Shane Miller

Key West, Florida- Recently, I have become a new driver in the state of Florida. Specifically, on August 7th of this year, I became a class E driver in the state after taking a (shockingly easy) driver’s test. Funnily enough, I had been panicking about the test for pretty much the entire preceding week. I was up for nights at a time in a panic, watching all the videos on very specific and niche parking maneuvers which would not be on my test whatsoever. In fact, the woman who gave my test was very kind, and I passed it with all the possible points I could get. When she told me I had passed the test, my first question was “Well, that was really short, wasn’t it?” And she simply said, “Nope, that was your entire test”. This article is for those new drivers out there who just passed their own license test, and is also a pseudo reply to an article I posted last year about getting my driver’s permit and how it was driving then.

Overhead view of US Route 1 during the day in the Florida Keys. (Andy Newman/Monroe County Tourist Development/Miami Herald)

Now, just to preface this article, I am not a bad driver (I know you will read this, Mom). However, I have noticed I have been developing some new driving habits since obtaining my license. It mostly involves how I drive, specifically what lanes I go in or how often I’m in my car. For example, I will be driving down US 1 in the right lane a majority of the time with my mother or a friend in the car. But when nobody else is in the car, I’m going home, etc., I usually drive in the left lane. Now, I understand that cruising in the left lane is not illegal in the state of Florida, but I sometimes think about whether sitting in the lane going at a constant 60 is a rude move or not. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t, it really depends on how much traffic there is on the road.

Other times I notice I often go a little too slow. Maybe I am being precautious, maybe I am just focused too much on the road-I cannot fully say which is true. US-1 is a relatively flat and straight highway, but it has its own curves and bumps, so that could be one of the reasons for why I might start focusing too much on the road and not on my speed. Other times, you can notice bikers going up and down US-1 on the small painted bike lanes that run on the side of the highway. While I think that the concept of a biking trail following US-1 is a good idea in practice, in actuality, I feel that bikers are in danger most of the time if they are not on the rare few separated bike paths from the highway. As a result, I often move further away from bikers as a safety precaution, which can sometimes result in my speed going up or dipping. Overall, I think that not much has changed from being a new driver, but I think some of my mannerisms while driving very well have changed. Sometimes for the better, or sometimes for the worse.