Sunday, October 14, 2012

Maryland Drivers Need to Learn to Wait Their Turn

In late August, several news stories detailed how local school districts are taking the offensive to protect children from area drivers!

One doesn’t have to have children to be alarmed by the 2011 Maryland state-wide study finding thousands of drivers passed stopped school buses. It was no earth-shattering surprise to me the worst child-endangerment offenders were in Montgomery County.

The good news is several schools districts began taking counter-offensive measures by installing school bus cameras. The goal is to catch violators in the act and report them to police to impose fines. The underlying supposition is these fines will literally stop violators in their tracks.
 
The bad news is, after 20 years of navigating the area’s highways and byways, I can easily see 99% of the violators doing the opposite.
 
The behavioral question is: what is different about these fines? Will they really make violators wait their turn? Or, will violators react like impatient, spiteful children and do it all the more?

I think you can guess my predication.


Submitted to The Washington Examiner on September 13, 2012 but not published.

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