Why do they bother at all....
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JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
I swear, the last several days of driving around have made me scratch my head and question "Why do they bother at all?"
What they, you wonder?
Try this one: MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Traffic Safety groups.
Every year (at least for the last several), I hear my tax payer money being wasted in the form of commercials for the Smooth Operator program.
Why do I say it's wasted? Well, because it very obviously is.
It obviously is wasted when I see agressive drivers like the woman that was in front of me for most of the afternoon. Driving along much faster than the rest of the traffic, and acting as if the drivers in front of her were her own personal hood ornaments, or as if she was a NASCAR driver trying to draft off the car ahead of her. At several times, it seems as if she was actually being towed by the vehicle immediately ahead of her. Towed as in less than 4 feet of space between her and the next closest vehicle, all while driving at road speeds.
The same basic problem with the vehicle that turned into the campus area and had to pass every other vehicle that was waiting in line to pass through inspection points. Damn everyone else, pass them all and then shotgun or jackrabbit out to a start asap so you can ignore the speed limits set on the installation.
Look, I'm no saint. I drive a few MPH faster than the posted limits in most cases. Especially in some areas where the limits are artificially low, and make absolutely no sense. Maryland for example sets limits of 55 MPH (still) on their portion of the Beltway, as does Virginia. It's a fact of life that traffic runs at about 70 MPH unless it's the middle of the main rush hour, when the traffic instead crawls at about 30 MPH (average), if that.
But driving a little faster than posted speeds is way different than driving very agressively. Heck, I know in my youth I did that too. Tail-gating. Weaving quickly between lanes in traffic, always looking for an edge, treating the roads like they were a NASCAR event. Passing on the shoulder, or doing other stupid things in an effort to get ahead. Those are the tools of the tools -- the agressive drivers.
I see people day in, and day out, that make me think I must be becoming an old curmudgeon. I feel like I should be shaking my fist at the idiots that drive through my neighborhood, with it's posted speed of 5 MPH, which has been previously noted as "tolerated up to about 10 MPH, but not the 30 MPH that many do when zooming through." I regularly see people driving through the neighborhood doing 40 MPH or more on a very tiny strip of road. Barely enough to get up to 40 MPH, much less zoom from point A to point B. People go zipping through, apparently un-aware of the signs that remind them that there are "children at play", and there most definitely are -- including the nekked little toddlers that were out playing the other day trying to stay cool in the midst of a total heat wave.
What is wrong with these intellectually and/or common sense defecient drivers? Why do they think they can just zoom along without caring, and then why do they bawl like crazy when they have an "accident" that was no accident at all?
I know we are a go, go, go!! society. We all rush from point A to point B, always late, and/or always trying to squeeze in that much more in a short time frame so we can go home and relax, or go to the restaurant or bar to meet friends, or to the movies or wherever. But it doesn't excuse the agressive driving, the total lack of awareness of others, and the total lack of respect shown to others.
Again, I have to ask why the various agencies involved in Smooth Operator bother. They're fighting a losing battle, if they are even fighting. Save the money. Seriously, save it for the coffins for the victims of these idiots, or for these same idiots. We'll definitely need it for those purposes at the rate things are going.
What they, you wonder?
Try this one: MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Traffic Safety groups.
Every year (at least for the last several), I hear my tax payer money being wasted in the form of commercials for the Smooth Operator program.
Why do I say it's wasted? Well, because it very obviously is.
It obviously is wasted when I see agressive drivers like the woman that was in front of me for most of the afternoon. Driving along much faster than the rest of the traffic, and acting as if the drivers in front of her were her own personal hood ornaments, or as if she was a NASCAR driver trying to draft off the car ahead of her. At several times, it seems as if she was actually being towed by the vehicle immediately ahead of her. Towed as in less than 4 feet of space between her and the next closest vehicle, all while driving at road speeds.
The same basic problem with the vehicle that turned into the campus area and had to pass every other vehicle that was waiting in line to pass through inspection points. Damn everyone else, pass them all and then shotgun or jackrabbit out to a start asap so you can ignore the speed limits set on the installation.
Look, I'm no saint. I drive a few MPH faster than the posted limits in most cases. Especially in some areas where the limits are artificially low, and make absolutely no sense. Maryland for example sets limits of 55 MPH (still) on their portion of the Beltway, as does Virginia. It's a fact of life that traffic runs at about 70 MPH unless it's the middle of the main rush hour, when the traffic instead crawls at about 30 MPH (average), if that.
But driving a little faster than posted speeds is way different than driving very agressively. Heck, I know in my youth I did that too. Tail-gating. Weaving quickly between lanes in traffic, always looking for an edge, treating the roads like they were a NASCAR event. Passing on the shoulder, or doing other stupid things in an effort to get ahead. Those are the tools of the tools -- the agressive drivers.
I see people day in, and day out, that make me think I must be becoming an old curmudgeon. I feel like I should be shaking my fist at the idiots that drive through my neighborhood, with it's posted speed of 5 MPH, which has been previously noted as "tolerated up to about 10 MPH, but not the 30 MPH that many do when zooming through." I regularly see people driving through the neighborhood doing 40 MPH or more on a very tiny strip of road. Barely enough to get up to 40 MPH, much less zoom from point A to point B. People go zipping through, apparently un-aware of the signs that remind them that there are "children at play", and there most definitely are -- including the nekked little toddlers that were out playing the other day trying to stay cool in the midst of a total heat wave.
What is wrong with these intellectually and/or common sense defecient drivers? Why do they think they can just zoom along without caring, and then why do they bawl like crazy when they have an "accident" that was no accident at all?
I know we are a go, go, go!! society. We all rush from point A to point B, always late, and/or always trying to squeeze in that much more in a short time frame so we can go home and relax, or go to the restaurant or bar to meet friends, or to the movies or wherever. But it doesn't excuse the agressive driving, the total lack of awareness of others, and the total lack of respect shown to others.
Again, I have to ask why the various agencies involved in Smooth Operator bother. They're fighting a losing battle, if they are even fighting. Save the money. Seriously, save it for the coffins for the victims of these idiots, or for these same idiots. We'll definitely need it for those purposes at the rate things are going.