Sunday, April 27, 2008
Get out the way!!
Over the last 21 years of my life I have been born, raised, educated and employed in the city of Austin, Texas. One of the things that has always rattled my cage is the number of drivers who don't know what they are doing. Weather they are old, foreign, teenagers, or just plain stupid there must be some changes to keep these people off the streets. Although Austin is a city of 700,000 there is no reason that rush hour should start at 3 o'clock and end at 7. This past week an elder woman crashed through a Best Buy store in north Austin causing employees to dive for cover. It turns out that she mistaken the gas pedal from the break. Now someone that doesn't even know which pedal to push might be the same person driving 70 miles an hour next to you on the highway. I feel that Texas drivers should be forced mandatory vision tests and possibly behind-the-wheel exams to ensure that they are capable of operating a motor vehicle.
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2 comments:
Wow, I thought that I was the only one who felt that way! I do not think that we are trying to descriminate in any way, but I absolutely think that there needs to be a variety of tests for various types of individuals. There should be a periodic test for the elderly, and those who have just obtained their license should be re-tested within two years. Immigrants should also be tested for their knowledge of local traffic laws and their driving skills as well. Also, those with prior convictions of DWI or DUI should be blood tested before being allowed the privaledge to take the wheel again.
Word. I totally agree with Shane's article that there should be mandatory testing for all Texas drivers. There should even be yearly testing for ederly people after a certain age. Maybe they were good drivers at a younger age, but the fact is after time your body and reaction time does slow down and is affected by age. This can be very dangerous for others on the road. I remeber a while back I took a defensive driving class for a speeding ticket I got and they were telling us about some of the worst cities in the US for traffic accidents. Austin was ranked like 3rd or 4th and one of the main reasons was because of the upper and lower deck split on IH35. Alos the exiting and entrance ramps were very short causing you to change speeds in a short amount of time. There was an effort to extend these ramps to help the problem. The fact is that not many people know what to do when the come to the split and panic. The number one city on the list was Orlando, FL. What they did to reduce their number of accidents was make the writing on traffic signs 1/8 of an inch larger, or something like that, because as many of us know there are many elderly folks that live in Orlando. And what do you know the number of accidents dropped 1/3 percent from its previous total.
I do believe that there are terrible drivers here in Austin, and everyday I'm in a situation where I'm left shaking my head at some idiotic persons terrible driving. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I've been driving almost 6 years now and I've never been in any sort of car accident, but I think this has to do with my driving skills and the fact that I've been lucky enough that one of these bad drivers hasn't hit me yet. I have gotten the occasional speeding ticket, but who hasn't and I have no shame in my driving game. For young people to get a liscense they are required to go through schooling and take a test, but some of us like myself are exceptionally better drivers than those with more experience. I have no problem with mandatory driving tests in Texas because I wouldn't have anything to worry about, I'd be confident in passing whatever the test is. There should also definitely be a test for immigrants making sure they understand our traffic laws and signs. All these tests would do is take those who shouldn't be on the road in the first place off of it and give more room to those of us who KNOW how to drive!
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