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If roads were privately run, the business would determine the rules of the road. And those rules would actually be enforced. And the roads would be secured.
However this is sadly not the case, and we have the tragedy of the commons. Where everyone is free to use the roads and do whatever they want. Not even a law will stop people from acting irresponsibly.
So stop fooling yourselves into trying to cure a symptom (texting) when the disease is the ownership itself.
Praise the Lord. I have been saying this for years.
Privatize all transportation. We no longer have to worry about texting drivers, drunk drivers and ans so on. Of course, I would imagine if you wanted to drive on a road that allowed drunks to drive it would cost less.
The number of people killed dropped to 33,808 in 2009, a total 3,615 below the previous year. It was the lowest total since 1950 and marked the fourth consecutive year highway fatalities have declined since 2005, when 39,252 people died. Motorcycle deaths were down by 16 percent, the first decline in 11 years.
Maybe not as many people are wrecking because of texting as we would like to believe. That number would likely drop to less than 3,000 if the entire transportation system were privatized.
bad stat.
there were far fewer people driving during rush hour in 2009 due to the obama-economy sucking so hard plus Cars are safer now than ever before.
ride around the freeways, a good 25% of cars I see on the freeway, people are either talking or texting. they are easy to spot also, they are going slower than traffic and they are weaving.
Praise the Lord. I have been saying this for years.
Privatize all transportation. We no longer have to worry about texting drivers, drunk drivers and ans so on. Of course, I would imagine if you wanted to drive on a road that allowed drunks to drive it would cost less.
Thanks, but no thanks. I don't want to pay to toll every time I go to the store and YOU won't want to pay the increased cost on everything you buy.
Texting driver killed in head-on crash, say troopers - Local News - Seattle, WA - msnbc.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41676885 - broken link)
I got a chill when I saw this. I saw a young lady texting near Olympia at the end of December, in a black Mazda. It looked like that one shown in the article. She looked about 22, too.
Well, I didn't see her at first, my eyes were on the road. My wife saw her and said, "Hey, look at that stupid girl." I agreed. Pretty stupid.
We were doing about 60 miles per hour in medium traffic. She was about 1 - 2 car lengths behind the car in front of her.
You know, almost everyone thinks they are a great driver. I'm a cautious one, 1 car length for every 10 miles per hour, etc., don't drive drunk, if I'm sleepy, I pull over and get a room. I see people doing this and I think that it's unlikely I will kill myself. It's probably someone like this, making a bad judgement call who will kill me. Just like my uncle. He got killed by a drunk driver who crossed the center line. My aunt and cousin made it. He ate the steering wheel.
In the first tenth of a second, the front bumper and grille collapse.
*The second tenth finds the hood crumpling, rising up and hitting the windshield as the spinning rear wheels lift from the ground.
*Simultaneously, front body work begins to wrap around the solid object (assuming it's a tree or telephone pole).
*Although the car's frame has been halted, other parts of the car are still going 90km/h. instinct causes the driver to stiffen his legs against the crash, and they snap at the knee joint.
*During the third tenth of a second, the steering wheel begins to disintegrate, and the steering column aims for the driver's chest.
*The fourth tenth finds almost a meter of the car's front end wrecked while the rear s still traveling at 55 km/h. The driver's body is still moving at 90 km/h.
*In the fifth tenth, the driver is impaled on the steering column and blood rushes into his lungs.
*By the sixth tenth, the driver's feet are ripped out of highly laced shoes. The car;s frame buckles in the middle. The driver's head smashes the windshield, and the rear wheels fall back to the ground.
*In the seventh tenth, the rear seats break free, striking the driver from behind, but he does not notice: he is already dead.
Driving is dangerous. Always has been, always will be. If not texting, it's something else, and you simply cannot remove everything which might make a driver take his eyes and his mind off the road.
Get over it. Drive defensibly, making allowances for those not as "smart" as you are, or stay home. No matter how judgmental or critical of others you are, or how many idiotic laws you get passed, or how many of your own critical driving mistakes you ignore, you'll risk your life every time you take to the roads.
Location: Somewhere gray and damp, close to the West Coast
20,955 posts, read 5,546,892 times
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WTF is so important that it has to be said RIGHT NOW, at the potential cost of the well being or even the life of another person? How arrogant, to think that what one wants to say is that important, or the belief that "I'm a skilled enough driver to be able to do this"! I don't even listen to the radio when I drive. That's why I'm a good driver.
I was riding my motorcycle with another biker this past Summer when we approached a stop sign in a rural area. He was riding about 25 feet behind me. I slowed and stopped without a problem at the intersection. Much to my major surprise, he zipped on by me, crossed through the intersection without stopping and went off the road into a culvert as I watched and was thrown from his bike as it flipped over.
I ran over to check on him and he was OK, although his bike didn't fair so well.
When I asked him how he could have missed the stop sign he explained he was texting his wife!!
Location: Somewhere gray and damp, close to the West Coast
20,955 posts, read 5,546,892 times
Reputation: 8559
Quote:
Originally Posted by KoobleKar
Worse yet......
I was riding my motorcycle with another biker this past Summer when we approached a stop sign in a rural area. He was riding about 25 feet behind me. I slowed and stopped without a problem at the intersection. Much to my major surprise, he zipped on by me, crossed through the intersection without stopping and went off the road into a culvert as I watched and was thrown from his bike as it flipped over.
I ran over to check on him and he was OK, although his bike didn't fair so well.
When I asked him how he could have missed the stop sign he explained he was texting his wife!!
Yikes! Not only does that entail all of the skills necessary to operate a vehicle, but you do it on half as many wheels! I ride a scooter and can't even imagine trying that!
I found it enlightening that you think just because you can't talk and drive that someone else doesn't have that ability. It's a skill like anything else, and we shouldn't make laws just to make illogical persons happy.
Logic would dictate that talking with someone is not the same as literally taking your eyes off the road to stare at your phone.
Logic would also dictate that drinking and driving is much different, as drinking literally impairs your judgment into thinking that you are ok to drive.
You can make a law against drinking and driving, however people who are drinking may not realize that they are putting themselves in a dangerous position or even that they've drunk enough to be over the limit. Texting has nothing to impede someone's ability to make a decision though. You are literally making a conscious decision to take your eyes off the road for a brief period of time and will get someone killed eventually. RNG is eventually going to catch up with you.
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Yikes! Not only does that entail all of the skills necessary to operate a vehicle, but you do it on half as many wheels! I ride a scooter and can't even imagine trying that!
