Young drivers prove every day that they have the ability to be much better and sharper at the wheel, than old drivers. Definitions of young and old aside here, it’s important to notice older drivers suffer greatly from such things as hearing loss, vision loss (especially peripheral vision), memory loss (which pedal is the brake, and which is the accelerator?), reduced response time and impaired muscle control. And a recent insurance industry study revealed, not surprisingly, that even teenage drivers make driving safely a terrific habit, and an easy chore - UNLESS they have even ONE friend or guest in the car with them, in which case they collapse from the best driver category, to the worst driver category because of what I will call FATAL DISTRACTION! The insurance industry study clearly documented a VIRTUAL DOUBLING of accident rates when a young driver has friends; in the car. The study was conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, reported in the Washington Post in February of 2005, and picked up by ABC News. With ONE friend in the vehicle with them, the teenage driver's accident rate per mile doubles. With two friends, it triples. With three friends, it quadruples. Older drivers are clearly better at staying focused on the major job of driving, and are better at shunting out inappropriate distractions, which passengers create at their own risk. Professional drivers of transit vehicles are appropriately isolated from and/or prohibited from engaging in major or even minor conversations with passengers, because of these inherent risk increasing factors which can of course be exacerbated by LARGE vehicles in HEAVY traffic, as transit operators have to cope with. A discipline of not distracting the driver is an excellent one for passengers in any vehicle at any time to develop. Younger folks are much less good at this, and the result has historically been wholesale discrimination against, and punitive insurance rates for, young drivers. A joker in the deck is young drivers are typically handed the keys to a vehicle which is a hand-me-down riddled with safety feature deficiencies and substandard mechanical performance, although the insurance industry has not likely studied this very significant handicap that a young driver starts with. Generally the auto industry has fought tooth and nail against every conceivable mandate in auto safety, from mere dual master cylinder braking systems to basic air bag technology. And the insurance industry has as a rule organized itself on the principle of insuring risk for profit, rather than reducing risk for fewer casualties and claims. Discrimination against the young is one of the insurance industry favorite pastimes, and the only genuine solution here is to restore bicycling and urban transportation systems and make them charming, attractive, and affordable alternatives to distracted drivers at the wheel of dysfunctional private cars. An elder driver in Santa Monica or Santa Barbara, California, in the summer of 2004 killed 15 people and maimed dozens at a farmer's market, in a single "accident" where he "confused the accelerator for the brake." He had great insurance rates and a "good" driving record. Bikers, pedestrians, and all others beware, elder drivers like this most often ply the streets with their funky old and dangerous cars in daylight non-commute hours, ("safe" times.) Many of them are multi-medicated and approaching blindness and deafness.
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By James DMake-it-home-safe MANTRA: When dealing with traffic, it's better to be patient than to become a patient; AND - A Sailboat is to a Polluting Cruise Ship what a bicycle is to a smokin' Hummer. I know bikes are beautiful but I’M not backing off until bikes are bountiful and bikers have greater strength in numbers. CategoriesArchives
February 2016
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