Of course Phil Stork isn't the only guy out there who prefers to drive headlong into a parking spot, instead of backing in.

But everyone who responded initially to his comments on this weighty issue happened to be of the opposite persuasion (see today's Road Worrier column, with reader comments).

Now, a few head-first types are piping up to cast their votes with Stork.

The logic is weird. Worried about running over a kid or a dog? This could happen while you are backing into the space! -- Clayton47

Anyone who thinks backing into a parking place is a good idea needs to be in a line of five or so cars while waiting for some incompetent to make three or four tries backing into a space. It gets worse if you are number five in line and everyone of the cars in front of you also back in.

I won't burden you with my age but I have been backing out longer than you likely have been alive and narry an accident. Seems to me the problem lies in carelessness more than anything else. -- Conner Atkeson

GMAC Insurance says it tested 5,183 drivers in all 50 states on their knowledge of driving laws, and North Carolina ranked slightly above the median at #20.

That's good, compared to the rest of the southern states. All of them ranked lower, from Virginia at #21 to Georgia at #47. (Check the rankings.)

Generally, most of the best were from the West (Idaho, Wisconsin and Montana were the top three). And generally, the least were from the South and the Northeast. Drivers over 35 scored better than younger ones.

Test-takers stumbled most on questions about yellow lights and safe following distances. On the test with 20 questions taken from actual DMV tests across the country, the average NC score was 78.2 (the passing grade is 70).

You can take the test, and learn from your mistakes, at www.nationaldriverstest.com.

There’s a lot of harrumphing on my voice mail this morning from readers rarin' to re-fight the War of Northern Aggression.

Native drivers take umbrage at aspersions cast on local motoring habits by Yankee transplants (see today's Road Worrier column, with more reader comments).

We learned how to drive from all those transplants running us over. It's not the natives who drive this way. It's the transplants who taught us how to drive. We never used to have to tailgate, but now we do. -- Linda Burton, 52, NC native.

The people who are doing all this crazy driving are coming from up north. There have been some second-generation Yankees who have grown up here and have the right to call this their home. But they're trying to blame the local residents for this bad driving, and I don't believe that is quite fair. -- Ben Henderson, 79, Raleigh native. ... [MORE]

Some of 'em have lower boiling points than others -- or more caffeine coursing through their fuel lines.

But there is a lot of consistency in the messages from self-described aggressive drivers who are speaking up and explaining themselves (see today's Road Worrier column; don't be alarmed by the scary old mugshot).

They describe themselves not as self-appointed traffic cops, but as remedial driver's ed teachers. And some of us have lessons to learn.

Even if you're not a honker, and even if you lack the urge to speed, you can recognize the stupid, dangerous behaviors that get them hot under the hood.

"What the media and law enforcement miss is why people like me are aggressive," writes Denise Bricker:

When I am the only driver in sight on a road with a 55 mph and someone looks my way and then pulls out in front of me so that they can drive 10 or 15 mph under the limit, it tends to irk me and I tend to honk.
... [MORE]

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has a new spin on the dangers of aggressive driving:

Hypocrisy.

Aggressive driving is a mushy name, but we understand what it means: speeding, tailgating, side-swiping, driving erratically, cutting in and out of traffic, not bothering with turn signals, sometimes rising to the level of road rage.

What's at stake goes beyond mere bad manners. Aggressive driving behavior was involved in 56 percent of the nation's fatal crashes between 2003 and 2007, the AAA Foundation says.

A new AAA report finds that we recognize what's wrong about aggressive driving when others do it -- but many of us admit we do the same things.

For example: ... [MORE]

As the General Assembly moves closer toward passing a ban on texting-while-driving, there's a new bill in the hopper that would crack down on another type of driver distraction: TV and DVD viewing and computer use in the front seat -- by riders as well as by drivers.

Senate Bill 368, "Various Changes in Motor Vehicle Law," is a grab-bag of fine-print adjustments to safety regulations and weight limits, and the leeway allowed garbage and recycling truck riders to forgo buckling their seat belts.

And then there's this section (strikethroughs represent existing language in the law that would be deleted, while underlines are proposed new language): ... [MORE]

When it rains, should we make drivers turn on their headlights? This is the kind of stuff our legislature used to debate for years. (Tuesday update: see today's Road Worrier column with readers' comments.)

Aww, do we have to? We're afraid we'll forget to turn 'em off when we park the car on a rainy day, and we'll come back to find a dead battery. (This was a legitimate problem, back in the days before your car chimed at you if you forgot to turn off the lights. But it wasn't a legitimate excuse to block this sensible safety legislation.)

I don't know who led the dark-and-rainy lobby back in the 1980s, but they held back progress as long as they could. First, legislators agreed to require headlights for cars driving in the rain, day or night -- but only if they were driving in a school zone.

Then they passed this wipers on / headlights on law in 1990. They made it nearly toothless: Violators are fined $5. It's mentioned in the DMV Driver's Handbook.

I mention this because I've heard lately from drivers who notice that a lot of us are in the dark, in the rain.

Claire Kiven says it's particularly hard to see light-colored cars -- beige, gold, gray -- when they don't have their lights on. Rich Holloman has trouble with dark cars. They're both right. More in tomorrow's Road Worrier column.

Lots of North Carolina drivers have something to say about the hazards of texting while driving and phoning while driving— and legislative proposals to ban them (also see Road Worrier column with readers' comments).

Most succinct is Milo Knudsen:

Sir, I do not eat, cell-phone nor shave while driving. Nor do I jump off tall buildings.

Pamela Price, a North Raleigh mom and Realtor, says it's getting out of control:

Not to have a cell phone I think is unrealistic in today’s lifestyle. But when you see a mother driving a maroon Windstar minivan, smoking with one hand and texting with the other — what in the world, that’s two hands! — and my 15-year-old son thinks that that’s not safe, you’ve got a problem.

A caller identifying herself as Patricia says she can always spot the drivers who are engrossed in cell-phone conversations:

When I'm behind a car that is holding up traffic or swaying back and forth across the line I say to myself, I bet that person is on the cell phone. And once I catch up with them, 99.99 percent of the time I am right.

Gene Gallagher was about to make a left turn in a North Raleigh subdivision a couple of weeks ago when something told him to watch out for a young driver who was supposed to stop for him. The kid's eyes were glued to the phone or gadget in his hand -- not to the road: ... [MORE]

Every year the General Assembly makes inroads on cell phone use by drivers.  Now it's illegal for school bus drivers and for teens under 18 to phone while driving.

This year, along with a renewed effort to ban mobile phoning by drivers altogether, there's a strong new push to outlaw texting behind the wheel.

Do you text while driving? Do you think it's safe? What about phoning, whether hands-free or hand-held?

I'd like to hear your thoughts, and especially your experience.  Especially with texting.  Pls leave me a phone message with your daytime contact info at 919-829-4527, or e-mail me. 

Sorry, I don't text yet. 

Tomorrow, the forecasters say, we'll move like tigers on vaseline. Leftovers from today's snow will freeze when temps drop below 20 tonight, returning by daybreak as nasty black ice.

“When there’s a wet snow you can get some traction, but tomorrow we expect it to be frozen solid," says Capt. Everett Clendenin of the State Highway Patrol.

"You just cannot get traction in these types of conditions. So the best advice we can give is don’t drive unless you absolutely have to."

The forecast as of 4pm Tuesday: Overnight low 17, high Wednesday 35. There'll be nothing melting before midday. 

NCDOT road crews will be out between 6 and 7 a.m. with their salt trucks and plows. DOT had about 450 people clearing major roads in its seven-county Division Five area Monday night and today.