait an extra second or two before he could hustle along his important, busy way. That's the seed of a road-rage incident or fatal accident being planted.

We could go on and on about traffic problems here, there and everywhere, not just Coeur d'Alene. Drivers with eyes downcast, focused on the smartphones they're manipulating near the steering wheel; drivers who can't be bothered with the use of turn signals; drivers going too fast; drivers going too slow.

It's impossible to say categorically that today's drivers are less courteous, less safe than were drivers of yesteryear. But intuitively, it sure seems that way. When a driver pauses to let someone enter traffic from a parking lot, it feels like cause for celebration. Instead, an angry horn or two proclaims the opposite.

What isn't debatable is that we live in an era of heightened expectancy for immediate gratification. Maybe that means more drivers believe they should be able to reach their destinations faster with fewer impediments. Maybe it means too many of us are fully absorbed with our self-importance, rendering all the other drivers at best insignificant or, worse, as some of those blasted impediments.

With summer at our doorstep and hot temperatures unlikely to cool down the hotheads, profound advice eludes us. But a simple suggestion delivered years ago by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel might serve as a nice reminder.

From "The 59th Street Bridge Song," better known to many of us as "Feelin' Groovy":

Slow down, you move too fast

You got to make the morning last

Just kicking down the cobble stones

Looking for fun and feelin' groovy

Please, think about others whenever you get behind the wheel. At least one good local man would be alive today if we all were committed to making the morning last.