Want to Report Crazy Drivers? Here's How...

I find driving in the Metro DC area to be an "unnecessary" nightmare. The behaviors drivers exhibit are an ugly combination of fragile egos combined with power trips topped with immaturity and spite.

For example, a couple weeks ago, a white Mercedes SUV keeping driving at me and three other people as we crossed Summit to catch the MARC train. The woman glared at me and increased her speed missing me by only 4-5 inches!

The pedestrians are as bad as the drivers by walking into oncoming traffic that has the green light, instead of crossing at designated crosswalks, and doing so when they are texting or listening to an iPod or similar device.

Another example, a month ago a mother was crossing Diamond Avenue against the light with two boys. I pointed to the orange light and her response? Like a spiteful child, she stuck her chin up in the air and threw back her shoulders and continued to cross in front of oncoming traffic.

Those of us who know better can report you in Gaithersburg here:

Gaithersburg Police Department Citizen Information in Traffic Enforcement (CITE)

http://www.gaithersburgmd.gov/apps/cite/ 

What to look for:

Excessive Speed	Failure to Obey Traffic Device	Failure to Obey Auto Signal
Failure to Keep Right of Center	Failure to Make Required Stop	Failure to Obey Stop/Yield Sign
Failure to Drive in Designated Lane	Failure to Grant Right of Way	Improper Passing
Improper Lane Change	Improper Turns	Wrong Way on One-Way Street
Following Too Close	Reckless Driving	Negligent Driving
Unsafe Backing	School Bus Law	Parking Violation
Littering	Other

 

Could The Christina Morris-Ward Tragedy Have Been Avoided

Listening to the news last week, I was saddened about a high school student, Christina Morris-Ward, who got hit by a car and then died.  Today is her funeral. There is no doubt in my mind both families lost out in this tragedy.  My heart goes out to all of them.

 

I am not placing blame. I don’t know who was wrong or if it was just one of those things. What I do know is that people in Maryland, both drivers and pedestrians, have a lot of bad habits that cause accidents and even deaths.

I want to take this opportunity to turn something bad into something good. After living here twenty years, these are the area's problem driving behaviors in a snapshot. If you do them, stop immediately. If you know others who do them, make them stop immediately.

Drivers do many things wrong:

• Drivers: Do not try to run down pedestrians in crosswalks. [Yes, it happens to me!]
• Drivers: Do not use a cell phone while you are driving.
• Drivers: Do not drive aggressively (Speeding, Excessive lane changing, Improper passing, Tailgating).
• Drivers: Do not tailgate. Allow one foot between your car and the one in front of you for every mile you are going. That is, it’s a one-to-one ratio.
• Drivers:  Yield the right-of-way to pedestrians and other drivers.
• Drivers: Do not pass stopped school buses!
• Drivers: Do not switch lanes in the middle of a turn or passing through an intersection.
• Drivers: Always use your turn-signal indicator and do so before you get into the turn lane.
• Drivers: If the driver making a left has the green light, he has the right-of-way. You need to wait to make the right on red.
• Drivers: When the car in front of you is slowing down, you must slow down too. It is not correct to speed up and go around them. Wait your turn!

 People walking also do many things wrong:

·       Pedestrians: Do not always have the right of way. Sometimes you must wait for the car to pass.

·       Pedestrians: Do not cross in the middle of the street. Instead, cross at the street corner or in clearly defined crossing areas.

·       Pedestrians: Do not keep walking into oncoming traffic!

·       Pedestrians: Do not walk behind moving cars (e.g., when the driver is backing out of a parking spot). 

·       Pedestrians: Do not use a cell phone or iPod, etc.  while you are crossing roads.

·       Pedestrians: Do not cross if the traffic light sign warns you Not too.

 

 

 

 

References:

  1) http://improvemaryland.blogspot.com/2011/05/alert-drivers-using-hand-held-devices.html

  2) http://improvemaryland.blogspot.com/2011/05/alert-parking-lot-safety-managed-right.html

  3) http://improvemaryland.blogspot.com/2011/06/maryland-driving-tips.html

  4) http://improvemaryland.blogspot.com/2011/07/gaithersburg-olde-towne-traffic.html

  5) http://improvemaryland.blogspot.com/2012/05/maryland-road-designs-why-stupid-people.html

  6) http://improvemaryland.blogspot.com/2012/08/traffic-worsens-as-gaithersburg-narrows.html

  7) http://improvemaryland.blogspot.com/2012/09/life-in-city-september-shock-in-dc.html

  8) http://improvemaryland.blogspot.com/2012/10/maryland-drivers-need-to-learn-to-wait.html

  9) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggressive_driving

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.