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Around the bend. # 1
I wrote this article for the following reason; At one time the city of
Vancouver,BC had a point system for drivers and if you had more than a
certain number of points you got sent to see me. I worked for the traffic
department. I would invite you into my workroom and would carry in with
me a large bucket with water in it. I would then sit you down in front of
a TV screen to watch movies with me. But these movies were special! They
were the police films of car accidents before they were cleaned up for
the public. All the gore and blood and decapitations of limbs and other
parts. The bucket was for when those big tough men threw up. Modern
humans seldom see close up, death. We no longer clean and wash for burial
our own families as we used to, which is what brought us close to the
reality of death. We are so protected that most men who first go into
battle in war never see blood until then. It is a debilitating shock
that almost makes them unfit to fight. But the army brass don't care.
Don't be one of those drivers that learns this lesson too late to do
you any good.
As I drive back and forth to work each morning I am held
spellbound by the whole social interplay of driving. How does it
reflect the phsychological behaviour of a country? Or races and
individuals? Are there races that take to driving better than
others? Can a country be seen as socially developed or immature
based on its driving record? I think our driving habits can tell
us a lot about ourselves and others.
If you think about it, driving is socializing in a big way. For
instance; when you are out on the road you are interacting with
other drivers at a truly basic level. That isn�t a definate
person in the car in front of you - only another human being. At
the speeds we drive we can�t always tell if its a man or a woman
passing us - and who cares? We are only concerned with how well
they obey the rules of driving because that�s what our lives
depend on.
Every day of our lives whether we drive or not, we must trust
people of all nationalities, races, ages, and genders to be
mature enough to follow the rules and guidelines of driving. When
they don�t or won�t we are injured or die.
AROUND THE BEND #2
If we trust statistics to give us a picture of our driving habits
as compared to other countries we show up as very immature based
on the accident rate and fatalities. How correct is that picture?
Well, as far as I know those statistics are based on what you
might call the end product. The dead, the injured, the reported
accidents in police files. correlated with the number of cars
licensed in the country they can then say that out of 1,000,000
cars in use in this country we had so many of each type of
accident.
That may be a misleading figure. The population density of a
country that is small in land area can mean less driving to get
around but more interaction on the road. You could total up all
the miles driven then give the accident per 1,000,000 miles.
If there is 1 accident per 100 cars in England and 1 per 100 cars
in Canada it doesn�t mean a thing until you add the fact that the
cars in England drove a total of 10,000 miles, while the cars in
Canada drove a total of 100,000 miles. Or, how many accidents per
miles of driving?
Any useful statistics would be those that devide mechanical
failure from driver failure. Or NON-INVOLVING accidents from
INVOLVING.
Even that doesn�t give a clear picture of our behaviour on the
road. I might drive 800 miles across a prairie or desert and not
see any cars. If I don�t have an accident does that mean I�m a
better driver than one that drives 10 miles in heavy traffic and
rear ends another?
It isn�t how many cars you have, or how many miles you drive a
day, but how many other cars(people) you have to interact with
during the course of your driving.
The more mature I am the better I will be able to understand the
underlying principles behind the rules of driving. The more I
follow those rules the safer I will be and the safer others will
be from my driving. If I am immature and cannot understand these
rules then I become a hazard to all around me.
ARTICLE NUMBER 3
Safe driving is based on communication. This communication is
carried on at three levels. There is a passive level.(rules,
signs, lines, etc.), a personal level,(eye sight, mentality and
ability, personal vehicle.), and a social level, (the other
vehicles on the road, pedestrians).
Communication on the passive level comes from the municipality or
the government. The National level will set up standard basic
rules that govern the following; which side of the road you drive
on,how fast you will drive on the Highways, Freeways, etc.
between cities, towns, and provences, the shape and meaning of
signs, etiquette of behaviour, deffinitions.
On the municipal level, they in turn have the job of keeping the
symbols in place or repaired, defining the rules and placing the
symbols where needed, enforcing the rules or laws, communicationg
with you as interpreters of all the above. Or enforcers. Giving
out licenses, license plates, etc.
On the personal level, you choose the vehicle you will use to
travel in or on. You decide when and where you will travel, what
lanes, roads, or freeways you will use. You will act or react to
the passive communication as an individual. You will answer
(obey) the sign talk according to your personnal understanding.
On the social level, you will act, react, and interact with all
the other vehicles that are using the roads with you. Your speech
will be silent but visable to all. It can be social or
antisocial.It can be polite or it can be rude. It can be kind or
it can kill.
HOW WELL DO YOU COMMUNICATE WHEN YOU DRIVE ?
ARTICLE #4
PASSIVE COMMUNICATION
Where and when did the rules of the road begin? Somewhere back in
time when man walked where he wanted to go he made trails. Trails
must have been the first common usage man experianced. We will
never know if he had rules governing his behaviour on those
trails. Did the smaller person make way for the larger person? Or
did they pass on the right? When the Romans built their massive
road system did they have rules of conduct? Or was it every man
for himself?
Whatever the answer, roads have been with us for a long time, and
the need for rules of behaviour on those roads are as old as man.
We have come up from foot travel through donkeys, horses, and
horse drawn vehicles to the car.
Long before the car was born we created paths, lanes, streets,
roads, and highways. We gave them names and defined their use and
their position. As long as the horse was the main user of these
and the average speed was walk or 10 miles per hour or less there
wasn�t any great need for too man rules. At those speeds you have
time to read to alter your behaviour. It was the car and the
faster speed at which it moved that made it neccessary to create
rules of behaviour that, if followed, reduced the need to react
to the unforseen in a hurry. Obviously the basic use of any road
had to be changed. It had to be devided into two halves or rules
for passing. Traffic moves two ways. Other roads crossed it. This
meant giving status to the size of a byway. In other words which
road had the right of way and you could travel undisturbed by
cross traffic. Stop signs were needed: two roads of equal value
cross each other. A traffic cop or director is born, forerunner
of the traffic signal light. The cars start taking over and
walkers are in need of protection. More signs are needed. The
speeds increase and more signs are needed to warn of hazards to
the driver. As lives are lost the rules of behavior grow. This is
a constant and eternal growth designed to keep traffic flowing as
fast as it can with the least amount of lives lost.
This constant communication between the law of driving and myself
is based on my need for safety!
The first thing any driver must understand about the rules of
driving in his/her country is that this passive communication is
not designed to harrass them in any way but to safegard them.
Most city accidents are caused by a lack of understanding of
knowing how to communicate (car speak) with other drivers in
closed cars who can�t hear you.
THE USES OF LANES AND ALLEYS.#5
Lanes are narrow roads between two walls or fences and are
usually found in the back of stores and houses where they are
used as service entrances for the delivery of goods or workers.
That means people will be walking or working in the area. Because
of this the speeds posted are very slow.
They are usually unpaved, cluttered and busy. They have pot-holes
and hazards because they are not a priority on any cities list of
repairs, and yet because of the ignorance of a few drivers as to
their basic use they become dangerous places to work in.
How many of you whip down a back lane to take a short cut? The
very fact that you are taking a short cut means you are in a
hurry and will be going faster than you should. And if you really
think about it, it may not be all that fast for you. If a
delivery truck backs across the lane to manuever you are stopped.
You have more chances of picking up nails and glass in your tires
or hitting a pot hole and damaging your car. And what about the
people that have to work in the area at recieving bays? Must they
put up with the dust you leave behind? Or worry about the hazard
to life and limb you create?
Alley ways (or lanes) are also narrow ways that go between houses
in residential area�s. Again they are the service roads for the
residents that live there. The same conditions apply as to lanes
in commercial use, only this time it is cars and children that
are to be found using it.
The most dangerous driver in an alley is the immature teen-ager
who hasn�t realized yet that there are other people besides
himself in the world. He has a CAR and he must show every one how
fast he can pull away from a dead stop.(usually no one is looking
or even impressed) His mind hasn�t grasped the fact that there
may be a toddler behind that garbage can halfway down the lane
who has managed to get away from the safety of his yard and is
going to run out in front of him.
So the lesson here is; If you don�t belong in an alley or lane,
they are not to be used as shortcuts or speedways. They are the
service roads for residents.
THE USE OF STREETS AND AVENUES.# 6
In most cities that use a grid plan streets will go one way and
avenues will cross them.Their purposes are identical in that you
can go the length of them and find homes or business along them.
They will pass through quiet residences or busy downtown area�s.
But whatever the area it passes through it will contain laws or
signs to govern your behaviour whether you drive or walk.
Every driver lives somewhere. And wherever they live, be it city
apartment, residential area or rural farm they want it quiet and
peacefull and safe for themselves and loved ones. That�s an �I
want� attitude that often changes when they drive through anyone
elses area. They speed, gun their motors, cut down lanes, raise
dust and are generally careless of every one elses rights to
peace and safety.
If I ran yelling and screeming down a street, every one can see
who I am and I am rightfully called nuts. If I take up all the
sidewalk and push people around they see me as rude and mean.
Because I don�t want people to see me like this, (we all want to
beliked and respected) I behave myself. But wrap a car around me
and I become just an anonomous vehicle driving around. Its not me
that is noisy and careless, its the car. This seems to be what a
lot of drivers think. Why should I be polite and kind? Who will
give me the credit I deserve?
There may be street signs and traffic lights and laws to follow
when I drive around the community but unless I as the reciever of
that passive communication am mature enough to understand the
need to obey them my personal communication in driving will be
garbled. If it is garbled then the other drivers can�t understand
it and the result is an accident.
If you will consider this as you drive on the streets and avenues
your loved ones and yourselves will be safer. For whenever you as
a driver have failed to stop for a pedestrian trying to cross any
road, somewhere, sometime it may be your loved one that is in
jeopordy from another driver.
Remember; A street or an Avenue is someones front yard! Whether
its business or residential its where people work, live, or play.
The streets and avenues are there for us to move about a city or
town as fast and as easely as possible with as little disturbance
as possible.