You give Driving a bad name

I think driving is an incredibly underrated activity. On a daily basis, we climb into big metal juggernauts and fly around at speeds that were once only dreamed of. And somehow we manage to do it with only a few people dying each day (in comparison to the number of people who drive each day and don't die).

Don't get worried. Death isn't the point of today's lesson. I just wanted a good opening statement. My focus is really road signs.

In life, we take certain things for granted. We assume that the cashier in the grocery store knows how to work his/her register, and count money. We assume that a guy walking on a sidewalk won't suddenly jump in front of our car because that would just be stupid. We assume that airplane pilots have actually been trained on how to fly a plane. These are all safe assumptions (I hope).

But sometimes we make an assumption and are surprised when it is wrong. We assume that someone sitting at a poker table knows the basics of poker. We assume that someone working in the IT field knows how to defragment their own computer. We assume that when we call help-desk support we'll talk to someone who speaks the same language and can actually help us (ok we really shouldn't be surprised when that doesn't happen).

Well, recently I was surprised (and fairly terrified) by something. Let me recap my tale:

One day, not so long ago, I was driving home from work. On a side street near my house there are 2 traffic lights. Sometimes they are normal red/yellow/green lights, but other times (when traffic is really light) they are just flashing yellow/red (yellow for one direction and red for the other). As I pulled up to the light, I stopped because my direction was blinking red. Ok fine, this acts like a stop sign. I stop here and wait for an opening to cross the road. As I waited, a car on the intersecting street drove up. He had a blinking yellow light, so I expected him to perhaps slow down a little but otherwise continue driving past me. Once he did that then I was clear to go.

Now, this is when something strange happened. The man started to slow... and then stopped. So this screwed everything up. He seemed to think he was supposed to stop and let me go (I guess)... but I couldn't do that because now another car was coming in the opposite direction of this guy....and they knew the rules of the road so they just kept driving. But this guy just sat there. Well, after a few more seconds I decided to go along with it pull out on to the road.

Everything was fine. I drove home. No crazy ending to this story. But I was completely dumbfounded. You have to take a test to get your drivers license. To do that, you have to learn the rules of the road. How does someone not know something as simple as what to do when encountering a flashing yellow light??? If you don't know what to do in a given situation then you become dangerous... because you'll act in a way that other drivers aren't expecting.

So moving on. A few days later, I was in the car with a friend (my friend was driving). I won't identify this friend so as not to embarrass them. We were going to a store together and came upon a traffic light that was flashing yellow. He slowed down and began to stop. I couldn't believe it! The guy in the beginning of my story looked like he was probably old... so I let it slide. But this was a young intelligent member of society! I just wanted to get out of the car right then. I didn't feel safe.

Driving is a huge responsibility. If you make one small mistake then people can die. It is CRUCIAL that you know the basic signals and signs on a road so you can minimize the risk.

I think it should be a lot harder to get a license. You should have mandatory lessons, and so many hours logged behind the wheel before you can go out alone. Plus you should be retested every few years. Driving is a privilege, not a right.

This rant has been brought to you by Rob.