Community weekly poll: What is the biggest threat to safe driving?
- 8/1/05 5:10 PM
What is the biggest threat to safe driving?
by Marc Bennett - 8/1/05 5:10 PM
Cell phones (tell us why)
Car stereos (tell us why)
DVD players (tell us why)
Navigation systems (tell us why)
People with road rage (tell us why)
Kids (tell us why)
Bad drivers (tell us why)
Other (what is it?)
Jerks
by Nocturne - 8/2/05 1:22 PM In reply to: What is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Marc Bennett
Beyond the gadgets and kids to distract drivers, the biggest threat to me on the road is drivers that are just plain jerks. So many drivers are rude, ignorant and lousy to everyone else on the road that they appear to be trying to kill the other drivers. From cutting you off, running up your back bumper or driving like on a race track oblivious to everyone else's presence, it can be a survival test just navigating the highways around town.
Accidents happen and people sometimes slip-up and don't see something, but that is inescapable. I would rather get these jerks off the road than do away with cellphones and radios. A little common decency and consideration would make the rest of the problems easier to deal with.
Dumb Jerks
by wanop - 8/3/05 9:24 AM In reply to: Jerks by NocturneI agree about the attitude, but it's worse than that. The jerks don't know what they're doing. It's not that they cut you off, but that they reduce everybodys' risk window by reducing the amount of following space for the driver they just cut off. Four wheel drive gets you into trouble twice as fast, but the brakes that get you out of trouble are the same. Imitating the commercials is a sure fire way of bending the ride. Have any of these people taken a course where they practice driving to the limits, so they know what the limits are?
Couple that with inattention by having the stereo so loud that it would take a Bagdad bomb to overwhelm it (have you ever seen one of them directly in front of a fire truck that's using it's horn as well as the siren?), and multi-tasking with a cell phone/eating/drinking coffee/doing their cosmetics/babling with a crowd/reading something, and they are primed for a collision.
Ask any of these people what safe driving "looks" like, and you'll get a blank stare. Ask them what safe driving "feels" like (particularly in bad weather), and they'll start doing something else. See if they ever check their rear view mirror when driving forward. Ask them while they're driving if they know what's around them, and what the others are doing.
For the power trippers, ask them what four wheel drive is actually meant to do. Ask them what it's not good at doing.
In short, the amount of proficiency that's demanded of them is so little that it's scary. Once licenced they're supposed to improve their performance by experience, without any supervision.
So to answer the question, it's actually all of the above. The only question is how the dolt we're talking about is combining the risk factors to determine their personal collision index.
How to Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones
by new england - 8/3/05 2:26 PM In reply to: Dumb Jerks by wanopAbsolutely correct! It's a very dangerous world out there and the traffic police are overwhelmed. You must protect yourself. How? Take a Defensive Driving class (6 hours long). In many states, you even receive a 15% discount (for 3 years) on your compulsory insurance, in other states (eg. CT) there's no discount. But the knowledge of how to avoid a collision is priceless. How much is your safety worth? A lot more than the cost (about $40) of this course or the savings. We take the class every three years without fail. Good drivers can become better drivers. The classes are available most everywhere from the National Safety Council, AARP, and similar agencies. Do it!
TOO TRUE!
by photobuff55 - 8/4/05 6:16 PM In reply to: Dumb Jerks by wanopI agree with much of what you said. Which is one reason why I made a point of taking my children out to the local parking lot after a substantial snowfall and making them experience trying to stop quickly and other maneuvers in our 6000 lb conversion van. You CANNOT appreciate what a trucker has to deal with until you get behind the wheel of something large yourself. I can't tell you how many times I had to hit the brakes so hard I left skid marks to avoid rear-ending someone who cut me off - at 35MPH! Auto drivers don't understand what it takes to stop a 6000 lb vehicle and don't respect what a large van can do if it DOESN'T stop! One time in particular I'll never forget ... bad thunderstorm, stop lights were out, street lights were out, and it's a 3-way intersection where I needed to turn left. Oncoming traffic wasn't stopping at all, so even tho it was supposed to be like a 3-way stop sign, I sat there forever waiting for clearance. I finally started my turn just in time to have someone in this little Geo Metro come barreling thru, hitting my van square in the passenger door. I had a bashed in door, my kids were fine, but his car was totalled. It all goes back to driving defensively, anticipating the situation, and SLOWING DOWN!
Amen
by skyview2u - 8/4/05 8:32 AM In reply to: Jerks by NocturneThe simple truth is that drivers need to understand and follow the rules of the road. Too many seem totally unfamiliar with the requirement to YIELD to the driver with the legal right of way. Rather it seems that many (if not most) opperate their vehicles as though they firmly believe they always have the right of way and everyone else should YIELD to them.
It depends on where you live
by JakeChance - 8/4/05 9:34 AM In reply to: Jerks by NocturneLike someone else wrote about Mooses being a big problem in NH and VT and Kangaroos being dangerous in Austrialia, the problems vary on the location of where you are living. I grew up in NJ and have avoided tons of accidents by remembering what my awesome driving instructor told me back in high school. "Just assume everyone else on the road is a complete dumbass, cause chances are they either 1) are, or 2) will do something stupid as we all do from time to time." He was so right. I think more people fit in category 1, but we're all human and need to look out for our own errors as well as those around us.
I was going 45 down a 40 MPH road once and a very old woman pulled out infront of me from a side street. If I hadn't been looking ahead at all of the side streets I would have missed this and instead of getting the finger she would have gotten killed (I was kidding about the finger, she was old so that'd just be mean, but it makes the sentence flow better).
Now I'm living in MA and its a completely different game up here. There are more busses for one thing, which you must learn to avoid and pass quickly, and people are much more agressive drivers as the roads around the Boston area (around routes 2(A), 3, and 16) are awful. Again paying attention to the other idiots on the road has saved me a few times, same as people paying attention to my stupidity has saved them and me. You'd also better know the area or have someone else know the area as tons of strees aren't marked or marked well and present an additional hazard.
I don't know how it is in other parts of the country but we need harder driving tests to keep more idiots off the road in New England.
TRUE
by ganmoo - 11/25/05 2:24 AM In reply to: It depends on where you live by JakeChanceHERE IN SOUTH AFRICA IT'S MINI-BUS TAXIS!
Hear, Hear Nocturn!
by networkboy - 11/25/05 5:09 AM In reply to: Jerks by NocturneAll the things you mentioned and BASIC DRIVING SKILLS like lane discipline!!
Lane Discipline
by ar1zona1 - 11/25/05 8:33 AM In reply to: Hear, Hear Nocturn! by networkboyAnd lane discipline also means yielding to faster moving traffic by moving to the right lane!
The aggressive drivers get all the attention on the news, but too often it's the slow poke in the left lane who thinks since they are below the speed limit they don't have to get out of anyone's way that causes traffic safety problems.
Lane discipline?
by photoxprt - 12/8/05 6:33 AM In reply to: Hear, Hear Nocturn! by networkboyLane discipline?
Lane dis-ci-pline?
Would that have ANY relationship at all to SELF-discipline?
As a former Navy officer, scout leader, manager etc., I have found that too many people nowadays have grown up with NO real concept of discipline. When too many children can get their parents into trouble for so much as swatting their butts!
I am apalled!
NO body paid me or gave me ANYthing while I was raising MY kids. What gives them the right to try to tell me how to raise them? I never beat on my kids or sent them to the hospital; but they sure learned not to lie,cheat, steal or any number of other follies. They were NOT fond of my belt!
I may have to take it all back.
I may be entirely wrong.
It MAY be ENTIRELY thr problem that people can't HELP themselves for being jerks!
OMG!!
It may be too late for us good drivers!
The earth may soon be swallowed by obnoxious, toxic self-serving creeps with NO regard for ANYONE else!!
FLEE while you CAN!!!!
Jerks
by protagonistic - 11/25/05 9:14 AM In reply to: Jerks by NocturneEver notice how so many of them seem to drive behemoth SUV's that never manage to make it off the pavement? 
biggest threat is bad drivers
by marydawn7 - 8/2/05 1:31 PM In reply to: What is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Marc Bennett
First of all it is becoming more clear that parents aren't as able to instruct their children in driving as much as they used to we are just too conjested. Drivers education has become a joke. The kids here just have 3 road trips and may not even have an opportunity to drive in any given trip. Pratice makes perfect or at least a little better. If drivers ed lasted a whole semester and they actually had to learn the book work and had the hands on driving every day for several weeks then our roads would be safer for everyone.
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