Driving: A Right or a privilege?
The right to bear arms. The right to peacefully assemble. The right of free speech. The right to practice whatever religion your heart desires.
The right to drive?
Our constitution lays out in writing a set of defined rights, that we as a people have determined as part of the entity of individual humanity. These rights we are born with. These rights, as a citizen of the United States of America, cannot be taken away if we abide by the laws set forth by the constitution.
As far as I know, there's no amendment that says that every citizen has a right to drive.
Why? Because driving is a privilege. Definition of privilege per Webster's Unabridged Dictionary:
"A peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor; a right or
immunity not enjoyed by others or by all; special
enjoyment of a good, or exemption from an evil or burden;
a prerogative; advantage; franchise."
Its great that I know that. But most people don't. They feel it is their right to drive and abuse it as such. The idea for the majority of US drivers is that its something that gets them from point A to point B. It is a solely pragmatic instance, requiring only action that does not outwardly break the driving laws. Driving slow in the left lane, passing on the right, cutting off faster drivers, and not sharing the right lane to the merging entrance lane are all okay in the eyes of the majority - it doesn't break the law does it?
The problem is that driving shouldn't be so exclusionist. Driving is not an isolated action that requires no societal input. Driving is social interplay of signaling, understanding, and respecting. There is an etiquette involved that is not explicitly stated in the laws. This unspoken understanding makes traffic more efficient, less galling, and certainly more social.
Have you ever watched schools of fish? They don't fight with each other to get to point A to point B. They don't cut each other off or slow down the others. They know that moving as a community in a social context gets each one of them from point A to point B faster and safer. Americans haven't figured that out yet. In Germany, they have. Its simply common knowledge that traffic moves faster if everyone follows well understood unwritten laws - left lane for very fast or passing cars, no passing on the right, farthest right for passing only, and let people merging in every other car. They have the highest average highway speed and lowest fatality rate of any industrialized nation that has a highway system. They also have much less congestion.
What happens here in America? We're in it for ourselves. Here in California, the left lane is commonly the busiest - with the right lanes sparsely inhabited with super slow moving cars. Not all of them are on the farthest right lane either. You'll have one guy going 45 in the middle lane, one 55 in the right lane, and everyone going about 55-60 in the far left lane. And no one in the left lane can go to the right lanes because its too slow, so the left lane and ultimately traffic flow suffers. People cut each other off also, which makes it harder for faster traffic to keep a constant rate of speed - which means that an individual car has to ebb and flow which is magnified further down the road into stop and go traffic.
Why is this? Why is our traffic so bad? Because most people don't know how to drive. They did the minimum to get their license. Maybe 6 hours of behind the wheel, a 5-10 minute test, and they can now operate a 155mph killing machine.
In Germany, you need at least 25 hours of behind the wheel, a full one hour test, and a litany of literature regarding driving etiquette. Not only that, but they instruct their learning drivers the etiquette of driving on the Autobahn and high speed driving "rules."
Traffic has gotten so bad in America, that our government has now taken to paying private companies to build roadways that will be toll charged. In effect, if you want to get from A to B faster - you can now pay up to 12 dollars a day to do so. Its the American way - throw money at things to make problems go away.
The better answer is unpopular and hugely elitist, but widely practiced in Europe. Why don't we ramp up the driving age, require 50 hours of behind the wheel, have very difficult test with 90% pass rate, and mandate certain laws such as left lane passing only?
Increasing the driving age and driving requirements will do two major things.
One, it will decrease the number of drivers on the road which has many subeffects. It will decrease congestion first and foremost. Less drivers simply means less cars. It will decrease accidents - less cars = less accidents. Less accidents = less need for public health care for trauma - a huge cost on county hospitals across the country. It will decrease fuel consumption. The resultant decrease on oil dependence and fuel wasting will be a boon to the US foreign policy and economy. It will decrease wear and tear on the highway system - decreasing the number of repairs and shifting those funds to research and design of better highways and traffic flow engineering. Less cars = less pollution.
Two, it will increase driving skill and etiquette. This will increase traffic flow, decrease accidents, and result in a more pleasurable driving experience.
You ask, why doesn't the US then do this?
Greed.
Greed of money: Automakers would lose car sales on this. Construction companies would lose contracts. Gas companies would balk at losing their revenue. Basically the big wigs would lose their multimillion dollar bonuses (and future severance packages).
Greed of entitlement: Many citizens would feel that they are entitled to the right to drive - no matter its consequent effects on society. These entitlement happy individuals feel that the government exists to legislate priveledge. In essence, they feel its their God-given right to operate a motor vehicle.
But it isn't, and we as a society better realize that. As the population grows and we get more densely packed, the issue of driving right vs privilege will further expose the soft underbelly of right versus privilege.
Maybe I should just move to Germany.
The right to drive?
Our constitution lays out in writing a set of defined rights, that we as a people have determined as part of the entity of individual humanity. These rights we are born with. These rights, as a citizen of the United States of America, cannot be taken away if we abide by the laws set forth by the constitution.
As far as I know, there's no amendment that says that every citizen has a right to drive.
Why? Because driving is a privilege. Definition of privilege per Webster's Unabridged Dictionary:
"A peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor; a right or
immunity not enjoyed by others or by all; special
enjoyment of a good, or exemption from an evil or burden;
a prerogative; advantage; franchise."
Its great that I know that. But most people don't. They feel it is their right to drive and abuse it as such. The idea for the majority of US drivers is that its something that gets them from point A to point B. It is a solely pragmatic instance, requiring only action that does not outwardly break the driving laws. Driving slow in the left lane, passing on the right, cutting off faster drivers, and not sharing the right lane to the merging entrance lane are all okay in the eyes of the majority - it doesn't break the law does it?
The problem is that driving shouldn't be so exclusionist. Driving is not an isolated action that requires no societal input. Driving is social interplay of signaling, understanding, and respecting. There is an etiquette involved that is not explicitly stated in the laws. This unspoken understanding makes traffic more efficient, less galling, and certainly more social.
Have you ever watched schools of fish? They don't fight with each other to get to point A to point B. They don't cut each other off or slow down the others. They know that moving as a community in a social context gets each one of them from point A to point B faster and safer. Americans haven't figured that out yet. In Germany, they have. Its simply common knowledge that traffic moves faster if everyone follows well understood unwritten laws - left lane for very fast or passing cars, no passing on the right, farthest right for passing only, and let people merging in every other car. They have the highest average highway speed and lowest fatality rate of any industrialized nation that has a highway system. They also have much less congestion.
What happens here in America? We're in it for ourselves. Here in California, the left lane is commonly the busiest - with the right lanes sparsely inhabited with super slow moving cars. Not all of them are on the farthest right lane either. You'll have one guy going 45 in the middle lane, one 55 in the right lane, and everyone going about 55-60 in the far left lane. And no one in the left lane can go to the right lanes because its too slow, so the left lane and ultimately traffic flow suffers. People cut each other off also, which makes it harder for faster traffic to keep a constant rate of speed - which means that an individual car has to ebb and flow which is magnified further down the road into stop and go traffic.
Why is this? Why is our traffic so bad? Because most people don't know how to drive. They did the minimum to get their license. Maybe 6 hours of behind the wheel, a 5-10 minute test, and they can now operate a 155mph killing machine.
In Germany, you need at least 25 hours of behind the wheel, a full one hour test, and a litany of literature regarding driving etiquette. Not only that, but they instruct their learning drivers the etiquette of driving on the Autobahn and high speed driving "rules."
Traffic has gotten so bad in America, that our government has now taken to paying private companies to build roadways that will be toll charged. In effect, if you want to get from A to B faster - you can now pay up to 12 dollars a day to do so. Its the American way - throw money at things to make problems go away.
The better answer is unpopular and hugely elitist, but widely practiced in Europe. Why don't we ramp up the driving age, require 50 hours of behind the wheel, have very difficult test with 90% pass rate, and mandate certain laws such as left lane passing only?
Increasing the driving age and driving requirements will do two major things.
One, it will decrease the number of drivers on the road which has many subeffects. It will decrease congestion first and foremost. Less drivers simply means less cars. It will decrease accidents - less cars = less accidents. Less accidents = less need for public health care for trauma - a huge cost on county hospitals across the country. It will decrease fuel consumption. The resultant decrease on oil dependence and fuel wasting will be a boon to the US foreign policy and economy. It will decrease wear and tear on the highway system - decreasing the number of repairs and shifting those funds to research and design of better highways and traffic flow engineering. Less cars = less pollution.
Two, it will increase driving skill and etiquette. This will increase traffic flow, decrease accidents, and result in a more pleasurable driving experience.
You ask, why doesn't the US then do this?
Greed.
Greed of money: Automakers would lose car sales on this. Construction companies would lose contracts. Gas companies would balk at losing their revenue. Basically the big wigs would lose their multimillion dollar bonuses (and future severance packages).
Greed of entitlement: Many citizens would feel that they are entitled to the right to drive - no matter its consequent effects on society. These entitlement happy individuals feel that the government exists to legislate priveledge. In essence, they feel its their God-given right to operate a motor vehicle.
But it isn't, and we as a society better realize that. As the population grows and we get more densely packed, the issue of driving right vs privilege will further expose the soft underbelly of right versus privilege.
Maybe I should just move to Germany.
posted by Richard at 1:20 PM
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