I think it was Johnny Carson who was arguing with Formula 1 driver Emerson Fittipaldi about how good a driver Emerson was. Johnny was arguing that it was no big deal to be driving 100+ mph around a course with 20 other professional drivers compared to driving the freeways of Los Angeles. Johnny said the only way to prove Formula 1 drivers were good was to have a grandma driving a 1970 Plymouth Fury on the track at the same time.
The streets today are a little like the Wild West where you take your life into your own hands when driving or as a bicyclist or pedestrian. I was a witness to this a few weeks back while I was sitting at a red light. There was a car on the cross street in front of me making a left turn when a car went right by me in the lane to my right colliding with him. This car then ran into a car going the opposite direction that was waiting for his light to turn green. There was nothing either of these drivers could have done to avoid this accident other than staying home and I was thankful with all the cars bouncing off each other that I didn’t get hit.
I have clients who have kids that grow up and want to get their driver’s license and it is a scary time to watch your kid get behind the wheel and drive off to school. Learning to drive is a skill that takes some time to get proficient at, but it is more difficult when you have people darting in and out of lanes or not staying focused on the job of driving.
If your kid is walking to school, it isn’t always much safer. I live near a school and often see drivers in a hurry blow through the crosswalk, even with an adult in a bright yellow vest holding a “stop” sign standing in the middle of the street. Please teach your kids that even though they are in the crosswalk, they need to be alert to what the cars around them are doing as the crosswalk will not protect them. I recollect my father telling me when teaching me the dangers of crossing a busy street that “I could be in the right, but I could be dead right”, meaning even if I used the crosswalk, if I didn’t pay attention and a driver wasn’t paying attention, I wasn’t going to win the battle with a car.
So pay attention and be careful out there avoiding the knuckleheads. And if you happen to pull up to a stop light and the view into the car to your left looks like this;
I have clients who have kids that grow up and want to get their driver’s license and it is a scary time to watch your kid get behind the wheel and drive off to school. Learning to drive is a skill that takes some time to get proficient at, but it is more difficult when you have people darting in and out of lanes or not staying focused on the job of driving.
If your kid is walking to school, it isn’t always much safer. I live near a school and often see drivers in a hurry blow through the crosswalk, even with an adult in a bright yellow vest holding a “stop” sign standing in the middle of the street. Please teach your kids that even though they are in the crosswalk, they need to be alert to what the cars around them are doing as the crosswalk will not protect them. I recollect my father telling me when teaching me the dangers of crossing a busy street that “I could be in the right, but I could be dead right”, meaning even if I used the crosswalk, if I didn’t pay attention and a driver wasn’t paying attention, I wasn’t going to win the battle with a car.
So pay attention and be careful out there avoiding the knuckleheads. And if you happen to pull up to a stop light and the view into the car to your left looks like this;
pull over to the side of the road and let him get way out in front of you!
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