Comments on: Mailbag: Thoughts on moving over and merging from a driver named Paul

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:21:58 +0000

Hi Road Guy,
Well, it looks like interest in this thread has about petered out so I might as well administer the coup de grace. I had barely hit the enter key after my last posting when the absurdity of my characterizing other bicyclists’ actions as stupid while admitting to riding a bike without a helmet hit me. I expected somebody to point out my “pot calling the kettle black.” That nobody has suggests to me that nobody has read this topic since I posted that.
I’m obviously an unreconstructed old curmudgeon and in my days I’ve seen great improvements made to both cars and highways–divided highways with limited access, steel belted radial tires, padded interiors, seat belts, air bags, traction control & anti-lock brakes to name but a few. And we don’t seem to be much safer than we were in the fifties without all of those improvements. (Is there anything on the roadside more visible than a patrol car with hazard lights flashing?) It’s easy to assail the highway engineers and the automakers on issues of safety but, given the rate and the ways in which people are still dying on the roads, it makes me wonder if we don’t need to take another look at improving the skills and mental involvement of drivers. My allusion to my father’s experience wasn’t intended to be, (though it may have come off sounding that way,) self-righteous but to explain that I was very humbled, riding with him, and that if he, with all his experience, kept his full attention on the task of driving, maybe it would behoove all of us, myself definitely included, to think about focusing our attention more exclusively on driving and less on entertaining ourselves behind the wheel. Except for skidding on an icy highway, all of the driving behaviors that would allow a moving vehicle to slam into a patrol car on the shoulder of the road are already illegal. We already have speed limits that are routinely disregarded. It’s already illegal to blow through a red light but people do it all the time. Drinking and driving, driving while overly tired, simply not keeping one’s vehicle under control are all illegal. Why would one more law make any difference? It seems to me that, at some point we have to acknowledge that there aren’t enough police officers out there to ensure our safety. We’ll simply have to take responsibility for it ourselves. Like me riding my bike without a helmet, the fact that we’ve made it without incident thus far seems to make us complacent. And we shouldn’t be. When we start veering off the road and slamming into brightly lit, highly visible objects, it seems to me like a loud wake up call.
Thanks for the opportunity to have my say. Sorry if my thoughts, as I wrote them, were a bit too strident and inflammatory.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:41:39 +0000

Thanks, Roadguy, for passing on my little rant. I’ve enjoyed reading the various comments. I have no problem with trying to keep patrol officers, maintenance workers or anyone on the roadside safe. I just thought that the wording, “When you see,” was, if nothing else, a bit naive. If they saw, of course they wouldn’t collide. The problem is the not seeing. And, to be honest, if today’s cars were stripped of power brakes and power steering, I’m sure that gross mayhem would ensue.
Also in fairness to those who divide their attention between driving and other tasks, except for a couple of years in the ’70s, I never commuted back and forth to work so I don’t have a good feel for just what a mind-numbing experience that must be. But my father was a truck driver and when we drove, he saw things, both on and off the road, that I just didn’t see. It was totally amazing. And there’s lots to do, (or at least there was in his day, with two transmissions to shift, mirrors to watch, etc.,) when driving a semi. But, despite having millions of miles “under his belt”, his vigilance never failed. And I was so impressed that, with all his experience, he never treated driving, even the family car, as a casual thing that I have little sympathy for those “amateurs” who do, though I’m sure that most of them didn’t learn to drive from the same perspective that I did. I wish they could.
In my years of bicycling back and forth to work, I, (who never wore a helmet,) saw other, helmeted bicyclists do what I considered some of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen done on a bicycle,
which caused me to wonder if they wore a helmet because they recognized that their foolhardiness would one day get them injured or if, when they put on their helmet, they felt like they’d been inoculated from danger. Thus my speculation as to whether getting rid of safety and convenience power assists might get drivers refocused on the task of driving and might instill a feeling of vulnerability, a greater sense of danger.
What I’d really like to see are driver’s tests administered on a driving simulator like the flight simulators that pilots get tested on. All kinds of conditions, including distractions, could be simulated. Certainly the technology exists to do that. But I’m sure that, politically, it would be deemed too expensive. So I suppose we’ll just have to “live” with a few (hundred?) extra deaths per year for the saking of keeping our taxes down.

By: Stöber

Stöber — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:52:21 +0000

As a former officer I can tell you that it is sad this has to be a law. We do need it as a law because people no longer have the common sense or etiquette to move over a lane for any vehicle on the shoulder (especially one with bright flashing led’s). Avoid danger. It’s not that hard of a concept. Go stand on the highway real close to the shoulder line and see how much you like the artificial fan.

By: jill

jill — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:08:58 +0000

It does indeed make sense that someone should give extra room to someone, anyone, on the side of the road, be it a troooper or a person changing a tire or whatever. It’s too bad this sort of thing has to be legislated, but that doesn’t make it a “useless” law. It’s like the law requiring headlights in the rain. Granted, anyone with a brain bigger than a pea should be able to figure this out on their own, but experience shows people are stupid. They are too dumb to do it on their own, and it’s only their own stupidity that means the rest of us get stuck with a law to govern it.

By: Joel truck driver

Joel truck driver — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:59:30 +0000

Ive seen some instances where the left lane was completely open, yet some vehicles didnt bother moving over for an officer that has pulled someone over on the right shoulder. Sometimes though ive seen pull-overs in horrible spots - curves and hills - and i got stuck not being able to move over. Another thing, what most people dont know is to either move over OR, SLOW DOWN. And the speed in which they request us to slow to is 20 below posted limit or 45 miles an hour. But werent we taught to move over for any vehicle on the shoulder nearest our lane of travel? i think i was.

By: lovetodrivegirl

lovetodrivegirl — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:30:39 +0000

I taught my sons that when they see a beating heart on the roadways to take their foot off the gas, in other words slow their vehicle down.

This will give them time to react in whatever way they need to for the occurrence coming up.

Made sense to me all my driving years.

By: DGB

DGB — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:27:49 +0000

Obvioulsy, if someone is pulled off on the shoulder, changing a tire, or a police officer, or a tow truck, or what ever, it’s common sense to give them as much extra room as you can.

Does this have to be legislated? Certainly not.

It’s a useless law. Just another example of our legislature trying to nano-manage the citizens.

By: Barry

Barry — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:19:59 +0000

Hmmph. We can see a little birdie on the freeway at 60mph, but we cannot see a big squad car with big colored strobelights…

“Eye chart? I don’t see no eye chart! Just gimme my license!”

By: bsimon

bsimon — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:02:49 +0000

Yesterday, on southbound Hwy 100, at about 9:30 AM, I observed multiple vehicles successfully executing lane changes & merges - at 60+ mph - in order to avoid a duck & her ducklings crossing the freeway. When I went by, they’d already made it to the center lane. Sliding over for the cops shouldn’t pose much of a challenge - particularly if the people in the center lane are also paying attention & make the appropriate room for people in the right lane.

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:30:19 +0000

Figures. As if the cops don’t have anything better to do with their time. I don’t understand why they don’t park themselves at the ends of the on-ramps and catch the red-light runners or HOV violators. Talk about a revenue-generating opportunity!