Traffic School...

"No officer, I did not come to a complete stop at the stop sign back there. Yes I slowed down, yes I could have stopped, I was probably going .0002 miles an hour as I turned, but no I didn't fully stop." This was a three way stop mind you. There were no other cars around and I endangered no one. Nevertheless the laws the law.
Consequently I spent and hour and a half on Monday evening at traffic school. Quite honestly it wasn't that bad. The instructor was entertaining and we basically watched youtube videos the whole time.
This is what I learned:
-There are a lot of crazies on the road, and no matter what you do you can't always avoid them.
-You don't need to leave two car lengths between you and the car in front of you at a stop light (although a lot of people in Utah think you do)...but you should leave enough space to see the back wheels of the car in front of you hit the ground.
-Getting thrown from a car really stinks and usually does your body harm...wearing your seat belt is a good idea.
-Talking on the phone/eating/texting/or any any other distraction while your driving can be very dangerous. Starting next year if you're doing any of the above and get pulled over for a violation or accident it will result in an added major violation/ticket for careless driving being added to your record (but you still can't be pulled over for doing any of these things on their own).
-The average person's perception/reaction time is 1.5 seconds. Don't follow too closely or you won't give your self enough time to get out of the way if there's an accident in front of you.
-If you see an ambulance/police car/fire truck/or any other emergency vehicle behind you with it's lights on move out of the way! Pull off to the shoulder and let it pass. We watched a video taken from one of these vehicles and NO ONE moved, it was insane! They kept honking but everyone just kept driving like normal. It took the emergency vehicle almost 5 extra minutes to get to it's destination because nobody yielded to it. And the person it was going to didn't have an extra five minutes, it cost them their life. Can you believe it? Sad.

In high school my friends used to tell me I drove like a grandpa because I was so slow and by the book. It looks like I should revert to my old ways: full stops, no speeding, and patiently waiting for all the slow pedestrians/students to cross the street (living South of campus is a nightmare sometimes). Here's to me being a better driver, cheers!