Defensive Driving?

How about no driving? or can’t drive worth a damn?

Eric Peters has a great article on “Defensive Driving“. But it’s really about the lost art of driving properly. This hit a nerve with me, since I spent the lions share of my career travelling around. I’ve driven 20K-30K miles in some years. I was on the road all the time. And I’ve seen my share of abject stupidity.

I grew up and learned to drive in Northern Virginia, which has become a mecca of bad drivers from all over the country. As I’d travel to see my customers on any given day, I’d see someone do something incredibly stupid once a week or so. Now, down here in North Dallas, I see someone do something stupid every single time I go out. Every day I’ll scream “AAAAAAH! WHATTHEFECK! A-HOLES LIKE YOU SHOULD UBER!”

Turn signals seem to be optional. Every secondary road around here has six lanes. Not a day goes by when I don’t see some idiot do a sudden right turn into a parking lot from the left lane. Hey, don’t mind us! Sorry to be in your way!

Red lights seem to be a suggestion. I was turning left at an intersection, and the light turned green leaving me with a yellow yield arrow. I nosed up into the intersection a bit, then stopped, figuring oncoming traffic was too thick. And then I see, just as the cars facing me start to move, some old lady blast right through the light from the right, gets tagged on her rear by a lady in a Lexus, careens to the left, bounces off a barrier, over the sidewalk and into a 7-Eleven parking lot.

I had to get moving, so I drove over to the Lexus lady and gave her my number, telling her I’d be a witness. Sure enough the woman at fault said she had the green. Uh…no, I told the cop when he called. It was a good three count that light was red.

My daughter was in an accident that totaled my car by t-boning another old lady that turned left into the intersection from the right turn lane through a red light. Luckily, a witness stepped up.

I was on the way to a doctor appointment, and had just cleared a school zone, so I started accelerating with the left lane I was in clear as far as I could see. I looked down at the clock to check the time, looked back up a second before slamming into a woman that was trying to u-turn from the left lane. She claimed she’d been there for minutes. Bullshit.

She’s the reason I no longer have a Sequoia. It was totaled. She’s the reason I have a Rav4 now.

She’s also the reason that both my cars have dashcams now.

You simply can’t count on people to drive properly. And when they screw up, they flat out lie. They they try to cash in. There’s not always a witness that wants to get involved. These cameras are simply too cheap not to use. I may upgrade to the bluetooth ones that upload to you phone, and do front and rear.

It’s sad you need this these days.

Wouldn’t it be better if people simply learned to drive?