Poor Planning
Back, before the invention of the automobile, and even before World
War II, cities were planned out with walking, and public transportation
in mind. Commercial, business, and industrial sections were located
precisely so that citizens could live near where they worked or shopped.
The advent of suburban neighborhoods in the fifities, and affordable automobiles
allowed people to live on the outside of town, and commute into town.
We give Drivers licenses away like candy!
Throughout my technical career, I encounter many pieces of equipment
that requires not only great skill, but permits to operate, but one piece
of equipment that is not only extremely powerful, but can have the most
dramatic impact on the lives of others requires very little knowledge to
operate, and is frightenly easy to obtain a permit to use. That piece
of equipment is the automobile. Echoing back to the first example,
that we cannot function as a society without the automobile, we now feel
obligated to give anyone a permit to drive one that sets foot into the
DMV office. Yes, there is a written and behind the wheel exam, but most
of these, a monkey can pass, and they really don't test the driver on how
they will perform in critical situations. Besides, does knowing drunk
driving statistics really make someone a better driver?
From the Aviation world, pilots must take the training
exam every 5 years upon renewal of their pilot's license, and must also
pass a challenging ground test, and in-flight test procedure that takes
the pilot through many different scenarios before getting a license.
Something similar needs to be done for an automobile driver's license.
Today, There are many different types of vehicles out on the road, and
many different types of roads that these vehicles can be driven on, and
yet different types of enviornmental conditions as well. A driver's
license grants you the authority to legally drive virtually any vehicle,
on any road, under any condition. For example, a standard driver's
license will allow me to drive a Honda Civic on a city street, but also
allows me to drive an MCI motorhome on an interstate, or drive an SUV during
a snowstorm. The problem is that when the driving test at DMV is
given, it's usually done in an ordinary car, on a sunny day, with just
a quick drive around the block. The applying driver may not know
how to perform in all these varied ways. Just like the FAA issues
different pilot's licences for different sized planes, and for different
conditions, and different areas, the same thing needs to happen to automobile
licenses. Here are some of the various license classes I think we should
have:
Standard license: which
grants ONLY passenger car and light truck use on primary and secondary
roads
Interstate driving class:
Grants driving privlidges to interstate highways, and any limited access
road, and roads with speeds above 55 mph
Poor condition: for drivers
who want to drive in snow, heavy rains, extreme fog, or other challenging
conditions
Oversize vehicle:
for drivers wishing to drive vehicles with high center of gravity, or gross
weight over 8000 pounds
Inexperience / lack of proper training
This reflects back on the previous topic about being
too slack on the driver's licenses.
Driving for a living, I see small errors every day that people
do that could cause potientally catastrophic consequences simply because
they don't know what they are doing or the repercussions behind their action.
For instance, slowing down on an interstate on-ramp. This action
not only causes the traffic behind this person on the ramp to slow, but
also causes oncoming traffic that is already on the interstate to slow
down when the slower, merging driver pulls out. Slightly farther
back, other drivers start abruptly changing lanes without looking in order
to avoid the slowdown. Some drivers are forced into sholder areas
of the road, horns honk, etc. The problem is that the origional driver,
thinking that he is performing a cautions, safe act has absloutley no clue
of the mayhem they caused just a short distance back.
The modern driver's ed classes in school are a real
joke. They go over right-of-way a little bit, the repercussions of
drunk driving, and get the student driver familiar with how a car handles,
but outside of that, hardly any real instruction is given on how to keep
3000 pounds of metal on the road in serious situations.