Plan your trip. In this day of Google Maps and GPS, there’s no excuse for a sudden swerve across lanes of traffic to an exit.

If you fail to plan your trip — or if you’ve been daydreaming — and your exit suddenly looms, remember that a sudden swerve across lanes of traffic may have fatal consequences for you. (This is a possibility that doesn’t seem to occur to sudden swervers.)

A sudden swerve is not excused by the mere flick of a turn signal. A turn signal is given to indicate the driver’s intention. It is not a license to execute an illegal and dangerous maneuver. The signaler who intends to change lanes (or two or three of them) doesn’t have the right of way. It’s his responsibility to yield to the drivers whose lane(s) he intends to move into. And if he misses his exit, tough luck. That’s the price of failure to plan and/or inattention.

This message is brought to you as a public service by a driver who braves the wild and woolly highways of Austin, which are dominated by drivers whose practices mirror their (left-wing) politics.