During the recent holidays,
I observed several incidents while driving on bay-area roadways, which have led
me to believe that the majority of today’s drivers lack the necessary common
sense, and emotional maturity to safely operate a motor vehicle.
During the weekend after
Thanksgiving, I was making a left hand turn from Mowry Ave on to northbound Paseo Padre, when
the car I was driving was nearly struck by a white Lincoln Town Car, which had
run a red-light at the intersection while traveling at a high rate of
speed. When our cars nearly hit in the
intersection, the driver of the Town Car, a balding middle-aged male, glared at
me through glossy blood-shot red eyes, with a flushed face that seemed somehow angry,
embarrassed, and confused all at the same time.
Also, during the week prior
to Christmas, I observed a maroon colored Honda CR-V backing up along the
shoulder of southbound 880. Apparently
the drive had missed the Alvarado-Niles exit, and decided it was easier to
backup along the shoulder of the freeway, instead of simply continuing forward
and taking the next exit.
Of course the worst example
of bad driving has to be the motorist who, on the day after Christmas, and with
a SUV full of children, came to a complete stop in the number three lane of
south-bound 880; and switched on her right hand turning signal as she waited
for creeping bumper-to-bumper traffic in the number four lane to let her over
so that she could exit at westbound Mowry Ave, (presumably she wanted to return
unwanted gifts at the nearby shopping-mall).
This brilliant maneuver resulted in vehicles zooming up behind on her
stopped SUV at freeway speeds, and then having to cut over into the number two
lane at the last second to avoid hitting her stationary vehicle.
Twenty-five years ago I
would have bristled at the idea of installing cameras at major traffic intersections,
or installing hidden black-boxes inside cars to record the habits of drivers. However, after observing today’s crop of drivers,
I’m led me to believe that many of them do not often enough see an immediate
consequence to their bad driving habits, in the form of a traffic fines, and
are unwilling to change unless they are forced to do so. I’m generally against intrusive government,
but many of today’s drivers simply lack the maturity to make the right choices
on their own, and a way must be found to make them face the impact of their bad
driving habits, before their false confidence leads them to cause a major accident,
and to take innocent lives.
