The Wild Wild West

My Bride and I were on our way to the gym the other day and had stopped behind a car in the center lane at North Main and Massey Tompkins. The car in the right lane was evidently going to go straight and when the green arrow came on signaling opposing lanes could turn, the car in front of us blasted off and turned right in front of the stopped car beside it.

Now mind you, a car was making the turn from the opposing lane and they nearly collided. My Bride and I both made loud exclamations of disbelief, not having seen such reckless driving in recent times. The very next day, I am on the opposite side of the road, wanting to drive north and get a sub sandwich. I had missed the green arrow and came to halt as the cars beside me crossed North Main and moved onto Massey Tompkins.

The light turned yellow, then red and about 5 seconds later, a small blue car blew through the intersection at about 40 miles per hour, stopping the flow of traffic from both directions. In the Chemical Plant vernacular, this would be cited as a “near miss” incident. The reality of both acts of careless driving is at the very least there would have been a terrific accident with major vehicle damage.

I’ve written about the obvious distracted driver issue before, but both of these incidents involved impatience and most likely really crappy driving decisions some idiots are making. I could use better words than crappy and idiots here, but they cover both sentiments quite well. On my way back from teaching a 0530 Spin class in Meyerland the other morning, I witnessed a wreck on the 610 Loop.

The road was heavily congested heading into town and I was in the free-flowing east bound side, when a car tapped their brakes on the west bound side. This started a chain-reaction, as all of the cars were tail-gating each other, until one slammed into the back of the one in front of it.  They were out in front of me a bit and I watched in amazement as the whole west bound side began to come to a stop and I am talking about every lane. Of course we all slowed down, because people have to rubber neck, but before we got back up to full speed the amount of stopped cars began to expand.

This careless act of tail-gaiting most likely stopped or slowed traffic for over an hour. Months ago, I did quite a bit of research on this phenomenon and posted 2 videos on my web page: www.baytownbert.us with the hopes that drivers would watch them and learn how they can help stop this aberrant and dangerous behavior. Back in the day when pushing the brake peddle may or may not stop you, drivers didn’t rely so heavily on them and I often think that people don’t connect the dots on the fact that they are hurtling down the road in a 2 ton missile.

One of my brothers asked me if I had changed out my brake pads, as he planned to repair his own Jeep Wrangler’s brakes. I told him I had no need, “as I don’t use my brakes very often”. I coast a lot, keep my distance, and allow the Jeep’s drive train to auto-slow me down. I am also old school enough to actually watch the road a quarter of a mile ahead as I drive. Am I perfect?  Nope, but I’ve never caused a wreck in 49 years of driving. To take this one step further, I watched another video, which is also on my website, about how one driver can decongest a traffic jam on the freeway.

I was skeptical at first, but low and behold, it actually works. I made it part of my driving strategy and I no longer feel the angst that is common in these situations. I maintain my distance between me and the vehicle in front of me. If someone wants in, I let them in and adjust my distance. It doesn’t sound like it works, but it does. People wait until the last second to get over to their turn-off and no one will let them in and this starts the chain reaction of braking. I let them in and there are no brake lights flashing.

The simplest way to describe the solution is for people to follow the basic rules of the road. If everyone kept their proper distance, actually paid attention, and kept the speed limit, there would be few traffic accidents and road congestion. The whole speed up and stop scenario we see on Garth Road and our freeways would all but disappear. The need to constantly change lanes to move up one car mentality would be gone also.

Stay safe out there folks. I have a feeling it is only going to get worse. People just won’t take time to do a little research and then there is the me, me, me mentality that would prevent them from changing anyway. Oh!  One more thing.  That green light doesn’t mean that you don’t need to look both ways.
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Red Light Cameras Get The Green Light!

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I’ve been following the debate over the red light cameras with great interest and the most recent column by The Suns new managing editor Doyle Barlow, titled Red light tickets should be up to BPD, compelled me to speak my peace.

Back a couple years ago when I stood with the Baytown Concerned Citizens at El Toro’s restaurant and asked the city to “do something about the traffic violators’ in this town”, it seemed everyone was of the same opinion – by hook or crook, stop people from violating traffic laws and in the process, catch criminals with warrants.

I’m not implying red light cameras are catching and locking up crooks, but if you do not pay the fine, you will get a warrant issued for your arrest (*see updated note below).  However, any driver with a driver’s license should have the minimum reading skills to interpret the signs and each camera has numerous signs to warn drivers there are cameras present.

Now my hat is still off to the Baytown police department for the fine job(s) they are doing, but how many officers do we have dedicated to cruising at any one time?  Not that many per capita and there is a good reason – it’s a big town with as many as 120,000 people moving around at peak hours.

It would be an impossible task to watch every busy intersection, let alone the thousands of stop signs and minor red lights, so in my opinion, the red light cameras are a plus for traffic violations.  Besides, I challenge anyone reading this to take a drive through this town and make a note every time you see a traffic violation on just one trip.  It might be a real eye-opener.

A case in point is here - yesterday, I made a trip to Food Town on North Main and pulled out of the parking lot onto Rollingbrook St.  It was about noon time and I was in the right lane and heading east towards Massey Tompkins Rd.  The left turn arrow turned green and the car to my left, which incidentally was in the middle lane, took off straight through the oncoming turning cars and kept going on east on Massey Tompkins.  I shook my head in amazement.

Directly behind it, another car took its place and just as the green left turn arrow turned yellow; it too crossed over into the intersection and took a left – from the middle lane!  Either of these demonstrations of poor judgment could have resulted in a car wreck or possible fatality and this all happened inside 20 seconds by 2 different Baytown drivers.

As to the argument that red light camera strobe lights causes more rear-end collisions, I have an observation to make about that also.  The reason the second car runs into the stopping car, is because they have every intention of flying through the light also.

We have way too many distracted people driving cars in this and every town in this country.  Loud music, cell phones, eating food, alcohol, looking out the window when they should be looking ahead and dope – yes dope all contribute to people driving without actually paying attention.

Saturday morning I drove out Garth Road to go geocaching at 6:30am and stopped at the I-10 red light to wait my turn to go.  Behind me I spied a Honda Accord with 4 young people inside.  The front passenger and the 2 back seat travelers all had their heads laid back as if very tired.  Then, to my surprise, the driver slouched down, laid his head over and closed his eyes.

I was watching all of this when one of the backseat riders noticed me watching.  He nudged his buddy and as they both looked at my reflection in the mirror, the driver fell asleep and his car came rolling up to mine.  I was right at the collision point when their yells caused him to slam on the brakes.  Needless to say, as the light turned green, I drove off as fast as the law allowed.

No, we are not in a place where we can give up the extra help red light cameras do to penalize red-light runners and right turn violators yet, if anything, we need more.

*This is inaccurate.  See comments below.

Nitwit Constable Breaks Law to Catch Lawbreakers

May 21, 2010 at 5pm, I was in abnormally crowded traffic going home from work. I was on SH-146 going north over the Fred Hartman Bridge and in the far left lane. All around me were cars, pick-up trucks and commercial vehicles. Brake lights were uncharacteristically flashing in front of me and I checked my speedometer to see if what I thought was happening, was happening – yes, we were all going about 58 mph. The speed limit is 60mph, but during rush-hour, it’s often 75 and flows like well-oiled water.

Normally between 4-7pm, the traffic moves quite fast over this crowded bridge, often hitting 80 mph and it moves quite well. There is a tremendous amount of vehicular traffic over this bridge each day. Now I’m not condoning doing 80mph, even though in my little compact, I’ve learned that I must drive fairly aggressively if I don’t want to get squashed, but I think it’s safe to say that 58mph and wall to jumpy wall cars puts me in the same uncomfortable position.

When it’s crowded and backed-up and folks are steadily tapping their brakes, I get very uneasy.

As I reached the top of the bridge, I see a constable parked (Illegally – read the signs) on top of the bridge, foot braced against the bridge, dark sunglasses, and radar gun pointed back down the way we just came. He looked like Lt. Jim Dangle from Reno 911! up there to me and I reckon to everyone else returning home from a long day at work.

My very first thought was: He’s breaking the law to catch someone breaking the law. Honest to god it was. My second thought was: So this is the reason all these hundreds of cars and trucks are all but bumping into each other on this normally self-governing route? Normally these constables park on the near or far side of the bridge and cause folks to tap the brake pedal, but it doesn’t have this kind of disruptive effect, but this guy? Nope, he wants in the shooter’s seat.

He wants the biggest amount of shock and awe he can get…and the most respect. What he got instead was a bunch of angry stares and created a traffic hazard. He broke the law to try and catch a law-breaker? What?
 
There is no parking on the Fred Hartman Bridge – even I know that. It’s not against the law to walk over it though, but if a constable sees you doing that, he’ll threaten to arrest you and this has actually happened and of course, he will arrest you for parking on the bridge too...