One of my part-time jobs is teaching the New York State Five Hour Driver's Pre-licensing course. This is a required lecture course for anyone in New York State who wants to take the road test for a regular driver's license. I have been teaching this class online for two and a half years. I'd taught in-car driving lessons, part-time, for four years prior to this.

I enjoy teaching this class, and I've been doing it with my own panache: using toy cars to demonstrate driving situations, using a plate or frisbee to show turning the wheel, and showing a slideshow that includes many photographs that I've taken. I occasionally update the slideshow here and there, and a few months ago, I added slides in which I recommend the Reddit category "IdiotsInCars."

Maybe you think that it's impolite of me to include something called "IdiotsInCars" but no matter what level driver you are, novice or somewhat experienced or rather seasoned as I am, you should regularly (or at least occasionally) browse through posts on this Reddit and watch some of them.

Why? Because they show you Idiots In Cars. And hopefully, by watching Idiotic Things You Can Do In A Car (or other motor vehicle) you might learn why you should NOT do those Idiotic Things.

One of the primary goals I have as an instructor is to impress upon students that they should be aware and careful drivers at all times. On one Reddit thread, a commenter said that we should drive "as uneventfully as possible", and I thought that was an immensely important concept. IdiotsInCars shows us videos of drivers doing really stupid, unaware, reckless, and often aggressive things that cause accidents, get them in legal trouble, and sometimes just really embarrassing situations.

I've become addicted to watching the sadly stupid (oops, idiotic) things that some drivers do. And sadly, it echoes what I see on the road on an almost daily basis. Just today, I saw the aftermath of a three-car fender bender on a major road just minutes away from my house. It seemed to me that the driver of one particular car was largely at fault, based on the way her car was angled and on the fact that she was sitting in the driver's seat, her head in her hands, looking aghast.

IdiotsInCars is instructional, a sharp dose of reality. Often, I will watch these videos and gasp loudly at the crashes that I see, the stupid moves that drivers make, the privileged and thoughtless moves they execute, and then try to justify. IdiotsInCars shows humanity at its mundane, daily almost-worst (and sometimes worst).

There are many bad drivers out there, and I don't want my students to add to that unfortunate population. In fact, you're reading this brief essay now, and I don't want YOU to be part of the Bad Driver Cohort. I'm not being flippant; I'm being forthright.

Watch "IdiotsInCar" and Don't Be an Idiot. Please?