How do you know if you're a bad driver?

'Bad drivers' are mostly everyday people – they’re not evil and malignant, they’re just people operating their own cars and sharing public roads with others – and occasionally making mistakes.

We all make mistakes from time to time and we may have learned the occasional bad habit, but we may not deserve the 'bad driver' label.

But if you’re worried you may be a bad driver, ask yourself these questions...

In the morning, we often have a place to be by a specific time. It could be work, school or even an appointment with our GP.

Those who get behind the wheel during peak hour are usually experienced tacticians and strategists.

These are people who know where the traffic jams are likely to be, what are the best rat runs to use and how to co-operate with fellow road users. They look ahead and watch out for 'unexpected' snarls – like the car making a right turn ahead.

Leaving a 'braking distance' to reduce the 'sight screen' effect of the SUV in front is good practice, leaving a minimum of four car lengths (about 20 metres) to the car in front so that at least two other vehicles in front of that are also visible.

Drivers behind should also watch their mirrors. Hopefully the tactical commuter has time and space to react and merge left as soon as the brake lights or indicators light up on a car in front.

Moving freely and smoothly in and out of lanes to maintain the traffic flow also keeps fuel consumption low and avoids cleaning up the car in front when it has slowed for a pedestrian meandering across the street.

Learning the traffic light sequences (how long the right turn arrow will remain green, for instance) is another good tactic, as is turning your head for a snapshot of what's going on in the blind spot before slipping the indicator on.

When a tray truck is being unloaded in a clearway, the appropriate course of action is to stay in the left lane right up to the last moment, but with the right indicator flashing for drivers in the right lane to leave room for merging.

This is the scientifically prescribed method for reducing traffic congestion caused by merging. It's known as the 'zipper method', but most Australians think it's morally wrong because we're indoctrinated from an early age to queue in a polite and orderly fashion.

If someone moves across from the left, chances are quite good they intend to turn right. That's the cue to merge left – before they begin indicating. The reverse applies too. Someone merging from the right wants to turn left. Anticipation is key.

Driving regularly in peak-hour traffic, provided it's done in safety, is like living in a foreign country for three months to learn the local language. It's an immersion technique.

And if all the points above are like a foreign language to you, you are a 'bad driver'.

Keeping calm in traffic is of paramount importance. Don't let the antics of someone else throw you into a tizz. If they're flipping the bird at you and mouthing obscenities because of one error – which might be THEIR error, not yours – don't get fired up, don't react. And don't fall to pieces.

Keep your eyes on the road ahead, pull over to let the other vehicle through and trust that having vented their spleen they'll continue on their way.

And if you are the person shouting profanities and making sexually suggestive gestures, settle down!

Back off, wait for a safe moment and place to overtake or turn off – and just get on with the rest of your day. Life is too short to be worried about a short delay due to someone travelling 10km/h below the speed limit or indicating to turn right after pulling up at the intersection.

If you frequently suffer anger management issues in traffic, you are a bad driver.

Do you wave to people who let you pull out from a side street, or acknowledge with gratitude when oncoming cars pull over to let you pass between parked vehicles?

In fact, are you yourself the person who makes those gracious concessions?

Or do you take it personally when someone pulls in front of you from the adjacent lane? Does your car need its own 'personal space', compelling you to tailgate so no one else can merge in front of you?

And conversely, do you pull in front of the heavily-laden truck that's slowing for a red light, just to get to the front of the line?

Has it occurred to you that shutting out others from merging in front of you leaves you insufficient braking distance to the car in front?

Do you disregard the 'zipper method', blocking other road users forced to merge as a lane ends because they've left it to the last moment to merge? Do you actively accelerate to block someone from merging? Even worse, do you brake-check someone who has angered you?

Do you believe that you are entitled to stay in the right lane because you are travelling at the indicated speed limit – never mind that your speedo might be reading high for the actual speed (and Subaru owners, we're looking at you!).

Do you, in fact, believe you are entitled to police others around you, despite the fact that you failed the police recruitment admission test – or never even sat for it?

Are you being less than co-operative with other road users because, to you, traffic is like a race to the death and every journey is a power trip?

If the answers to any of those questions is 'yes', and you're a repeat offender, then you're undeniably a bad driver. Stop it at once.

Pilots often talk about 'situational awareness'. An aviator lacks situational awareness when they no longer know whether the plane is banking because the pilot can't see the horizon through clouds.

For drivers, lack of situational awareness means failing to observe the vehicle in front has moved away from the lights or missing a left-turn arrow and holding up the person behind you.

In extreme cases, it's not hearing the siren of the ambulance behind you or failing to observe that there's a vehicle in the lane next to you, just off your rear flank.

Distractions that lead to this sort of oblivious driving include surfing the net on your smartphone or having the volume control of your audio system cranked up to the max.

Other distractions can include lighting a cigarette, changing a radio station, entering a destination in the satellite navigation system or perving on an attractive person on the footpath while the vehicle is in motion.

A honk of the horn when the light has changed, a near miss at an intersection controlled by a give-way or stop sign, a flash of headlights, raised fist out the window, invective spat at you by pedestrians or other drivers – these are signs you're a bad driver.

Do you overtake or make a U-turn on a thoroughfare with an unbroken white centre line? How about making a U-turn at a right-turn arrow when there's a sign specifically instructing motorists not to do so? Have you used the emergency lane on a freeway to overtake slower traffic?

Do you hold up others because you're unaware you may make a right turn between gaps in the oncoming traffic even without waiting for a green arrow. It's frustrating for those in the cars behind waiting for you to complete a right turn, but you won't do so without a right-turn arrow.

Do you know what the speed limits are in built-up areas and school zones?

If a bus is pulling out of a bus stop, do you expect the bus to give way to you when approaching from behind? What about level crossings? Do you find yourself straddling the rail lines as the boom gates lower?

The 150 peak-hour passengers on a Melbourne tram love those who make a right turn from the centre of the intersection, rather than a hook turn from the left. Is that you?

If you habitually commit offences like these, you're a bad driver.

There is a myriad of ways in which different drugs can influence your driving. Some drugs are uppers, some are downers. Some will affect your reaction times, some will impair your temperament. Alcohol can disinhibit you, detracting from your focus on the job at hand – reaching your destination safely.

The trauma directly attributable to drink driving over the years barely needs any explanation, but the various ways in which drugs can affect a driver's performance have not been as well documented. As much as any other reason, that's due to the diversity of all the recreational (and prescription) drugs available.

In this country, marijuana, heroin, cocaine, amphetamines and barbiturates (and derivatives of each type) are freely accessible, but most of them are illegal, and there's an increasing dependency on prescription drugs too.

At least with the prescription drugs – those that haven't been handed on to a third-party user – there's normally a caveat not to operate 'heavy machinery' while under the influence, and that includes motor vehicles.

Irrespective of what sort of drug it is you're using, if all the advice tells you not to take that drug and drive, but you do anyway, that makes you a bad driver.

Are your vehicle's tyres worn to the point the steel belts are poking through the rubber? When the brake pads have begun making metal-on-metal noises, do you carry on regardless, without taking remedial action?

Do you ignore other basic maintenance items and servicing? Are you the silly bugger to suffer a foreseeable breakdown in the centre lane of a three-lane arterial carriageway at the height of peak hour?

If someone is driving slowly, looking left and right for a parking spot, are you the sort of person to try overtaking in a low-powered four-cylinder hatchback when a sliver-thin window of opportunity presents itself?

What about on the open road, trying to overtake multiple vehicles in one manoeuvre while driving a heavily laden diesel SUV towing a caravan?

Are you inspired to replicate in your small SUV the YouTube antics of drivers in high-performance rear-drive sedans in the Middle East?

Do you believe you can safely cross an intersection in heavy traffic in your hybrid eco-machine by simply stamping the accelerator?

At night, do you drive at a speed beyond the range of your headlights and your reaction times?

If any of these apply to you regularly, you sound like a bad driver.

And if you offend in more than one of these ways you might even be a terrible driver.

Related: Drivers we hate
Related: Five bad driving habits that need to stop for the sake of your passengers
Related: The moment I realised that I needed to combat my road rage
Related: Three-quarters of Aussies think other drivers are the greatest threat to their safety on the roads