Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The dangers of driving.

All Lauren and I wanted this morning was a safe trip to the Culver City pool for practice.

This brought about a discussion about poor driving habits. It seems like lately all of the loonies have been out. Maybe the sunshine and arrival of Spring has made them come out of hibernation? Whatever the reason is, the list of poor driving decisions is growing rapidly.

- Saturday - waiting at the light on PCH where Topanga Canyon dumps in. Longest light ever and some guy decides to drive straight through a red light. No hesitation at all. It was so red that the light had already been green in our direction for a few seconds before he even entered the intersection. Good thing it takes us a second to clip back in on our bikes or we may have ended up splattered across the windshield.

- Saturday - out on my easy run. Had I not had to stop to deal with some stomach issues I was having, I would have been toast. A woman decided to, not just roll, but drive rapidly beyond the stop line and 1/2 way into the turn she intended on making before thinking about hitting the brakes. Guess the city shouldn't waste their money painting stop lines on the road because clearly people don't acknowledge them.

- Sunday - parking lot of Co-Op on Broadway. An elderly woman, wearing a massive sun hat, driving a very large Lexus. She had no concept of the space around her vehicle and I swore she was going to back into the car behind her. It took her about 5 minutes to back out of her spot. Thank goodness we were in the little blue bus and could maneuver around her to make the situation a little bit better.

- Sunday - main road intersection of Santa Monica and 14th street. Not one, but 2 cars pulling U-Turns in the middle of the intersection after their light had already gone red. Oh, but that isn't all. Then the person turning left, coming from the opposite direction from us, turned ahead of the cars going straight... again, no hesitation. What is wrong with people?! Where did they learn to drive?

- Monday - drive home from Culver City. Just as we discussed how talking on cell phones impairs your driving reaction time to the same degree as being legally intoxicated we look over and see a woman putting on mascara. She gives us a look, while accelerating forward... I guess she doesn't have to look at the road to drive.

So, for anyone driving or walking or riding in the Santa Monica area: HEADS UP unless you want to be road kill because there is madness going on out here right now.

1 comment:

Tim Jackson said...

Stay safe out there... it's a madhouse. It isn't much better here in San Diego either. I played "dodge car" on my ride tonight. Scary how people drive in their shiny little cocoons.