An Attitude Adjustment is Required!

I’m walking south on the east side of 3rd street preparing to cross the green light at the intersection of 3rd street and Van Buren in downtown Phoenix. There is a group of pedestrians crossing this green light, about 12 or more. There is also one car that is signaling to turn left going south on 3rd street and turning east onto Van Buren. However, he must wait until traffic clears. As we are walking across the streets the pedestrian signal light says there are 8 more seconds before the light changes to red. At this point a gap develops among pedestrians and this driver seeks to take advantage of this and blows his horn at a pedestrian and proceeds through the gap making his turn. I am a few feet behind along with a few other pedestrians. We all make it safely across the streets in the allotted time.

This driver’s action displays the rudeness, impatience, selfishness, contempt, and hatred reflected in the attitude that I have noticed in many Arizona drivers towards other human beings that share the roadways. I said it before, it is one thing to issue a ticket or citation to this sort of person, but what they really need is a change of mind, a change of attitude and a change of heart. This behavior is unacceptable. However, the question is “How can it be changed?”

The Operator

Think of something that you know how to operate. Can you operate a can opener? How many times have you opened a can and injured yourself and someone else? Can you operate a computer? How many times have you injured yourself while operating the computer? Think of some items that you operate what about a stereo, cassette recorder or an MP3 player, lawn mower, blender, jack hammer, espresso machine. How many times have you injured yourself doing so? What about others have you injured others while operating any of these items? What about killing yourself or someone else while doing so? Not likely?

That brings me to the automobile. How many of you operate an automobile? How many of you have injured yourself and others when operating an automobile? Why did you do it? What is the difference between operating an automobile and a lawn mower? When operating the vehicle you were paying attention, right? Eyes on the road ahead; hands in the ten and two position on the wheel, right? You were looking both ways, right? You know I’m joking, right? Because that’s not how it’s done in this modern era. You may operate the lawn mower like that but the automobile you take for granted. I don’t think people drink while operating a lawn mower or read, or put on make-up or any of those other things they do when operating an automobile. I think people tend to use both hands and keep their concentration while operating a lawn mower to prevent an “accident” from occurring. Why is the operation of an automobile any different? Maybe it’s because you feel safer in the automobile. Maybe you think you will not get hurt and don’t care about others! Is this the thought behind “hit-and-runs?” Or maybe you are just careless like the AZ father that ran over and killed his daughter or the AZ uncle that ran over and killed his niece. I’m sure that they did not mean to do it but carelessness kills too.

The automobile is no different from the many other tools we use on a daily bases; however, it all boils down to “the operator” and the level of respect they have for themselves and others!

Caution

Do you remember once upon a time when the yellow light meant “caution?” What does it mean today? Based on what I see on a daily bases it means “speed up,” “go faster,” and “catch the light.” What do you see? I have actually taken my video camera and recorded footage of folks performing these very acts. Upon viewing the footage you can hear the engine rev as the vehicle accelerates to “catch the light.” Sometimes in doing this the driver “catches” more than the light. They catch another vehicle or a bicyclist or even a pedestrian. I believe that the word “caution” should be redefined when it comes to traffic safety. In fact, what is the current definition for the word “caution” as it relates to traffic safety? Does anybody have an Arizona Drivers License Manual? Under the heading “Roadway and Vehicle Knowledge” on page 25 of my old book under the sub-heading titled “Signal Lights” it says “Yellow – yellow means brake! This signal means CAUTION. A steady yellow light is a warning that the light is about to turn red. If you have not entered the intersection, you should come to a safe stop. If you are already in the intersection you should continue moving and clear it safely. Speeding up to “beat the light” is illegal and could cause an accident.”

Well, in that definition it does say that “yellow means brake.” But come on how many Arizona drivers brake on yellow? None! Not even the so-called “good drivers!” If it’s illegal why is it that we NEVER see motorists getting pulled over and getting tickets? Instead of braking, many drivers SPEED UP this means go faster, perhaps faster than the posted speed limit, if they were not already over the speed limit. And you know when you are traveling at higher rates of speed it takes longer to stop and that's when so-called accidents occur. In the city of Phoenix 27% of crashes occur at traffic signals according to the city of Phoenix Street Transportation Department. Since the definition of yellow has changed from this to that I think the yellow light should be eliminated all together. This way there is no fudging, no wiggle room or loop holes. If we use the pedestrian count-down (10, 9 ,8...) the vehicle can see the counter and when it hits 1 and you run the light... you did it! This way the case will be very clear either you did it (ran the red light) or you didn’t. Red means stop and green means go! And caution means...what?

Lights, CAMERAS, Action!

Since this has become such a hot topic lately, of course, I must weigh in. I learned about these cameras several years ago. I contacted all of the cities that had installed photo cameras in their cities. At that time these cities included: Paradise Valley, Scottsdale, Tempe, Phoenix and Chandler. I wanted to obtain some of these photos to use in the "Caught on Tape" segment of the "How is Your Driving?" show. All of the cities except Scottsdale gave me the run around. Through two officers at that time working for the Scottsdale Police Department, they actually gave me video footage to use for the show.

With that said, I never really was a "fan" of the cameras because they do not PREVENT speeding or red light running. As I said in a previous article "I don't mind hitting motorist that violate the law in the wallet; but, I also want to hit them in the head!" I want to adjust their attitude about speeding, running red lights and obeying all driving laws and rules.

Red Flex Traffic Systems a Scottsdale Arizona based company at that time served the above mentioned cities. They installed and monitored the photo systems these cities used. To give you an idea of the amount of money that was being made lets look at this one example. Red Flex would from just one of these cities would earn about $60,000 a month! But the city would take in an estimated $780,000 in one month from around 6,000 traffic violators!

So when the former Governor learned of this and how much money was being made she did not hesitate to put cameras on the highways; her motive was to use the funds to relieve the state of its debt! She did not bite her tongue about her intentions. Therefore, she didn't give a damn about the speeders except that if you were going to speed then you were going to bail the state out of it's debt!

As an advocate for save driving, saving lives and reducing collisions I say its better than nothing. I would think that DPS is correct, that collisions are down because of the cameras. Some people just can't afford to keep on getting tickets. Other people may have the attitude of not giving a damn and will not pay them as many people have decided to do. But when it comes time to register your vehicle what will you do then? One woman in another state let her traffic fines amount to over $19,000! She is now doing time in jail, prison if you will! The bottom line people are still dieing from automobile collisions. Speed kills! Once you get over a certain speed you are suspect to losing control of your vehicle and of course once you loose control of your vehicle you're now on a roller-coaster ride and on your way to killing yourself and others.

I say act responsibly, obey the driving rules and laws. Choose life over death!

I was thinking about these two youth that were killed by Phoenix drivers. The young lady was killed while crossing the streets from her school. The driver did try to save her by doing CPR.
The young man was hit on his bicycle by a driver that hit him and ran. The following day the young man died. In comparing the deaths of motor vehicles to the deaths in a WAR like Iraq; the war on motor vehicle collisions is more devastating! The people in Iraq know that they are in a fight! The pedestrians, bicyclist, joggers, wheel chair riders and other drivers are not aware of a fight.
But yet, crossing the streets in any city in America is often times the end of that persons days. More people die from so-called motor vehicles "accidents" in one year in the United States of America than in an actual war in Iraq! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? What the hell is wrong with this picture?

There were 1,066 traffic fatalities in 2007 in the state of Arizona. In 2006 1,293 traffic fatalities occurred in Arizona. Between 2001 and 2005 there were 3,437 people that died from traffic fatalities in Arizona. What is going on? I read one statistic that stated in 1997 traffic fatalities were the fifth leading cause of death in the Western States of the U.S. What bothers me about this is TRAFFIC COLLISIONS ARE PREVENTABLE! This means that they do not need to happen! So why are all of these people dieing from automobile collisions? Are we at WAR? Is there a war going on? If one state averages 1,000 deaths per year from automobile collisions would not this motivate folks to do something to prevent this? What are you doing to prevent from becoming the next victim?

Welcome to AZ Driving

I will begin with an apology and that is for coming to the party late! I should have been here years ago; however, it's not too late. I own a small production company in Arizona. After having so many bouts with bad drivers in Phoenix I clearly knew that Arizona drivers needed help. I decided to provide that help in the form of a television show, the "How is Your Driving?" program. While I was doing my research for the show I learn that three cities in Arizona (Phoenix, Mesa and Tucson) were number 1, 3 and 5 in the country for Red Light Running, Speeding and Fatalities! Since that time the numbers are pretty much the same. Every night on any given local news show you will hear about some automobile collision involving a pedestrian.

Currently, in Arizona all the attention is being focused on photo enforcement. The former Governor decided to use photo enforcement cameras on the states highways to ticket speeders but her main objective was to use the funds to relieve the state of its debt! Now that she's gone the "speeders" along with others want the cameras removed.

Again, I apologize for being late but I hope to keep the party going strong. I would like to hear from you on these and other topics concerning AZ Driving.

Peace