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With the inevitable fact that within the next year my daughter, Rachel, will become a member of the driving masses, I have been reflecting a lot on days gone by. As I have written about numerous times in the past, the driving landscape in this area has changed dramatically.
It has not only changed as far as attitude is concerned, it has also changed as far as the learning and teaching aspects go as well. When people of my age group were learning to drive, we learned at school. We had a driver’s education class. It not only went over the written portions of the driving test it had behind the wheel training as well.
When I was learning to drive, I was attending San Gabriel High School. Our classes were held in one of those early versions of a temporary classroom. I remember it was always hot, stuffy, and poorly lit, but it was free and being set in a classroom situation, it was also very effective. Rarely did anyone fail because a teacher, not some hired mercenary whose main objective is to make a buck, properly taught us. If our driving climate today, as compared to then, is any indication give me the old system back.
When it came to behind the wheel training it was usually a cross section of students. Generally there was about four of us with the teacher and we would all take turns behind the wheel. While this may seem like a somewhat intimidating way of learning to drive, it worked. There was something about being with a group of your classmates that made you concentrate on what you were doing. While peer pressure nowadays has taken on a particularly nasty connotation, back then it was a valuable learning tool. Nothing motivates a teenage boy to do well while behind the wheel more than a teenage girl and visa versa.
But of course the times have changed and as with most things not for the better. Nowadays you have to hire a personal driving instructor, which will set you back anywhere from $175.00 to $250.00. To make matters worse, you have to pay for these lessons before your child takes them and before he or she can get their permit. Then you roll the dice in hopes that the driving instructor that you picked isn’t the same asshole who taught the person in front of you who is going 20 miles an hour in a 40 mile an hour zone.
Personally, I don’t think any driving instructor out there, based on my recent experiences on the road over the last decade or so, is capable of teaching the proper way to drive. If they were, the majority of drivers would know how to use their turn indicators and how a four way stop works. I have always contended that there is something fishy between this new breed of driving school and the DMV. I base this assumption due to the fact that a majority of drivers, at least in this area, are completely clueless to the rules of the road when behind the wheel. So where is the glitch in the system? Is it one or the other or both? I think it has to be both.
The turn indicator thing has always made me totally fucking furious. It is such a simple task to learn and execute that it should be, as it is with me, automatic. Over and above the fact that not using a turn indicator is dangerous, it is flat out rude. Because the problem is so prevalent, the one lesson I have taught my daughter thus far, is that when approaching a car that is positioned to the left at an intersection with a stop light that doesn’t have a dedicated left turn lane, is to stop about a car length behind them. Because lately, 8 times out of ten that person, will as soon as the light changes, decide to use their turn indicator to clue you into the fact that they are turning left. Without that bumper space you will always be trapped behind them cursing at the top of your lungs.
One thing that is definitely different from my early driving years is the use of my car’s horn. Until about 15 years ago I never touched the horn except to get the attention of somebody I knew. Nowadays I don’t think I could survive without one. It has become as mandatory as my turn indicator or my tires when driving because somebody in the teaching and testing arenas is not doing their jobs. Which is where my horn comes into play.
It has become all of our jobs, that would be those of us who learned to drive during the golden era of driving instruction, to pick up where the driving schools and the DMV leave off. Our main tool in teaching those less educated in the fine art of driving is our horns. A loud voice and the middle finger are also useful, but the horn really gets their attention. They may not like it, but tough shit. Somebody has got to do it because they are a danger to every one else on the road.
So when you see one of these fuckheads not using their turn indicators, not following the right progression at a four way stop, not pulling over to the right when an ambulance or fire engine is approaching, falling asleep at an intersection after the light has changed, or anything else stupid while behind the wheel, let them know about. While we can’t get them at the elementary level maybe with a blast of our horns we can take them to college.
Education should be everybody’s business especially when dealing with the driving impaired.
The Shrub Speaks: The math has changed. The math has changed this way. Baby boomers like me are getting ready to retire, and there are a lot of us. I turn 62 in 2008 -- it's a convenient date for me to retire. Tucson, Arizona, Mar. 21, 2005
B.D.’s Response: Thanks Dubya. I’m happy to hear you won’t be finishing your full term, since it ends in 2009.
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