May 23, 2006
GET A SEGWAY, JUNIOR:
Push to bump teen driving age hits fast lane: Teens cry foul over proposal (Jessica Fargen and Emelie Rutherford, May 23, 2006, Boston Herald)
Thousands of would-be teen drivers may be forced off the road under a junior operator bill backed by a House committee yesterday that calls for jacking up the driving age, banning cell phones and forcing parents to rev up the training.
With Bay State teens dying in wrecks almost weekly, lawmakers are pushing for action.
A good start, but they need to ban it for 70 year olds too. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 23, 2006 7:36 AM
Segways might make the rest of us safer, but not the teens.
Posted by: pj at May 23, 2006 7:54 AMWe've become so enamoured of unequal treatment that we don't even bat an eye when it's proposed.
Teens & beginners, of course, can be forced to get more training, but the true solution is a much, much, much harder driving test, perhaps given more frequently.
Any test that doesn't check for reaction time, evasion techniques, and higher skills measurement isn't worthwhile.
Most of all, in my utopia, people who drive slow in the left lane will suffer the fate of people who litter.
Posted by: Bruno at May 23, 2006 9:37 AMWhen I first got my license, my Dad made me get my first 500 miles with him in the car with me, all short trips (under 5 miles) around town. I would drive to school in the morning, he'd take the car from there to work and I'd take the bus home. I carried a little notebook with me and noted the mileage for each trip. I was very annoyed by this policy and wasn't shy in voicing my hatred of it. But it did make me a better driver and my Dad did point out a number of near-accidents I would have had if he hadn't been there. So, score one for the Old Man. I can't wait to irritate my kids the same way.
Bruno, you mean shot on sight, right?
oj. Watch what you say about 70 year old drivers. We don't get dangerous until 90.
Posted by: erp at May 23, 2006 11:17 AMAs a public service, one of those Little Canada counties masquerading as a State in the Union should ban all driving except for gov't functionaries in the course of their official duties. Sort of like a gun-control nut's fantasy world come true, except when it comes to cars. That way we have something with which to gauge the car-banners' claims that Paradise-on-Earth would ensue. More likely we'd get the equivalent of D.C. and it's gun control laws. But it'd be fun to watch for the six months it was in effect.
(And don't worry, if teens were restricted to Segways, they'd find ways to do "burnouts" and "wheelies" and come up with all sorts of ways to cause mayhem with them.)
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at May 23, 2006 11:48 AMFrom my cold, dead hands, Raoul.
Posted by: Random Lawyer (of the Delaware bar) at May 23, 2006 1:46 PMCareful Rand, those terms might be acceptable.
Posted by: erp at May 23, 2006 7:23 PM