RonBoyd
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
There are those who have an unreasonable fear of heights or enclosed spaces. This is my unreasonable (and, I suppose, irrational) dread:
Personally I always leave myself a lot of room to take evasive actions when I drive. Even if I have a green light I keep an eye on all incoming traffic when I cross an intersection just as it were a flashing yellow light.
Running into another vehicle at an intersection doesn't strike me as an unreasonable and irrational dread at all.
I'm not so sure about that as an American mantra is, "you cannot live without a car!"...
Ten's of thousands die on the roads every year. If people got killed on the roads in big events like they do in airplane crashes then there would be a whole new focus on driving safety.
On our arrival in Houston from England our Texas host showed us a recent article in the paper about a driver defending herself after she went through a red light and hit another car. She said, "He must have run a green light". The point was that we were being warned not to immediately move off on green, but to give a few seconds for the "red-lighters" to get through.
However, there is nothing you can do if you are sitting at a red light and get rear ended.
I'm not so sure about that as an American mantra is, "you cannot live without a car!"
When I sit at a red light I always leave several yards of space in front of my car and keep an eye on the rear view mirror. If someone comes behind me a little bit fast, I can move forward a a few yards to give them extra braking room. If someone comes behind me really fast and shows no signs of slowing down, I have enough yardage in front of me to get out of Dodge (if I am not boxed in that is). It's not foolproof, but it's good to have options.
When I sit at a red light I always leave several yards of space in front of my car and keep an eye on the rear view mirror. If someone comes behind me a little bit fast, I can move forward a a few yards to give them extra braking room. If someone comes behind me really fast and shows no signs of slowing down, I have enough yardage in front of me to get out of Dodge (if I am not boxed in that is). It's not foolproof, but it's good to have options.
That sounds just like my survival strategy for if I am ever in an elevator that plummets to earth... at the last second, I will jump up in the air thus escaping the collision.
I haven't thought this through, Alan, but it seems to me that Americans have a very high tolerance for vehicular injuries and deaths and probably would go a lot higher in that acceptance. Even so, I think most of us really do want more safety and tolerance for fewer distractions.....
USA road deaths are about the lowest in the world but over 40,000 still die every year, plus goodness knows how many serious injuries.
Is that your way of calling me stupid?
What?!?!?!
Maybe I misunderstood, but your post sounded very sarcastic to me...
Posted because I like the song. I couldn't find the old PSA cartoon, which ran in New York when I was a kid. The composer also wrote The Addams Family and Green Acres theme songs.