Warning-safe driving rant ahead. First of all, I daresay Im lucky enough to drive a car which handles better than at least 90% of the vehicles youll find on any given stretch of road (it may even be higher) and I pride myself on being a somewhat competent and extremely mindful driver. So on this mornings commute I observed the following: on highway 17, a challenging road if there ever was one, which recently was shut down for almost 12 hours due to a tragic fatality accident, and the posted speed limit of which is 50MPH, I witnessed a string of pickup trucks, minivans and poorly driven cars flying past me at nearly 70 (I was indicating 60 in the slow lane, which is 10 over the limit itself) in the fast lane, with barely a car length between them. Most of them were unable to keep their vehicles controlled through many of the corners (seriously, this road is like Nurburgring) What amazes me is that there are not more accidents given the way people drive. Further down 17 a Tesla Model S in the middle lane, swerving back and forth, apparently unable to keep his car in between the lines, and doing 5MPH under the limit (when I passed him, he had his head down, looking at his phone, so much for that big display, Bluetooth, and technology), and then finally a car on Lawrence weaving in and out of traffic in an extremely hazardous fashion, making some very close and unsafe merges, all without running lights or signaling. Ironically the story on NPR while much of this was happening was about Riverside Countys decision to get rid of their red light cameras because theyre losing lots of money on them every year. As many of you know, Im a motorsports enthusiast and I drive fast, and sometimes aggressively, but its hard for me to understand the blatant lack of understanding of HOW to drive quickly (without unduly endangering the lives of others) or the sheer stupidity of following someone at speed, with essentially zero margin for error should one of the cars in front of you need to stop suddenly. Safe driving rant mode off. Back to your normally scheduled peace, love and understanding.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 13:52:12 +0000