Cars, Cars, Everywhere there’s Cars/Polluting up the Scenery/Breakin’ Up My Mind…

Tesla fans know the rest of the song won’t fit my entry here today, but the first part does.

I don’t think anyone should be able to own his/her own personal car.

Strong statement, yes. But I believe it. If all the cities and towns had public transportation, life would be easier and safer.

Accidents would drop. Death by car accident would become an urban legend. No blood on the streets. No clean up crews. No pollution of the air, soil and water.

If you don’t agree with me (’cause you just love your independence, right?), you probably think public transportation is disgusting and full of only poor people and bums (if you live out in the Wild Wild West). Those of you who live in big cities in the eastern U.S. know public transportation is the easiest and most stress-free way to get to and from places. Those of you who live in hick towns in the East, well, I don’t know what you do. Maybe you have a little bus system, maybe not. Walk. Bike. Ride a horse (yes, people still do that for transportation).

The car-centricity of the U.S. disgusts people in other countries who value the world and who enjoy the benefits of public transportation: You can talk (quietly) on your cellphone without fear of traffic ticket or accident, you can read that book you ‘never have time for’, you can eat (non-messy things are best – food bars are good), play on your personal game system, talk to a buddy or kiss your lover. You could put on make-up (depending on mode of transport, that is), go off to La-La-Land in your mind, meditate, work on your laptop, listen to music on your iWhatever or maybe, shock of all shocks, get to know another human being with whom you have no business or familial relationship. Share a good joke, talk politics (no fist-fights, please, we can all ‘agree to disagree’ – a phrase I personally loathe, if only because it’s used so much), offer advice to someone who seems down, receive advice from someone who looks like a wise person, unload your odd personal thoughts to someone who is a good listener or be a good listener.

Plus, if you’re a writer, public transportation is a goldmine of ideas and stories. You can listen in on conversations (not obviously, of course – then you’re just that creepy dude who stares all the time) and describe what you see, smell and feel around you. You could meet an old lady who has lived an extraordinary life, but nobody has bothered to listen to her story, except maybe her family.

Now, you may think I’m a regular pubtrans rider, but I’m not. I used to be (back when my ex took the car when we were splitting up…bastard – I had our kid, but no regular ride to doctor appointments or to work or babysitters), but I own a car right now. A mini-SUV, even.

I’d give it up in a second, if public transportation were good enough in my city.

Here (city of about a million people out West), it’s sort of an afterthought…something you do for the poor and unfortunate, like food drives or free flu shots or free Thanksgiving dinners for the homeless. If I could get across the city in less than 1 1/2 hours on pubtrans (like say, 1/2 an hour? The city isn’t that wide), I’d sell my car off to whomever wanted to disassemble it for recycling. Or just give it to a recycler.

If only there were more people who could see the benefits. If only our governments would spring for the cost of changing the way we get around. If only we, the people, who pay our taxes, would demand it from our governments, then maybe it could be done.

Europe does quite well, except where they’re trying to act American (fast food, cars, couch-potato-ism). So does New York City. So does Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Think about it, folks. Even if you’re not a tree-huggin’ veggie-lovin’ Earth-Day attendin’ hippie type, you gotta agree with some of what I said. None of us ever have time to do stuff we like…we spend a bunch of it every day, sitting at traffic lights and trying to get around the old man who should have hung up his keys a decade and a half ago.

So, take your time back. Ride the bus or the subway or the lightrail train. It’s good for you and everyone else. Win-win, right?

Driver’s Ed should be a regular thing

Seriously, as a person who has recently attended a driver training class to nix the ticket I got for speeding, I can tell you that people should be required to take classes like that on a yearly basis…at least two or three years.
I learned stuff I’d never heard of before…like where the intersection when two streets cross actually is (it’s not bordered by the crosswalk, folks…crosswalks are recessed so crazy drivers talking on their cell phones or doing their makeup don’t swerve into them, creating people pancakes).
There are so many idiots out on the road these days, it’s not even funny.
One way to combat it: Make getting a license harder – up the minimum age, make it so you have to get a 97% to pass the driving and written tests, impounding the cars of people driving without licenses. Okay, that was ‘some ways’, but they’re all valid.
And the cars themselves! I live in a state that only requires vehicle inspection once…ever. In New York, everyone has to get their vehicles inspected every single year…for the protection of others. I have seen (this is my state I’m talking about) bumpers duct-taped to the vehicle, bungee cords holding up mufflers, plastic trash bags doubling as windows, people driving around with cracks in their windshields that go all the way across. What happens if the bumper falls off, or the plastic bag flies away and blocks someone’s sight or headlights at night cause that crack to shine like lightning? “Accidents.”
It’s dangerous…and costs the taxpayer in the end!
How, you may ask? Well, it costs taxpayers every time some fool smashes into another one out of impatience or failed brakes or bumpers bouncing across three lanes.

Ok, say there’s a crash: Someone dials 9-1-1 (who pays the dispatchers’ salaries? You do), then an ambulance and a fire truck arrive…who pays their salaries and pays for the trucks and maintenance of said personnel and trucks? You do. What happens after everyone is carted away in an ambulance and the cars are towed away? Somebody has to pick up the bits and pieces that would otherwise become lodged in somebody’s tires – possibly puncturing one and causing another accident. Who pays that person’s salary? You do.

So, in the end, the inconvenience of having to stand in line every few years to be tested, proving that your vehicle is worthy of the road and that you actually know how to drive, is nothing compared to the amount of money it’ll save you, the taxpayers.

We can take the money and do something worthwhile, like fix the damn potholes in the roads! Or send some poor kids to college so they can grow up to be president or a scientist or somebody important?

Driver’s Ed…it’s not just for high schoolers anymore.

Opinions are like assholes…

…and I have one of each! This blog will be filled with structured (or unstructured) espressions of my opinion. You may or may not agree. I don’t really care, as long as it makes you think with more than the shallowest portion of your brain.

Feel free to leave a comment. If you get nasty in a personal way, it’ll be deemed uncool and get deleted. So, to save yourself the wasted time of posting a nastygram, be objective and only post about the subject at hand…not about me.