🚀 go-pugleaf

Pete MacPherson wrote:

> Driving faster is safe if a few simple rules are followed.
>
> 1. Always keep you car in excellent working condition for optimal
> performance
> 2. Always always and always have good tires
> 3. Know how to drive
> 4. Always pass on the left, never never never on the right
> 5. Always move to the right if someone is coming up behind you fast and
> you're in the leftmost lane
>
> If Americans were willing to follow these simple five rules, we could have
> our own Autobahn with much higher speed limits.  Unfortuantely, a good
> portion of the cars out there are frankly quite dangerous and/or have bad
> tires.  In addition, it's too easy to obtain and keep a driver's license.
> In addition, people are used to passing on the right, perhaps because there
> are so many other drivers, who when faced with a driver rapidly approaching
> from the rear, become petty, territorial, beligerant, and exhibit base
> primate behavior by not letting the other person pass.
>
> In Europe, these rules are strictly enforced.  That's why they have such
> higher speed limits.
>
> Pete
>

A lot of what you said above is what the police could and should enforce,
instead of just about limiting themselves to handing out speeding and stop-sign
tickets. For all our money they get in taxes, I'd really like to see them do
some useful work on the freeways, instead of pulling over a guy for doing 80 in
a corvette. What else is he supposed to do? Why do they sell Corvettes (or
Jags, Porsches,  Ferraris) in the first place?

Anyway, here's my proposal for better driving in the US:

1. Have a federally prescribed minimum requirements for the driving test. Have
that minimum be respectable and include driving skill requirements, not just
law-abiding requirements. One example: parallel parking in limited space.

2. Intruduce periodical tests of vehicles for safe operation (ie, brakes,
steering, tires, lights, signaling).

3. Require, by federal law, signaling for every lane change or turn on any
road.

4. Require, by federal law, moving to the rightmost available lane well in time
to let faster-moving vehicles pass. Alternatively, require driving in the
rightmost free lane at all times, except to pass. This should be limited to
freeways and multi-lane rural highways.

5. A while (one year or so) after 4. has been introduced., prohibit, by federal
law, passing on the right on all roards where 4. is in force.

6. Consider, where prudent and at the discretion of local authorities,
replacing Stop signs with Yield signs. Re-affirm driver education about the
all-but-forgotten "yield to the car coming from your right" rule on the stop
light regulated intersections, as well as those not regulated by any traffic
signals (this should, of course, be done through driving tests).

7. Have the police inforce 3-6 as (or more) rigorously as they now persecute
speeders or stop sign "violators".

8. Ban preset speed limits on rural freeways, wherever reasonable and prudent.
On interstates, this should be determined by the federal authority. Keep them
on all other roads, while possibly rasing on rural highways, or elsewhere, at
the discretion of state authorities.