There are several day to day things that just throw me off. Interesting example of is the traffic laws in this country. I guess it is not much better somewhere else. Maybe some countries have more elaborate laws or higher punishments, but overall this are extremely funny. So, I could be writing about how in Italy a man can be arrested for wearing a skirt, or that it is illegal to kiss on the French railway, but hey, I am here, so I will write about this place.

Turns out there is a great number of people that die in car accidents every year. And for some reason the major causes of this, according to the message the media and government is sending, are speed and not wearing the seat belt. Ok, I can imagine a scenario where speed will cause an accident. For example let say I am driving really fast, and I cannot make a turn, or I cannot stop in time, or something similar. Ok, I buy that, but seat belt? Now, don’t get me wrong, I use it every time, but what is the worst thing that will happen if I don’t? I guess I can die, but I think if this is my decision to die, people should respect that and let me. I guess I can imagine a scenario where not wearing a seat belt will make accident bad. Let say the driver is launched through the window and he hits somebody.

So, what is this rant all about? Well, my question is why is there not more emphasis on the more obvious causes of accidents. For example, how about driving through red light, or passing over solid line, or, and this one may strike close to home, not use the signal. It turns out that there is no real emphasis on that. I see people at least once a week driving through a red light, or pass over the solid line. I would say about 30% of people do not use their signals at all.

I guess the priorities are important. Everybody will drive 55 miles an hour on the straight four lanes highway for hundreds of miles, wearing seat belt, but when you come to suburbia, all bets are off. People will disregard the signs, ignore the laws, and so on. And you wonder why most people die close to home. Well, nobody lives on the highway these days.

Another interesting one is the one about very obvious signs (black on white, about the size of notepad), such as “Slower Traffic Move Right” and “Do Not Drive On Shoulder”. The image on the right was taken today on the local road. As you can see, there is actually not only state law, but also an actual sign that people should not drive on the shoulder. But here you see at least three if not more cars doing just that. And all this just to save ten seconds wait. Now add to this the fact that our lovely suburbia with on average 1.5 acre per lot does not have enough space to put a decent bike path or sidewalk anywhere. That means that all pedestrians and cyclists have to share the road with people like the guy in the dark Buick.

I guess overall the problem with the society is that it is getting pejorated enough to just want to solve complex problems using simple solutions. It is easy to blame all the accidents to a simple problem like speeding. But at least in my reality, it is never that simple. Speeding can make accident worse, and not wearing seat belt will make your chance of survival smaller. That said probability of causing an accident by driving fast or by not wearing seat belt seems much, much, smaller than by driving through a red light or outside the specified lane (passing or driving on shoulder).

Tags: Driving,Safety,weird
Categories: Rants
No Comments »