R – Rants and Reckless Drivers

What if Reckless drivers had immediate consequences?

You’re driving down a two-lane road and you notice that the car behind you is about a foot from your rear bumper. You’re going the speed limit. If you can, you pull over to let the driver behind you pass. They speed by you 10 or more miles per hour faster than you’re doing. If you don’t pull to the side they manage to bob and weave around you at that high speed and continue to do so to any other driver that doesn’t accede to their full-throttled speed desire. Sometimes a driver in the lane to your right chooses to cut in front of you, with inches to spare, to do some bobbing and weaving of their own.

You are approaching a stop sign and watch the cars in front of you just glide through the stop sign, sometimes slowing down and sometimes not. And as we all know when the traffic light turns orange, it means we should speed up.

How many drivers do you pass, when you’re out on the road, that are on their phones? I’ve also seen drivers in their cars putting on make-up, shaving, and brushing their teeth; and not all doing these things when their cars are stopped.

Every one of these actions is reckless and dangerous. Most of the time there are no police around to stop and ticket any of these individuals. There are no consequences. But what if there were immediate consequences?

In my head, I always see my car loaded with photon torpedos, like in Star Trek, and when someone cuts me off or travels close to the speed of light, I have the ability to fire upon them.

My wife would like a maglev device that activates immediately when those cars speed by, raising them above all of the traffic at the exact spot that they are, holding them in the air for the appropriate amount of time before letting them down to continue their journey.

Imagine, instead of those traffic “gotcha” cameras that record you when you run a stop sign or red light, there would be paintball guns that automatically fired at your car as you pass them. Everyone seeing your car covered with assorted paintball splotches would know exactly what you were doing.

Texting or calling on your phones, without a handsfree device, would automatically disconnect your calls, or provide some sort of electrical jolt to the hand holding the phone or better yet, immediately slow your car down.

It’s very frustrating and scary at times when driving and you watch all of these drivers risking your life. I wish there was something that could be done on a global scale, other than letting my imagination run wild, which even though at times reduces my anger and road rage, but also distracts me.

I don’t claim to be perfectly innocent. There are times when I’m traveling faster than the speed limit allows, but never to extent that it is more than 5-7 miles over the speed limit. And having been on the receiving end of a running a stop sign ticket and not making a full stop at a right on red for a long enough period of time fine, I’ve learned not to do that.

There are real laws out there that give consequences to reckless drivers. In some cases, it is a fine, in some cases jail, and yet in others revocation of driving privileges. There are just not enough people to enforce it. Until we find ways to increase the way we catch these drivers and hold them accountable, the roads will remain places of anxiety and danger.

What if we could develop something like Star Trek’s transporter system, where we could beam ourselves where we want to be and not drive at all? Considering how crowded some of the roads are, I would be a little concerned about complications of beaming through all the rush hour people and getting to where I want to be in one (totally me) piece.

 

About hdh

I have been telling stories for over 40 years and writing forever. I am a retired teacher and storyteller. I hope to expand upon my repertoire and use this blog as a place to do writing. The main purpose is to give me and others that choose to comment, a space in which to play with issues that deal with storytelling, storytelling ideas, storytelling in education, reactions to events, and just plain fun stories. I explore some of my own writing throughout, from character analysis, to fictional, to poetry, and personal stories. I go wherever my muse sends me. Enjoy!
This entry was posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2017, Writing and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

10 Responses to R – Rants and Reckless Drivers

  1. Susan says:

    I think we all rant at reckless drivers. All I can add is, “raca!”

    *Visiting from A-Z*

  2. Susanne Matthews says:

    Well said. I get very frustrated when someone is driving too fast, ignoring road conditions and as you so aptly put it, endangering my life. I love the paint ball idea. LOL Find me here.LINK

  3. Lydia says:

    Ah yes, I’ve often wished that if nothing else, drivers could at least realize how dangerous it is to not pay attention or obey the rules while they’re driving. Road safety is something I wish more people were intent on…

    Visiting from the A to Z Challenge. You can see my “R” post here: https://lydiahowe.com/2017/04/21/r-is-for-raquel-atozchallenge/

  4. Katy says:

    Now I am going to spend the rest of my life imaging photon torpedoes on my car and all the things I would do with them, and that is awesome! Thanks for the post!!
    Stopping by from AtoZ Challenge! http://www.holdingdaisiescountingstars.com/2017/04/r-is-for-mr-rogers.html

  5. Man, driving would be so fun if it weren’t for the other drivers. Most of my pet peeves in life center on the habits of other drivers. I make a concentrated effort to drive defensively but not timidly so I don’t inconvenience anyone but I also come home safely every day. (Checking in from the A to Z Challenge)

  6. hdh says:

    Driving defensively and coming home safely is always a priority when I drive. Unfortunately, even driving defensively doesn’t always protect you from the unpredictability of other drivers. That’s what worries me the most.

  7. hdh says:

    Wouldn’t mind a tractor beam either. That might slow them down a bit.

  8. hdh says:

    You got my vote.

  9. hdh says:

    It could be a new art genre, “Avant stupid”!

  10. Pingback: R- Really?  | hdhstory.net

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