Quote:
Originally posted by ThrashersFan
Oddly enough, I got hit by a car and blew out my knee - permanent damage. My knee twitches each time the "should old people have an unconditional right to drive" argument comes up.
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I'm annoyed that it's just old people who may finally be seeing an end to their terrible driving and driving skills not preventing them from keeping their licenses. There are plenty of terrible drivers regardless of age. And I don't just mean the people who drive crazily, too fast, etc. Pure speed isn't as much of a factor, I find, as long as the crazy, fast drivers are also aware of how fast their cars stop and how well they can react. It's the ones who are just barreling along, without covering the brake or looking for cars peeking out of alleys or driveways who cause the accidents
I'm talking about the ones who run red lights (or stale yellow lights, block the grid, turn right on red in heavy traffic when it's illegal, don't yield to pedestrians, don't realize that not all stops are four-way stops, etc. In Chicago, the city is grumbling about cracking down on this stuff, but they've got a long way to go. Unless you do something egregious right in front of a cop, or are a minority, (and usually, I think both are necessary) you won't even get stopped in Chicago. I'm amazed at the amount of stuff I see happen when cops are right there, and they don't do shit about it.
And don't even get me started on all the "tragedy of the commons" stuff: waiting until the last second to leave an ending lane, turning left or right from the penultimate lane, when the ultimate lane is turn only, following turners in front of you through the intersection even when it's obviously about to turn, using brief extra lanes, turn lanes or even just extra space to try to go around traffic at intersections. All these things might save the actor a bunch of time, but they screw the rest of us who are following the rules.
Frankly, I don't get that upset when three drug dealers get killed in a garage in my neighborhood; that stuff happens, and it's a large part of why I don't deal drugs (well, also prison and the prison rape thing). I'd be much happier if the cops would spend more time actually enforcing laws which directly effect most people's lives. Too bad there is no huge ego boost out of getting the guy who always runs every stop sign in my neighborhood, or the tow trucks drivers who come through at 70 mph (seriously), runnning all the stop signs, so they can get to a tow.
At the very least, the city should make all those activities very financially detrimental. Maybe it is easier to get crazy with the tickets to address the illegal parking problem, but that worked. Everyone knows that you get your ass booted now. So move on to the guys who are just a step away from killing somebody with all their crazy driving.
Sorry for all the ranting, I just got back from a wedding, and the first and last legs of the round trip were the Skyway and 90 between it and the city, which are like the Wild West of Chicago driving.
