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

"Traffic worsens as Gaithersburg narrows Diamond Ave."

Well folks, Doreen is in "print" again. I submitted some comments about one of the Washington Examiner's articles concerning traffic congestion and my whole note got printed in today's paper version. Their title is more dramatic than mine but why quibble with my 15 minutes of fame.

It's also online. See the second letter to the Editor entitled "Disastrous narrowing of Diamond Avenue "on this link: Washington Examiner - Letters to the editor-August-1-2012

Alert: Parking lot safety - the managed "right of way”

Fact 1:
Pedestrians do not always have the right of way.

Fact 2:
A car backing up (e.g. parking lot) has a managed ‘right of way’ because the driver does not have ‘full visibility’.

Action:
When a car is backing up, pedestrians should not continue to walk behind the moving car.
When a car is backing up, approaching cars should yield the right-of-way to the car backing out. This is especially true if the car backing up is more than half-way out.