Car Tech: What do you think is the biggest threat to safe driving?
- 5/30/07 11:37 AM
Garbage In, Garbage Out
by Rocketmen2k5 - 5/30/07 5:44 PM In reply to: What do you think is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
It's a simple as this: Garbage in(thinking processes), Garbage out(bad driving habits).
Everything listed comes down to the driver.
by ssteffin - 5/30/07 5:46 PM In reply to: What do you think is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Of all of the factors listed as possible causes of accidents, all come down to being under control of the driver. If S/he is immature, inexperienced, or merely thoughtless, they are going to engage in any or all of the distracting and potentially dangerous behaviors listed.
If careful, and well trained, they will recognize the risks involved, and avoid them.
Teen drivers with immature brain development are the most risky, since they respond first to impulse and last to good judgment. Coupled with a lack of experience, they are accidents waiting to happen.
"Bad drivers" covers all the rest
by steve_is - 5/30/07 5:48 PM In reply to: What do you think is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Bad drivers are ones that speed, tailgate, eat, fiddle with the stereo, talk on the phone and all the other options in your question.
A few people can drive safely with one distraction, but I consider poor driving (i.e. speeding, tailgating, excessive lane changing etc) to be distraction number one. When you add talking on the phone, eating, etc. to poor driving, you get into distraction number two - almost no one drives safely with two distractions.
Alcohol
by hriik - 5/30/07 5:51 PM In reply to: What do you think is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I can't believe you left alcohol off this list!!
Cell phone space cadets. Oblivious to the world
by Swellesley - 5/30/07 5:55 PM In reply to: What do you think is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
It is amazing that people totally space out from all that is around them while on the cell phone. 99% of the time the person in the left lane going 25 mph in a 50 mph zone is on the cell phone. Oblivious to the world. They shut down and talk. Driving is reduced to a secondary activity.
Rule bending
by Ray Powell - 5/30/07 5:56 PM In reply to: What do you think is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have spent over a million miles on the road and I am seeing a pervasive trend to drivers thinking that 1. speed limits are only suggestions, 2. Stop signs really mean slow down at least a little bit, and 3. traffic lights are only to be paid attention to if there is already cross traffic in the intersection. It never fails to amaze me to watch a string of cars go through the intersection with the last two actually entering the intersection after the light has turned red. It appears that they feel that the cross traffic can't accelerate fast enough to hit them so it must be okay to go through!!
Cell phones are worse than bad drivers.
by jbroberts - 5/30/07 5:56 PM In reply to: What do you think is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Have you ever become so deeply engrossed in a phone conversation that you lose all track of time. It has happened to most of us. Cell phones being used while driving equals disaster. People have admitted driving for 15-30 minutes with no idea of what they did or where they went because they were so caught up in their cell phone call. At 45 MPH you travel the length of a foorball field in 5 seconds. God help us when it is 2, 5, 15, or 30 minutes of driving while lost in a cell phone call.
A driver came onto the interstate last summer and cut me off so badly that I killed my engine like a police PIT manuver when I had to steer so hard to the left to have him miss me. I turned my van around 180 degrees with about 50 witnesses. All I saw was a cell phone glued to his left ear. The police caught the other driver 23 miles later, but had to "chase" him for another 3 miles with lights and siren going before he came out of his "cell phone fog" enough to realize he was being pursued.
biggest threat on the road
by tjsinPA - 5/30/07 6:03 PM In reply to: What do you think is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
First hand experience-June 28, sitting at toll both at NJ Trnpk, waiting for change...rear ended. Driver said "distracted by toddler son". November 19, sitting/stopped at red light, rear ended, driver and passengers were snorting coke while driving. April 28 sitting at red light, rear ended, girl on cell with screaming toddler.
Of course, no one had adequate insurance for compensation.
So, I think children. Also, I live in an affluent area where teenagers are handed powerful cars beyond their driving experience.
I stay away from the high school when it lets out. A powerful car full of teenagers feeling indestructable, bobbing and weaving through traffic.
Cell Phones
by kamikaze_runner - 5/30/07 6:06 PM In reply to: What do you think is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I'm a runner and I can see whn a car "acquires" me because the car will move a bit to the side at that moment. If the driver never sees me, invariably they have a cell phone glued to their ear.
A close 2nd would be attitude. A very few drivers actually try and run over me thinking it's "cute". I throw a rock. 
All are dangerous except for the stereo.
by stugring - 5/30/07 6:07 PM In reply to: What do you think is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Listening to a radio station for the most part entails the driver to be passive. All other actions entail the driver to be active while in control of the vehicle. If a driver were to pull off the road and stop, to use or perform other tasks then they could be considered safe.
Cruise Control and the Automatic Transmission
by image66 - 5/30/07 6:11 PM In reply to: What do you think is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Morons in the left lane on the interstate...
Leave my cellphone alone. What next? You can't talk to passengers in the car? What is the difference?
Biggest menace on the road
by horseperson - 5/30/07 6:12 PM In reply to: What do you think is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Cell phones. People concentrating on a telephone conversation cannot concentrate on driving safely...not even a multi-talented multi-tasker. A person will lose track of one or the other, and usually, it's driving. (I'm an ER nurse...you wouldn't believe some the cell phone accidents I've seen).
SECOND BIGGEST MENACE ON THE ROAD
by reneeinmay - 5/30/07 6:46 PM In reply to: Biggest menace on the road by horsepersonThe booming sound of the music systems that are being specially installed to actually come through your car (especially when stopped at a red light)and the thumping base actually making you nausous! Not only is this a Health risk to our hearing (since the owners have already busted their eardrums; there are laws about the level of decibels which are totally disregarded, not to mention that these levels are higher than the pitch of an emergency vehicle's warning sound, which could very well and probably is trying to save someone's life. Perhaps if the offenders lost a loved one due to an emergency vehicle being obstructed by a selfish driver boom-banging his way down the road and never hearing the siren and if they see them these are the same ones who are so insensitive as to not get over to the right and let the emergency vehicle pass! These special music installations should be outlawed; and bopth the installers and buyers being hit with large fines! Renee
Mainly bad(stupid)drivers.
by 2treesonmnt - 5/30/07 6:12 PM In reply to: What do you think is the biggest threat to safe driving? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Driving requires all of your attention. Put make-up on at home, eat at home or the park, put in cd's while stopped, restrain pets in safety harnesses or cages(i have 4, so i know of what i speak) and the hardest part is to ignore the kids. They have to remain in the safety seats until almost middle school, so get ear plugs and a few dvd players for them, lock the doors and pay attention to ALL of the other drivers.
Bad Drivers unrelated to distractions
by 10082005 - 5/30/07 7:00 PM In reply to: Mainly bad(stupid)drivers. by 2treesonmntMany bad drivers are simply that, bad drivers. They are the drivers who are coming on the onramp of an interstate and NEVER look back over their shoulder. (they obviously should return their car, as the dealer never told them there was a blind spot). They are the drivers who don't see the guy in the other lane up ahead who just glanced down at his outside mirror and just lifted his hand up to the top of his steering wheel (hello!! he's going to change lanes). They are the driver in the left lane completely oblivious to the fact that someone is behind them.
or the driver in the lane thats ending right now! There were only 3 signs warning him over the last mile. He/She is in their own little world.
They are the driver that backup out of parking spaces without ever looking over their shoulder (you mean mirrors don't show everything?).
It wouldn't matter if they had a cell phone in one hand, a hair dryer in the other and a tuna on rye in their mouth...they are ALREADY bad drivers. You can't mandate attentiveness.
Happy Trails!
PooterMan
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