autolex84 wrote: I am guessing that he means that people (in general) dont understand the attention that driving requires, he is equating that inattentiveness is JUST as dangerous as being drunk.
No, I think inattentiveness behind the wheel is vastly more dangerous than drunk driving. At least the drunk will pay attention in an attempt to not get caught.
fiat22turbo wrote: I will say that the driving tests have gotten much too easy (at least in my neck of the woods) but that shouldn't preclude drivers from learning on their own to be better. Much like other things, you should have to be recertified in order to keep driving and continuing education (driving schools, etc) add to your recertification. I believe CDL drivers have to follow some rigorous standards, correct? Pilots do as well. Why not the average driver?
Because if a pilot fails to control their airplane and crashes, there are way more people around for them to injure or kill. Especially at the times they're most likely to crash: immediately after takeoff and on landing.
For my part, I got a talking-to from a Parks Services officer the other day. He let me off with a warning, but he was bothered with how quickly I was driving. He said I hit 75 in a 55 zone. Only thing was, I hit 75 making a pass on a two-lane highway, because some jackass was driving 30-35 and I wanted to get around him and make the pass as quickly as possible to avoid an accident. Had he been going to speed limit, I'd have been patient. Because he was doing 20-25 under the limit, he was making people take a risk if they wanted to go the speed limit.
I want to be able to legally shoot paintballs at the cars of people who are driving while talking on their cell phones. That way, everyone else will at least see them coming. 
I agree that it sucks getting on the freeway with people driving fast in the right lane, but they pretty much already do that anyway. Depending on the time of the day, the traffic in the right lane is mostly all the people passing the people in the other 2 lanes. lol It would maybe be better if everyone did it that way, then half of the people trying to follow the laws, and half that dont care.
Salanis wrote: Because if a pilot fails to control their airplane and crashes, there are way more people around for them to injure or kill. Especially at the times they're most likely to crash: immediately after takeoff and on landing.
Depends on the situation.
Now this is entirely accurate, but the point is that we come into contact with cars and trucks on a daily basis. It has been statistically proven that you are more likely to be killed in a car than in an airplane. Personally, I'd like to know that everyone takes similar precautions when driving to keep that statistic as low as possible.
We all know that isn't true.
200 million registered drivers. 6 million accidents per year. That's 3 percent of all drivers get into an accident each year. Of those, half are injury accidents. So 1.5% of all drivers get injured in accidents each year. of those, 40,000 fatalities occur. That's .0002% of all drivers will die each year, half of those by alchohol. Meaning .0001% of all drivers will die with speed as a factor in the accident.
97% of all drivers seem to have no problems annually. Speed does not kill 99.9999% of all drivers.
And yet average speeds have increased every year... (well, due to fuel costs, maybe not the last year or so)
I know this has been said but our problem in the US it's easier to get a driver's license than it is to do taxes. Licenses are handed out like toys in a cereal box and there's not much driver training involved.
Other thing is all the variables we have in our cars that causes distractions. I forget where I read but talking on the cell phone is like drinking 3-5 beers, texting of course worse. Then we have GPS, iPODs, SYNC, etc, etc. Then on top of that most people don't take care of their cars. I know most of the people I ride with annoys the heck out of me when their windshields are dirty/fogged up and they keep driving.
I think more and more schools should start with driver education and then move onto driver training (aka like the BMW Driving Experience schools). Teaching people how to drive CORRECTLY hands on experience. Go through wet skid pads, wet slaloms, etc. Learn what to do in emergency situations.
The other thing that irks me especially in this upper middle class neigborhood is giving a 16 year old a brand new Porsche or 500hp Mustang. There is no reason to buy a new driver a FAST car.
Living in PA and being near 5 different states (WV, MD, NJ, NY, OH) we get so many varying driving styles. People from MD always ride the left lane and tailgate you, oblivious to people around them. People from NJ dart in and out of traffic like it's a race track. Driving training needs to be more uniform too. I remember my test in NJ being super hard, NY (from my friend's point of view) seemed harder. Here in PA the test is pathetic. You go around a cone, park between a cone, and you pass.
why not ban cars for anything, but commuting where there is not public transit?
Stargazer wrote: They need to do a better job of teaching the pass/travel/slow lane concept to new drivers. It seems as though 95% of drivers on the road have no clue that the right (slow) lane is not for passing. Anyone who passes on the right when the left (passing) lane is empty should be publically humiliated medieval style.
A couple of weeks ago I was heading into Atlantic City on the AC Expressway. It was three lanes wide and I was in the centre lane as I was driving faster than those on my right. The left lane was totally clear of traffic.
Having set this up.. I had an shiny happy person on my back bumper trying to get me to move over. He was literally inches from the back of me and flashing his highbeams like crazy.. but I was not about to budge when there was a perfectly empty fast lane just to our left.
The right lane finally cleared and before I could even consider moving over out of his way, he zipped around into it.. giving me the finger the entire way.
I think I was so shocked I laughed.
An idea through for decreasing traffic deaths, increasing the economy, and saving insurance industries money.. optional traffic schools.
I am not talking about sitting in a desk for 6 hours being bored, but actual behind the wheel defensive driving courses. The insurance industry should embrace them. Take a course (out of your own pocket) ever 2 years or whenever your license is renewed.. and save 10% on your premiums.
They would still make money hand over fist
People, people, people... settle down. No one is ever going to eliminate speeding by making it physically impossible for you to speed. This is America! Our armed tax collectors fill the state coffers to the tune of billions on speeding and drunk driving. Do you really think they would pass a law that shut down the money train or handed it over to insurance companies?
If they did that, they would have to raise the tax so that whiskey would be $1000/L and a pack of smokes would be more than a drum of crack. Hell, they'd have to start legalizing other drugs just to have more stuff to tax... and when you raise the price on sedatives... folks start thinking clearly... and that could lead to over-throw.
Its all good - you will be allowed to speed as long as you can afford to.
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