I ask my friends to send me safety information. It gives me something to rant about.  Today it paid off when my good friend sent me a “wonderful safety tip” of which she was unaware.  Here’s the gist, “when the roads are wet or icy,  don’t use cruise control.” OK.   What got me riled was one of the support statements that spoke to the point that young people are all - correctly - taught to drive using cruise control.  It helps them maintain a safe speed and conserve fuel.  They neglect a little point, which is that it also gives them one less thing to pay attention to.

Now call me radical, but I happen to think that if you’re driving a car you should be paying close attention to everything about it.  After all if you’re working with power tools - people will remind you to pay attention.  If you’re looking after children, people will tell you to pay attention.  So - how come when you’re driving a car - something that can easily involve power tools (a big one) and children (your hapless passengers) is it OK to NOT PAY ATTENTION to what speed you’re going?

What a crock.  Cruise control is right up there with cell phones as far as I’m concerned and not only should you not use it on bad roads, i would personally urge every member of the driving public to NEVER use cruise control.  Pay attention instead.