Cool, brisk, foggy morning.
6:30-6:50: The 7 yr old requested milk so I ran to the corner convenience store. The radio djs were talking about a letter to the editor that got my goat the other day. They read this lady’s words that said she had to quit her job as a courier because the law enforcement in Knoxville refused to ticket speeders particularly through construction zones. I missed the phone number or I would have called in. Perhaps it is time for me to write another letter to the editor myself. See. I believe what makes our roads safe is predictability. Predictable driving comes from when everyone obeys the same rules. Everyone obeys the same rules when we have good teaching. Speed trapping causes unpredictable driving. I contend that if everyone is speeding but going basically the same rate, particularly on the Interstate, then nothing is wrong. When someone sees a patrol car and slams on their brakes, an unpredictable change has occurred and the roads have become dangerous.
I was once on the Florida turnpike in a perfect straight stretch of road with miles of visibility. The group of cars were all doing the posted speed limit. We come across a couple of patrol cars and the car in front of me slams on his brakes dropping to 10 miles an hour below the speed limit in a very short distance. I almost tailended him and had to do evasive maneuvers to avoid having an accident. I half expected to get pulled over for wreckless driving.
I’m all for pulling over wreckless drivers. But let’s not arbitrarily say that because someone is driving faster than some posted figure that they are being “wreckless.” Let’s determine wrecklessness by the actions of the driver, the swerving, or the dramatic speed difference compared to the flow of traffic. A person zigzaging in and out of traffic is being wreckless and a person on the Interstate driving below the speed of traffic in the left hand lane is being wreckless as that person causes unpredictable behavior when people are forced to pass on the right.
Just teach people to drive.
