Posted on 09/08/2016 10:55:44 AM PDT by Peter ODonnell
Some time back, I published an opinion piece stating that it might benefit Trump to be pro-water-resources in the western states.
But I have found a much better wedge issue for him to exploit, and I know he is part way there already.
Fix the damn roads and get the worst drivers off them.
I just came back from a six-day driving trip that included the states of WA, OR, ID, NV, and UT in a loop starting and ending in my home in BC, Canada.
Our roads are not always that great either, and all my comments about drivers apply equally here.
What I noticed in general was that interstate highways had considerable variations in lane markings that would confuse long-distance drivers. Some places had very helpful light-reflecting markers in the lane dividers. Others had old worn out paint. One wonders how much it would cost nationally to upgrade all interstate highways at least in built up urban areas to include the safer reflective lane markers.
Some state highways are in great condition (Nevada in particular impressed me) and some are awful. Signage varies from clear and prominent (once again Nevada is best) to secretive (Utah) to mysteriously tiny (WA). In parts of Washington, a state highway sign is about the size of the average city road sign. Why? Why keep the secret? And somebody needs to travel the roads as if they did not live within ten miles of the direction signs and ask themselves, what would a visitor be looking to find out (through roads that are not identified as such) and how can we smooth out the flow of traffic?
A lot of that would cost very little. I also noticed some dyslexic sign combinations. It does not make much sense to have two signs side by side where the left sign indicates a right exit and the right sign a left/straight ahead option. I saw that several times in Oregon. They say that marijuana reverses normal brain functions so that might explain it.
I realize that in many larger urban centers that I avoided on this trip, many bridges and interchanges need a lot of work. I think that is mainstream Trump policy already, and I think it's worth maybe a 1-2 cent tax on gasoline to fund it. You'll pay less in health care premiums right away once the work is done.
Now, as to drivers ... how to put this politely ... 90% are very good and 10% suck. They don't just suck a little, they suck enormous reservoirs of incompetence.
In my part of Canada, it's more like 50% good drivers and 50% suck varying amounts, so this is by no means an anti-American rant. You are generally very good drivers. I suppose you have to be to reach adulthood on those roads.
The worst displays I saw in six days included these:
(a) Exhibit A was driving north on the I-5 near Burlington, WA at 30 mph on Labor Day evening while everyone else streamed along in three lanes (that could not easily be seen, see above) at 65-70. He/she had chosen the middle lane for this display, and did not entirely exclude the other two lanes, which quickly came to the attention of all concerned. It was a good decision made by the car in front of me (in slow lane) to slow to similar speed and put the four-way flashers on, that at least evened out the chaos in lanes one and two. When the a-hole decided to go for the fast lane, he got a blast and flash of lights as a reward, and either woke up or sobered up briefly, took off at 70 mph, and then probably hit the center divide (median?) a few miles later, as there were several stopped vehicles there with people checking said area. By the way, a really dumb thing to do, is to park on one side of a busy interstate and cross three lanes of traffic to help somebody who is already being helped by a few people who stopped on the same side as the trouble. You can pretty much expect that emergency help will be on scene shortly in this cell phone day and age. And in fact, several first responders were then seen heading towards the scene moments later. No idea if this car was dented, wrecked or just parked oddly in a ditch, but hopefully no other vehicles were involved.
Exhibit B was the motorcycle (donor vehicle) in Utah who decided that he would pass ten cars driving at the posted limit in a light rainstorm, not just at 80 mph but at about 100 mph. Death wish? Good luck to you, sir.
Exhibit C was the couple on another donor vehicle who also passed by in a heavier portion of the rainstorm, this time free from the encumbrance of helmets. True love found in the final moments of a fleeting life?
Exhibit D was the moron who had just passed several slow-moving RVs in a tight series of turns on a canyon road with no shoulders, on a double yellow line, reaching the point where I would be in five seconds, umm, five seconds ahead of the time where he and I would have merged into a nasty one. Then you would not be reading this. Neither would he.
and finally, Exhibit E was the pick-up truck whose driver was apparently texting and probably telling people at the high school parking lot "I am almost there" as he drove past it and through the stop sign at the T-junction into the ditch, luckily at a rather sedate speed judging from the condition of the truck and the fact that people were walking around.
And this brings me to the core of my sermon. While we are all concerned about terrorism and the spread of deadly viruses, etc, is it not true that bad drivers are killing thousands upon thousands of innocent people every year by doing one of these three things they should not do -- driving impaired (including sleep deprivation), texting, or operating an unsafe vehicle?
I am a libertarian by nature, and wonder how we can come up with the right policy set to make our roads safer without massive government intrusion into our freedom of movement. Is it a socialist thought to wonder, "why must I take my life in my hands every time I drive on the roads?" And I am a very defensive driver with a long accident-free history, but when I count up the times I have been seconds away from being in the wrong spot, it staggers me, and multiplied by the millions of safe drivers on the road in the same circumstances, I have to wonder about how we can really get the morons off the road, I mean they try hard enough themselves, but they don't always go out solo.
Thus endeth the first lesson. Any thoughts? Or do you like the adrenaline rush of sharing the road with the 10 per cent?
You haven’t driven in Miami?
Obama took at least $7 TRILLION American Dineros from us....
supposedly for “shovel -ready infrastructure jobs” like especially highways and roads
but we never saw a single new job (or, patently, any significant road construction or repairs). O eventually was forced to admit there’d been no jobs (no construction without any jobs, of course).
he (or his puppet-masters) still have our $$$$, however.
Now, if we can only elect someone who will reclaim our $$$ and actually deliver on the infrastructure promise! (or refund our taxes!!!!) But this is the SuperSized-VenteGrande-Corrupted USA government we’re talking about.
So, don’t get your hopes up...
Miami — No, I imagine the percentages change a lot as one approaches the equator. That high sun angle must make it harder to drive. Or maybe there’s another factor? I’ll figure it out.
“and ending in my home in BC, Canada.”
Well, then shouldn’t you be complaining to your PM about the roads in your precious Canada?
Why do all foreigners come here then tell USA citizens how things should be? Please clean your own house!
Are you related to Piers Morgan?
“Some state highways are in great condition (Nevada in particular impressed me) and some are awful. Signage varies from clear and prominent (once again Nevada is best) to secretive (Utah) to mysteriously tiny (WA). In parts of Washington, a state high”
********************
Here’s a hint: Las Vegas.
Taxes
During fiscal year 2014, more than $2.0 billion in taxes and fees were paid by Nevada hotel-casino operators. This included major contributions to Nevada’s three largest sources of revenue: sales tax, property tax and gaming tax. Nevada hotel casinos account for nearly $1.4 billion, or approximately 45 percent of State General Fund revenues – more than any other industry.
http://www.nevadaresorts.org/benefits/taxes.php
Now in NY we have parkways that are for cars only. When I started driving in the 70s they did not allow school buses on the parkways.
Now this morning packed with school buses. I know its NY but the roads, in the past 8 years have gotten real bad. Yeah where did that money go?
Amnesia!
I would add “passive aggressive” drivers to your list of the dangerous.
I used to take a 50mph road, with one lane in each direction. Many times I’d see folks doing under the limit and when being passed, would speed up to block.
Not just a couple mph here, which often happens when being passed which I attribute to a kind of pack mentality that makes groups want to keep up w/each other.
I’m talking flooring-it speeding up.
Lots of head-ons on that road, for which would I blame the passive aggressive more than the aggressive.
I don’t mind those who want to be slow and safe, but I absolutely detest those who feel they must “punish” those that don’t follow their “model”.
$7 TRILLION-plus....the biggest theft in recorded humam history
and no media coverage. none
Holy Cow!
And was there not 6 million misplaced too?
Seriously, is America in a coma?
Thanks
Wait a minute now; I do a lot of long distance driving, I saw thousands of OBAMA highway reconstruction signs out there, (NO WORK BEING DONE), but thousands of signs.
Just think about how many sign makers were employed, and how many post hole diggers were put to work.
I used to watch a lot of those Russian dash cam crash videos. It was a gateway drug. I then went on to US dashcam crashes, “insane” crashes, and am now mainlining on “pedextrian” crashes.
In all seriousness, they should show certain parts of those videos in driver’s ed. You can really learn what activities lead to such mayhem.
The pedestrian ones are amazing. About 80% are the fault of the pedestrian, and most of the remainder could have been avoided if the pedestrian had been attentive and understood that their life (and the life of the baby in their stroller) was at stake.
I dunno. When I lived in Washington State, people used to fear Canadian drivers. Something about their inability to translate kilometers into mph. ;)
This is one reason I now have a dash cam.
good point!
signs probably mass=manufactured overseas
but someone did have to dig the holes, I wonder if we can find that fellow and get his story? the one guy who got a job under Obama while we have 100 million working age adult American citizens without work?
The earlier comment about how I should complain to my PM about my roads — actually, in Canada, we don’t have a national system of highways at all. The highways are all run entirely by the provinces. So I have complained to my provincial premier about some specific aspects. Generally speaking, however, the highways here are in better shape, the drivers on the other hand are generally worse, especially in the Vancouver region. If you ever come up here, be aware, an orange light ahead of the red is widely seen as an invitation to drive even faster. People run red lights here like Vegas visitors hit slot machines — early and often.
But as to the system of highways, we never went the route of a national numbering system like your interstates and the various US highways. It may seem that way because across all of the west, Highway 1 tends to be the Trans-Canada freeway or highway. But that was just done at the provincial level. And because the provinces do everything related to highways, it is somewhat easier for the voters to keep track of what is or is not being done and punish or reward the appropriate parties.
The U.S.A. is a much larger country in terms of population and (when you exclude the three quarters of Canada that is not developed) area to be covered by roads, so it makes sense to have a federal highway system there.
Good comment on the passive-aggressive drivers, they do annoy many of us. I try to let people pass when I see them coming, especially if I think they are gambling on space ahead of me. I don’t want to be sideswiped in a head-on.
Most people I see do that do it to chronic tailgaters who dont seem to get that driving 6 feet behind someone at 70mph pisses people off
I imagine that is often the case, at least for younger Canadian drivers. We left the imperial system for the metric wonderland in the 1970s, if you’re my age (67) you had some driving experience in mph, in any case, the vehicle speedometers up here show mph as a second feature and most people up here who travel across the border know that 100 km/hr is 60 mph etc (it’s actually 62 but whatever), and 80 km/hr is 50 mph.
I would fear Canadian drivers more for their erratic lane changes and the fact that many will come down for the day to splurge on fast food which they must consume on the road. :)
You just scanned the first few lines, no?
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