PHOENIX - Arizona routinely appears near the top of bad driving lists. So 12 News wanted to know what the Phoenix area's bad drivers could be doing better. We asked the people who see the most bad drivers every day: The cops.
Across the board, every department said drivers need to put down their cellphones and concentrate on driving.
Numerous agencies said rear-end collisions could be avoided if people were paying attention to the road and could see that a car in front of them had stopped. They also cited distracted driving as reasons people cut across multiple lanes of traffic to try and catch a freeway exit they missed or a turn they forgot was coming.
The Chandler Police Department went so far as to put together a YouTube video to try and teach people how to turn left. The department said drivers have a habit of stopping behind the crosswalk to wait to turn left, then turning into the outer lane.
Drivers should go a third of the way into the intersection and wait their turn, then turn into the inner lane. That way, they won't hit anyone who can take a free right turn coming the other way.
The Arizona Department of Transportation has been pushing the "zipper merge" for a while. ADOT suggests drivers wait until the lane they're in actually runs out before getting over and that drivers leave more room between them. If it's done right, ADOT said there's no traffic backup while people fight for a space.