TV spots that teach people how to drive

Reading raggie's post about the litterbugs reminded me of when I was a kid. The TV stations constantly ran "Don't be a litterbug" public service announcements. That is when all the litter laws were written, and littering really diminished as a result.

TV and radio stations are required to run public service announcements anyway; why not have some about proper driving techniques. There are hundreds of topics they could choose from. I am thinking of things like this:

When entering a freeway on a ramp, people need to keep lots of space between themselves and the car ahead. When they bunch-up it is like they become a 200 foot car entering the traffic. Because the drivers already on the freeway are running bumper-to-bumper, there just isn't room for the 200 foot car to merge in.

One more: when at a 4-way stop the person on the right has the right-of-way, and they should go ahead and move through the intersection. If they try to be polite, and let the person on the left go first, it causes confusion and collisions.

And finally: They should re-word the signs that say "Slower Traffic Stay Right" to "Traffic going slower than the speed limit stay right". After all, there will always be someone wanting to go even faster than you are going. The far left lane is not intended to be a speed violation lane.

The point is that this could teach people how to avoid accidents by using common sense driving techniques that they never thought of.

I am sure you all have other favorites too. Please keep your ideas within the law.

Chuck

Show several horrific crashes of one vehicle into another...

Then "One vehicle shall NOT have right-of-way through another vehicle"

Of course that won't help with all the single vehicle accidents we have around here!!!

This is drugs
This is your car when driving on drugs
Any Questions?

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LightChucker said:
And finally: They should re-word the signs that say "Slower Traffic Stay Right" to "Traffic going slower than the speed limit stay right". After all, there will always be someone wanting to go even faster than you are going. The far left lane is not intended to be a speed violation lane.


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They worded that sign exactly as intended, and if the direction is followed, it's what gives the safest, smoothest-flowing freeway. The far left lane is most certainly intended for the fastest cars on the road, since to pass you, someone going faster would have to pass right. Sitting in the far left lane, going the speed limit and forcing zillions of others to change lanes and pass you on the right, is dangerous and silly. If people are passing you on the right, move over a lane to your right. It's safer for you, it's safer for those passing you, it's safer for everyone on the road, which is why the sign is worded that way. Why wouldn't you do it, except to prove a point regardless of the safety (not to mention smooth traffic flow) of those around you?

What they really should do is teach people, right at the beginning of their driving career, why it is common practice all over the world for each lane to the left to be progressively faster, and for slower traffic to move right once faster cars start passing on its right (reverse for left-side countries, obviously).

Joe

[ QUOTE ]
LightChucker said:
One more: when at a 4-way stop the person on the right has the right-of-way, and they should go ahead and move through the intersection. If they try to be polite, and let the person on the left go first, it causes confusion and collisions.


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But, I agree with this one! People should take their right-of-ways. One other common situation I see: someone on a busy road is going to make a left into a smaller road (no stop sign, just stopped in the left lane to make a left). Someone on the smaller road is at a stop sign waiting to make a left onto the busy road. The person on the busy road waves the other one to go first. I can't figure out what's going through their head, other than that they think they're "being nice" ... being nice by stopping traffic on the busy road, and waving the other car out possibly before it's clear.

And here's one of my own: cars that are about to miss their exit, so they cut hard through 3 lanes of traffic, dangerously cutting everyone off, to make it. Or worse yet, cars who miss their turn, so they stop on the should and reverse to get back to it. It is not really such a terrible hardship to go one more freaking exit and do a u-turn, you do not need to put yourself, everyone in your car, and everyone else on the road at extreme peril.

Joe

I find it easiest to just keep my eyes closed when I drive, I only open them to dial my phone or read the paper or a map. That way I don't have to see all the crazy drivers out there! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/str.gif
Pyd

I agree with you completely Joe

No one has a "right" to violate any speed limit in any lane - period, and I am sure not going to cooperate to help someone do it either.

Chuck

Chuck, I hear ya. I have a story ... years ago, I was crossing a narrow street, and a car came barreling down the street at too high a rate of speed. He had absolutely no right to do so, and I wasn't about to help him, and I was legally in the crosswalk, so I just continued slowly crossing the street. Okay, just kidding! If I'd stayed there in the street, he might've run into me and I would have been hurt, or he might have swerved to miss me and hit someone on the sidewalk, or he might have swerved into a parked car and hurt himself. Making an already-dangerous situation more dangerous, just to prove a point, didn't seem like the right thing to do, so what I actually did was rush back onto the curb.

I've seen and heard of plenty of road rage incidents and accidents starting from the situation where someone just sticks to his speed in the left lane and refuses to move right for a faster driver. It is proveably a bad situation. I've personally witnessed one time, the guy in the left lane didn't move over fast enough for the speeder, so the speeder gave him a light bump with his front bumper (luckily, neither car lost control). I've seen loads of times where the speeder swerves to the lane to the right, sometimes cutting off the guy there, then speeds off and dangerously cuts off the left-lane driver. In short, the pattern of speeder-in-left-lane-plus-speed-limit-driver-who-refuses-to-move endangers you, endangers the speeder, and endangers the cars next to you. I will give you 100% assurance that the speeders aren't going away; the one variable you can control is you.

All of which seems especially pointless when you realize that the unwritten (and actually, in some places, actually written) code is that you pass left, drive right. Traffic actually moves more smoothly and more safely that way.

But again, you have a point to prove, and I see how that's more important than the safety of the occupants of your car, and the cars near you, and frankly, who cares about the traffic flow anyway? And, even though if you're not passing, there's nothing to be accomplished by being in the left lane anyway ... again, there's a point to prove, so the left lane is where you gotta stay.

Really, maybe the most important TV spot about driving should be: the goal of driving is to get you safely from here to there; not to prove a point to your fellow drivers that endangers everyone, even if you're certain you're right.

Joe

Chuck,you are so right that no one has a right to drive at any speed in any lane.But I think it's a lot safer to just let them pass unhindered.Then they are in front of you where you can keep an eye on them-they can be a real danger behind you!PS;If their driving is too outrageous-use your cell phone-the police just love to "Meet and Greet" them.

What really tears me around here is that we don't have many bridges over the freeway. I have to merge off the shoulder or off a way too short runup lane from a dead stop.

Also to get out of my neighborhood headed north, I gotta cross the southbound lanes before doing the above.

And doing 70 up here will get you rear-ended if you ain't carefull!

One last note. The 18 wheelers have to do the same stuff I do. And they don't always wait as long as I will to be safe. And there have been some AWFUL crashes because of some of these truckers!

I don't know how to make a commercial of all this though!

In some states, the left most lane is ONLY for passing. So, if you're sitting there in that lane, playing Mr Protecting the Public from Speeders, you're in violation of the law...

Mark

Ya, I did mention that obliquely as well ... there are many states where not passing in the left is a citable offense, though only rarely cited. The blocker is no better than the speeder! For exactly the reasons I specified: it disrupts the flow of traffic, it causes safety concerns for all around, etc.

Once they get their driver's license, it seems to me that many people not only forgot what they studied to get the license, but they try to find as many ways as they can to violate the law. My intent was that public service announcements would refresh their memory and remind them of what the laws are. It all seems so simple to me.

I never expected that people would feel threatened by this suggestion. Don't worry about it, because I am sure this will never happen any way.

Chuck

Chuck, you're misinterpreting. No one is threatened or bashing your overall suggestion. However, one of the examples you gave is unrealistic and would make the roads more dangerous, not less ... and you steadfastly refuse to see any other point of view, which is exactly the kind of attitude about driving that leads to even more problems. The argument isn't that educational TV spots about driving is a bad idea, it's that one of the ideas presented shows that the originator of the concept himself needs a little education!

Joe

I'm not going to bite on that one. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dedhorse.gif

Now, if you want to start a discussion on who has the right to drive in which lane, I suggest that you click on that "Post" button and have yourself a grand ol' time.

Chuck /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif