Hey, there's alot going on when you're behind the wheel.

Wow. Where do we start? There is SOOOO much going on outside of our little world in our car. To do the best job we can behind the wheel, let's think about minimizing the distractions we bring to the mix.

Grooming. This is to be done in the privacy of your own home or just about any place other than on the road, behind the wheel. If you can believe it, a national magazine recently published a column by a woman describing how cool it was that she could eat donuts and put on make-up while driving. Idiot. (Sorry, that slipped out.) This is the deal: it is not cool to put yourself (or anyone else) in this kind of danger and it is also very uncool to live up to a stereotype. Admit it! We don't want to be in the same class as the losers who shave and read the paper while driving, do we? Yes, we're all in a hurry and almost always late. If you must maximize your, uh, efficiencies, PLEASE only work on that face at stop lights or when the car is not moving. Post-crash plastic surgery is painful, expensive, and if you poke that eye out, you're not getting another.

Eating. Here's one I really like. How many on the run commercials have we seen with the chick/dude/whatever jamming a nutrition bar or burger or refreshing beverage down her/his throat while driving? These commercials deserve a "don't try this at home" tag line. Face it...you should have both hands available to respond to emergencies, and if one is holding that mocha latte, one really doesn't have a chance. If you MUST have food/drink in the car, sample from it at stoplights or when the car is at rest. Heck, in some places (like Oregon, for example), it's illegal to eat and drive! Fun statistic: 17% of all food consumed away from home is eaten in the car.

Cell Phones. Haven't we all heard enough about this? Emotional conversations will completely take our minds off the road, and the other kind could put us to sleep. Studies show that it is the conversation that distracts the driver, not the device. Sure, it's great (in theory) to use the time to catch up, but who wants to think her last conversation on this planet is going to be with someone about what they had for lunch that day? Here are some very basic strategies for cell phone use in the car:

... Keep your cell phone conversations limited.
... Ask a passenger in the car to have the conversation for you.
... Plan your conversation in advance and keep it short.
...Tell the person you're calling that you are driving a car so they recognize the risk.
... If the person on the other end of the call wants to give you information (like directions), pull over and write them down. Or think about asking that person to e-mail you the information they want to give you.
...Avoid phone use in heavy traffic and hazardous weather conditions.
...Secure your phone in the car so that it doesn't become a projectile in a crash.
... Dial and start the conversation while the car is at rest so you can devote safe and undivided attention to those tasks.
... Finally, please think seriously about whether you must make that call. Can't it wait???

Passengers. Ah, those friends and relatives we get to spend close personal time with, while trapped inside 30 cubic feet of hermetically sealed space. Pray everyone has bathed recently. As the driver of the car, were responsible for the safety of our passengers. Anyway, it's a two way street (I know, "Stop, you're killing me!"), and they're responsible for not making us crazy behind the wheel, or distracting us from our job. If your passengers are disruptive, your parents won't stop fighting, your uncle won't stop telling you how you just missed the turn, just stop the car (provided of course that it's safe to do that). Disruptive behavior is anything that yanks your attention away from piloting a ton and half of metal safely down the street. This includes screaming, throwing things, waving or signaling to other cars, tickling, pinching, hitting, laughing uncontrollably, fighting about the radio/cd player, etc. Even if it's your parents, pull the car over and have a discussion about how important it is for you to keep your focus. Consider using this language with your parents, "I only want to have to tell you this one time." Okay, maybe not. Your passengers will respect you for this. And if they don't, get them to a safe place, drop them off, and drive on.

Music. Most of us listen to something while we're driving. Hopefully it's not alternate personalities bickering inside your head. If so, you're back to the previous category: passengers. Anyway, sometimes that noise takes over. Changing radio stations, changing CDs, surfing through channels. This all turns our minds away from what we're supposed to be doing. Keep music in the background. Assert your individual music preferences at a volume that doesn't disturb those around you. Believe it or not, you'll find that you're more focused on your driving, too.

Smoking. The anti-tobacco lobby says plenty about this, without adding in driving. Ever drop a hot ash in your lap? OK, so imagine what it's like if this happens while you're behind the wheel. Not fun. Way not fun. Ever had those burning cinders fall on your head when you're trying to pitch the butt out the sunroof? Now you're getting it. Or worse, did you hear about the young women who leaned over to light her cigarette and totaled her car and the one she hit that was parked by the side of the road? (No joke -- we KNOW her.) These are all such stupid mistakes. Do you really want to be remembered among your friends as the dumb chick with the cigarette who was driving, and then BAM. Save yourself and your car and reserve smoking for when you get somewhere, if you must smoke at all. Also, you might just want to check local regulations about littering/tossing out hot butts, etc. Plenty of places have made that behavior ILLEGAL (plus, littering is SO not cool). Want your first ticket to be for accidental arson? We think not.

Loose stuff in the car. First of all, this stuff is very distracting. And that's really the point of it, right? Those beads hang on the mirror to draw attention and say something. OK, that's not so bad, except you're drawing your attention, or some other driver's attention, away from driving. So hang the beads or fuzzy dice, or shrunken head somewhere else. Put it where everyone can see it, but no one will crash. You will also open up a great deal of windshield real estate that is just perfect for looking through. Hey, there's a thought! Also, the folks in the rules-and-regulations department are likely to have some strict provisions about stuff blocking visibility. You may want to check that out. And, think about the heavy stuff in the back seat (or right next to you). Treat it like a passenger and buckle it into a seatbelt to hold it in place. Also, think about this. It's not too good to have stuff, like water bottles, small animals, trash, whipping around the front seat and landing under the brake pedal. Sort of screws up the whole braking process.