So, the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about traffic laws, is that hunk of metal & whatever that is careening down the road with you or me at the wheel is every bit as dangerous as a hand gun or an M16 or whatever.
We don’t treat it like that, do we.
Uhhhmmm…. I come to a full stop at stop signs and red lights, (even if I’m turning right, and I don’t actually SEE a cop car, because a ticket costs me both court costs, and a hike on my insurance). Haven’t got one of those in years.
I think I’ve been “at partial fault” for one accident, that was a result of my car having a mechanical failure on the interstate, (snapped something in the suspension or something, I only deal with the gas tank, regular service and necessary operational activities of driving), (causing it to spin on a dry road, and some idiot trying to maneuver around my disabled vehicle at high speed).
Haven’t bought a used car since. That option isn’t available to everyone.
I try to stay not much over the speed limit for more reasons than that. Keeping the speed a tad lower than 75 (okay, 60), saves on gas, but you weren’t asking that.
I never pass when the lines on the road forbid it, because those lines are there for a reason. They tell me, as the terrain does, that I wouldn’t see the oncoming car on that two-laner on the back road, till it was too late.
Those lines are there because some folk just can’t see curves and hills, I guess.
At a four way stop, I always let the one turning right turn right before I turn left. No need for the aggravation, when right of way is, actually, right of way.
I’m not stupid enough to think every driver gets these rules, so I’ve given myself a couple extra minutes to account for … um… other drivers. I’m getting there, if I’m late, it wasn’t because of the other driver unless his car got involved with her car, and I have to wait for the EMS to deal with the whole thing, because somebody else wasn’t following the traffic rules, and the results had to be dealt with.
I could go on. The traffic laws are there because there is a significant portion of the human population who drive who are too stupid to think about what’s over the friggin hill.
Don’t get me started on why we shouldn’t use our cell phones, other devices, while we drive. I won’t stop my passenger from speaking, but I had to make a rule with my daughter, when she was a teen, that if she asked me for something while I was driving, the answer was, eternally, NO.
I have more rules in my book than the law does, because I do actually understand how lethal the damn thing I’m driving is.
Personally, it is my observation that our driver’s license test is too slack, as are our rules, it takes far more to get a license in the UK or Germany than it does here, with good reason.
If you have to ask why we obey the flippin simple laws we have for driving here, you probably should move somewhere you don’t have to do that.
We need more public transportation.
