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?
Come to New Mexico next time and you won’t have to write one of these....
You are correct — “I’ll show that guy” means very little when your front end is crumpled up and his rear end is slightly dented.
I like to be able to see what the traffic seven or eight cars ahead of me is doing, you can’t do that when you tailgate, especially trucks, in fact when you tailgate trucks you can’t see traffic signals or road signs and if the truck stops fast, you’re looking at almost a write-off even if you survive the rear-ender yourself.
Nobody offered any actual suggestions yet about how to get the standard of driving up, it must lie in better education of drivers combined with more effective banning of repeat offenders. I cringe when I read stories about so and so who finally met their end after sixteen convictions for DUI, like how do they ever get back on the road after three?
I don’t think I could get all the way through Utah. But is it better or worse? I was in NM once, all seemed normal on the rare occasion that I actually saw another person on the road. Not too sure about ABQ as it was midnight-ish on the way through there.
By the way, Idaho, sorry about the eighteen billion bugs we killed, I’ll look into a replacement.
I meant it as you’ll probably get killed. It’s only lack of traffic density in the boonies that keep the carnage from being worse.
I once drove over 100 miles here without seeing another car.
Albuquerque isn’t bad if you count to at least 3 before entering the intersection after the light turns green.
By the way, off topic, but I loved the scenery as always and enjoyed the general friendliness of the people, and we saw many more Trump signs than Clinton, in fact maybe zero Clinton, I can’t recall seeing one anywhere, and that includes some blue parts of WA and OR for sure.
Mostly hand-made Trump signs too, I guess the professional ones have not been passed around much yet.
As the safety equipment gets better, the driving has gotten worse. I don’t think driver’s ed is actually teaching much about handling a car anymore, either. I know parallel parking went out the window years ago. As far as the road conditions, some states are better than others, always have been. Interstate signage should be standardized and not varying from state to state, as far as I’ve understood it. Road conditions in general have gotten sort of spotty, some get resurfaced regularly, more often than necessary in my opinion. Others are more patch than pavement.
“You just scanned the first few lines, no?”
True. That does not change the idea that foreigners who come here want to tell us what is wrong and how to ‘fix’ things. If things are so wonderful where they came from then why in the hell are they here?
I say, “Eff ‘em!”
If someone does not like things here then I would be very happy if they would GET OUT!
We do not need anymore Peter Jennings, Jennifer Granholm, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Piers Morgan types or any other foreigners who were raised in socialist countries. Their socialist ideas are seared into their brains.
The poster said that Canadian roads shared the same problems in some respects to a larger degree but he was driving on American roads. You just sound petty. I have driven on Canadian roads, specifically the Al Can on a CB750 and had some things to say about Canadian roads and traffic.The Canadians who commented sometimes defended, sometimes agreed. None got in a pet because somebody was putting his foot across the property line.
In Miami, it’s the “wet-foot”, “dry-foot” factor.
Here is a suggestion. STOP issuing driver’s licenses to illegal invaders.
By the way, Idaho, sorry about the eighteen billion bugs we killed, I’ll look into a replacement.
When I was little, my dad would drive us from L.A. to Idaho to see his folks. Back then each state marked its roads differently. Cal used double white lines, Nev. used a white center line with yellow no-pass lines and Idaho had the opposite scheme. But I always knew we were in Idaho because of the dead jackrabbits.
Thank you for your very positive comments!
Have a nice day! ;-)
All of my comments stand, period.
I graduated from a US high school in the mid-70s. The year before I took drivers Ed, I sat in on a class with an older friend, and they had the gory films of accidents. I don’t know what happened, but the following year, no gory films, and I haven’t heard of them since.
For motorcycles, there was a study of accidents (HURT?) and they incorporated the findings into a really good motorcycle safety course. It would be good if they did the same for cars.
I don’t think of myself as a socialist or really a foreigner, any citizen of the free world should be pro-American and try to help America become the best it can be, it’s in the interests of all of the free world.
I am living in Canada more by accident than choice, and would probably prefer to live in the western states. I go there a lot and I feel at home there. But I have made no effort to live there illegally or without following the laws of the United States.
I hope for the best in this election and the less socialism the better. I just wonder sometimes how we can perhaps get safer roads without draconian government interference in civil liberties. It’s a tough call. We wouldn’t want to fly if bozos were freely permitted to fly airplanes. But we are expected to head out onto roads that are freely available to people with no conscience and no ability to drive.
It is one of the more puzzling aspects of modern life, like why do people stop to see where they should go at the top of the escalator.
.
One good policy would be to change the very definition of “Speed Limit” from upper to lower limit. (with exception for extreme inclement weather)
No one should ever drive below 70 MPH on a major highway in clear weather.
“I don’t think of myself as a socialist or really a foreigner, any citizen of the free world should be pro-American and try to help America become the best it can be, it’s in the interests of all of the free world.”
In 1960 at the age of eighteen I applied for a driver’s license. Having to wait in line for others who were before me and witnessing the most atrocious driving skills or lack thereof, I came to the conclusion that somewhere between 50% - 75% of people who had/have driver’s licenses should never be allowed to sit in the driver’s seat of ANY motorized vehicle. I believe that the actual figure is much closer to 75% than 50%. Over fifty years of driving have only solidified my conclusion.
Be that as it may or whether or not I am correct in my conclusion and with regard to your above statement and specifically, “and try to help America become the best it can be,” I have the following comments:
So.....YOU get to decide what will help America become the best it can be?
And, of course, the roads and drivers in Canada are perfect, right? Why not try to help Canada be the very best it can be. It helps the free world, right?
The arrogance of some people staggers the imagination! Mr. Trump! We need a Northern wall, TOO!
Maybe I should go to a Canadian forum, tell them that I am from the USA and start knocking the roads and drivers of Canada, that they should listen to ME and clean up their act! Geez! I wonder what would happen? Would I be figuratively assassinated? ;-)
“The poster said that Canadian roads shared the same problems in some respects to a larger degree but he was driving on American roads. You just sound petty. I have driven on Canadian roads, specifically the Al Can on a CB750 and had some things to say about Canadian roads and traffic.The Canadians who commented sometimes defended, sometimes agreed. None got in a pet because somebody was putting his foot across the property line.”
You may be interested in my comments in Post # 36. ;-)
I don’t believe the number of freepers with chips on their shoulders.
“I don’t believe the number of freepers with chips on their shoulders.”
With the whole world finding fault with this country, including Canadians, I wonder why we got those chips on our shoulders. Huh?
Probably not, most of us are quite aware that we have a large contingent of bad drivers. I said so in my post. People run red lights up here all the time, and there is way too much texting on the road. We have our fair share of impaired drivers too. The roads are not that different from American roads, in general the signs seem a bit better to me but perhaps it’s just because I’m used to them.
It never hurts to get an outside perspective, nobody is forcing anyone to act on it.
But anyway, I am one of those deplorables who would like to live in the U.S., but there is no particular economic justification for it so I haven’t made the attempt (which would be illegal) so I just visit a few times a year. I am really not that into Canada, never have been really.
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