Highway Safety: Safety Enforcement

We’ve talked a good bit about safety enforcement in Speed Limits. Now lets look at some of the other things they can do.

Work Zones They’re a pet peeve of mine. I don’t know of anyone with an intelligent argument against lowered speeds where people are working. Can’t find one myself.

I can and will argue work zones have to be controlled intelligently for the safety of both the workers and road users.

I’ll begin by defining a couple of terms. Work Zone: A short area where work is actually taking place. Construction Zone: An area of varying length, where the roadway is in normal condition, where work may take place anytime within the next 15 to 30 days.

Unfortunately, many states have confused a construction zone with a work zone. This leads to many miles of reduced speed marking with no sign of work. That often results in drivers forgetting or ignoring the temporary limit. Then, with no additional warning, they come across workers. Well, sometimes. We’ve all driven through construction zones, sometimes for months, and never seen so much as someone leaning on a shovel, places where modern descendants of the Shoemaker’s Elves must be doing the work. Is it any wonder those speed limits are ignored?

The solution is amazingly simple, only been around for a few decades. Mark the construction zones. Then post reduced speeds and other restrictions with portable signs where workers really are present.

Wonder how many worker lives that simple change could save?

LLBs are another peeve of mine. They’re the Left Lane Bandits squatting in the left lane causing other drivers to change lanes to get around them. Does anyone beside me remember most states have laws clearly saying the left lane is for overtaking? (MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, SEC. 63-3-603: (d) Upon all roadways any vehicle proceeding at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall be driven in the right-hand lane then available for traffic, or as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway, except when overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction or when preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.)

LLBs are a big segment of a whole group of traffic disruptors. Other members include trucks blowing stuff out of the bed causing drivers to dodge trash, rocks, and whatever else they’re spreading. These are particularly dangerous as trash flying towards your windshield may cause a flinch resulting in sudden hard braking or even a lane change without proper checking.

Neither last nor least, are those drivers jumping lanes, weaving, or otherwise driving erratically – at any speed – they’re about as dangerous to others as you can get.

My bet is redirection of “safety enforcement” from speed to traffic disruptors alone would increase safety by 20 percent. But it won’t happen.

Speeding tickets are too big a revenue source for the government to give up just for safety.


-------------------------------
First post in the series.

Highway safety: An Overview

The first thing anyone has to say about highway safety is it’s you, the driver, who has the ultimate responsibility. You have to make sure your vehicle is safe. You must drive it in a safe manner. (Yo, you, the dumb ass in the black Honda SUV on 20 West in Birmingham. Just so you know, next time you cut someone off that close they may not back down. If it weren’t for the woman passenger, I would have let you put yourself into a Franchitti flip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3NO_zYCvb4 ) And you must make sure you watch out for that dumb ass and other incompetent drivers.

The states have a responsibility; a lawyer might say a fiduciary responsibility to provide highway users with a safe travel environment. They own the roads. Some states go so far as to charge a specific use fee. All the continental states and Canada collect use fees under the guise of gas taxes and the International fuel tax agreement, IFTA.

There are four main areas of state responsibility:

Speed limits. Neither too high nor too low.

Safety enforcement. Everything from whacked drivers like dumb ass to unsafe vehicles.

Road conditions. Good surfaces, de-iced and well drained, with safe crash barriers and good emergency spaces.

Licensing. Let’s face it. American driver’s licensing requirements are a joke. A very bad, dangerous, joke.

I’ll discuss each of those areas in future entries.

--------------------------------
Future entries:

Speed Limits

Safety Enforcement