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Tom Anderson
Editorial Director
If you’re a commuter like me, chances are you keep a bottle of antacid in your ride’s glove compartment because, let’s face it, driving in Southern California is about as relaxing as running down the slope of an erupting volcano while covered in fire ants and being shot at.
Now before you say, “Thank you, Captain Obvious” and start reading something else, just hear me (read me?) out. Take a trip down any Southland freeway and there’s a darn good chance you’ll see scores of other motorists tailgating (often too lazy/self-centered to change lanes), weaving in and out of traffic, darting across lanes and driving over solid lines, all without using turn signals and while traveling at least 15 to 25 miles per hour above the posted speed limit. Surface streets have many of these same problems, in addition to people blitzing through red (sorry, “pink”) lights because they’re apparently too important to follow some silly rules or care about the safety of other motorists and pedestrians. Am I the only one that doesn’t consider such behavior to be sane and acceptable?
Think about it: The average new passenger car takes roughly 150 feet to come to a complete stop from 60 miles per hour. That’s about 10 car lengths. Crank the speed up to 80 or 90 and that distance grows accordingly. It doesn’t take a Ph.D in physics to figure out that at one yard or less behind the vehicle in front of you, you won’t have even remotely enough time to react if he suddenly slams on his brakes.
So why has sloppy, screw-everyone-else driving become the norm among Angelenos? Well, from what I’ve seen, public servants aren’t exactly setting good examples. I can’t tell you how many cops I’ve had fly by me on the freeway at 90 or better, zig-zagging their way forward without so much as a single blink of a turn signal, let alone the emergency lights or sirens. And don’t get me started on EMTs; in the space of about a month I had two ambulances (one of which was more like a bus) riding my bumper while I was in the number three lane of the westbound 210 doing 75, and like their heat-packing, donut-chomping counterparts, neither party seemed intent on signaling lane changes or that they were rushing to a call. Maybe business was just slow and they wanted to stack the deck in their favor…
Another explanation might be the alphabet soup of electronic nannies found in most modern automobiles. While ABS, ESP, TCS, EBD and all those other gizmos can and do make cars easier to control, they do not completely nullify the laws of physics. Just ask anyone who’s managed to park a $50,000 SUV shiny side down.
However, the most probable explanation is the fact that our government has pretty much resigned itself to issuing driver’s licenses to just about any pile of organic compounds with a pulse. After all, no one really needs to know the fundamentals of physics, car control, concentration or common sense, right? And you don’t really need to take a test each time you renew your license. As long as you can work the pedals and turn the steering wheel things will be just peachy keen.
But the fact remains that things are not peachy keen, and they seem to be getting worse by the day. Unless something major is done, and soon, we’ll all be paying the price for lousy driving.
Tom Anderson, a junior journalism major, is editorial director of the Campus Times. He can be reached by e-mail at tanderson1@ulv.edu.
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