Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Please, Police Officer

Please spare me from a brain aneurysm, and start enforcing traffic laws.

In the last two weeks I've seen two multiple car accidents on Meridian road. I saw a four-car wreck a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday a two, or three, or four car pile up. It was hard to tell, what with all the ambulances and what not.

Both accidents were on straight stretches, and clearly both were because the drivers were following too closely. I see it literally constantly in my commute. Literally constantly. If there are more than three other cars on the road, at least one is tailgating another.

I work hard to leave an appropriate distance in front of me, but it isn't easy. So many people will change lanes right into a small space. If a person's car will fit between two others, people don't seem to hesitate to change lanes into it. 65 mph, and change lanes into a space that then has less than a car length in front and behind the vehicle. Pretty often I see that maneuver, then I see the lane-changer hit the brakes, causing the person behind to slam on the brakes.

What really spikes my blood pressure is when I see police officers on the road. Almost daily I see an officer with a radar detector, trying to get speeders. While waiting for someone going too fast, they let any number of people fly by less than a car length behind the person in front. I've seen them driving with tailgaters all around them. I've seen them being tailgated. I've never seen them pull over a tailgater.

Once there's an accident, traffic backs way up, cars start wasting gasoline by idling, people are late for work, and of course people are often injured. So, please, police officer, start enforcing this law. Do a few directed patrols, raise awareness, at least try to make it a little better. Please, before I stroke out.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

And they do Alan. In fact they tend to pick great places like the Eagle offramp median to do it, causing everyone to slam on the brakes to see wtf is going on. Not really a good solution to the problem. The problem is that people keep confusing a goat path with a freeway, if the 84 was engineered correctly and there was a modicum of courtesy there would be no problem.

Anonymous said...

"Why don't you guys just get out of my way?" he says facetiously, content in the knowledge he rode his bike to work this morning passing the same cars at the intersection that passed him in their haste to work.

We gotta get you out of Kuna and closer to your work.

MountainGoat said...

I agree. Meridian Road is a white-knuckler and you've gotta have a death-wish trying to cross at Columbia Road.

Anonymous said...

anonymous, believe me I feel you pain about the effects of stopping speeders, or whoever, on the interstate. It does in deed cause gawk block.

I think the police could do their directed patrols some time other than rush hour, on in the non-rushed lane, and it would still be effective.

S and MG, it would be nice to live closer to work. Some days that drive is a killer, but I do get to see some wacky driving.