Driving Me Toward Madness

[TheKnifeJuggler]

I have a basic way to fix all of this...
Instead of having 'You must be at this age' limit on things, you must have a 'you must be of this intelligence' limit and the rest will follow.

Hey, there should also be the same restrictions on voting, drinking, drug use, gun ownership, and the ability to apply for a seat in government.
Hopefully that would do two things; keep the idiots from getting advantages over the smarts and force more people strive for intelligence.

(In some real situations though, this is probably a bad idea. It would make for an interesting political novel though...)

 

[Graustein]

I have a basic way to fix all of this...
Instead of having 'You must be at this age' limit on things, you must have a 'you must be of this intelligence' limit and the rest will follow.

Hey, there should also be the same restrictions on voting, drinking, drug use, gun ownership, and the ability to apply for a seat in government.
Hopefully that would do two things; keep the idiots from getting advantages over the smarts and force more people strive for intelligence.

(In some real situations though, this is probably a bad idea. It would make for an interesting political novel though...)

Seeing as there's no way to objectively test for intelligence, that's impossible. In addition, intelligence does not equate to maturity or good judgement.

 

[TheKnifeJuggler]

I have a basic way to fix all of this...
Instead of having 'You must be at this age' limit on things, you must have a 'you must be of this intelligence' limit and the rest will follow.

Hey, there should also be the same restrictions on voting, drinking, drug use, gun ownership, and the ability to apply for a seat in government.
Hopefully that would do two things; keep the idiots from getting advantages over the smarts and force more people strive for intelligence.

(In some real situations though, this is probably a bad idea. It would make for an interesting political novel though...)

Seeing as there's no way to objectively test for intelligence, that's impossible. In addition, intelligence does not equate to maturity or good judgement.

Exactly.
It would depend on who's giving the test and how they define intelligence.

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

Another brilliant rant, not looking forward to forking over a couple hundred extra bucks when I get my license next year though.....damn idiot teenagers, giving my agegroup a bad name...

 

[Dr.Doctor]

Any thoughts about laws disabling people from using cell phones on the road?

Actually here in California, driving while talking on your cell phone has recently become illegal.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

I'm sure everyone has already noticed this, but a teenager's driving skill is disproportional to the price of their vehicle. Most teens with a 1993 Ford Blech will drive well because they probably won't be getting another car if they mess up. But the teens who drive brand new Cadillacs are usually also the teens with 5 of their friends wasted in the car who drive while texting. Not even talking, but texting. That's because their parents are rich and dumb enough to provide them with new vehicles whenever they break one.

Any thoughts about laws disabling people from using cell phones on the road?

Actually here in California, driving while talking on your cell phone has recently become illegal.

I applaud California for once.

 

[NewClassic_v1legacy]

Any thoughts about laws disabling people from using cell phones on the road?

Actually here in California, driving while talking on your cell phone has recently become illegal.

I'm aware they exist, I was asking about people's opinions on them. As I know they exist in Oklahoma, and in several city laws as well. Probably others that I'm not aware of.

 

[Riicek]

Also, in my experience, its always the crazy girl drivers who have the most accidents. In my hometown, 8 of the 10 car wrecks that occur amoung the teen population are caused by female drivers. Its an incredibly sexist and biased system, that needs to change. However, it will most likely not.

In my experience, it's always the idiot guy drivers that cause the accidents. But that just goes to show how useless our isolated test groups are. The insurance companies aren't charging men more because they hate men. It's because they are in more accidents and get more tickets.

You say it's unfair to charge the more at risk groups a higher rate, I say it's unfair to charge the low risk groups the same as the high risk groups.

 

[Dr.Doctor]

Any thoughts about laws disabling people from using cell phones on the road?

Actually here in California, driving while talking on your cell phone has recently become illegal.

I'm aware they exist, I was asking about people's opinions on them. As I know they exist in Oklahoma, and in several city laws as well. Probably others that I'm not aware of.

Oh, Ok then. Here's my opinion.

I think the law may cut down cell phone related accidents, but only by a little. Because the officer can only pull you over for it if he sees you actually talking on the phone. And while driving 80mph down a highway it's kinda hard to spot it. And the law just isn't very imtidating, I actually forgot about it until friend reminded me today.

 

[gamebrain89]

Also, in my experience, its always the crazy girl drivers who have the most accidents. In my hometown, 8 of the 10 car wrecks that occur amoung the teen population are caused by female drivers. Its an incredibly sexist and biased system, that needs to change. However, it will most likely not.

In my experience, it's always the idiot guy drivers that cause the accidents. But that just goes to show how useless our isolated test groups are. The insurance companies aren't charging men more because they hate men. It's because they are in more accidents and get more tickets.

You say it's unfair to charge the more at risk groups a higher rate, I say it's unfair to charge the low risk groups the same as the high risk groups.

First, I live in a very small town, so my experiences are definately not a good indicator, I know that. Also, I never said they were charging men more because they hate them. Their basis for rates are based off of gender, most people would say that is a form of sexism. Whatever the case, the whole basis of how much their rates are is still wacked out. Increasing every guy's rate simply because some other single men are idiot drivers is stupid if you ask me. The simple fact that I am single vs married and 24 years, 364 days old vs 25 years makes me a lower risk driver? Does that make sense to you? They should base rates more off of each person's driving record, instead of their gender and marital status.

 

[Lt. Sera]

The whole gauging a new driver before getting into a car with I can actually understand. I have a friend who had his license, but for some reason had no confidence in his driving, couldn't make decisions and I've had to park his car because he couldn't on more then one occasion.
I'd go along for a ride with him when it was around the neighbourhood, anywhere else, no way.
As far as insurance go, they play the statistics game, it's logical for them to ask more of the groups who cost more. Sure it's shitty, but I see where it's coming from. It's the same with all insurances.

As far as bad driving, it'll always remain. People are just that, people, things happen in their lives that affect their driving. I can forgive shitty driving, I've made my mistakes along the way as well. As a somewhat decent driver, I'll keep focused and anticipate on others.
What I can never forgive however, is drunk driving, reason for this would be obvious and not worth getting into.

 

[Riicek]

Also, in my experience, its always the crazy girl drivers who have the most accidents. In my hometown, 8 of the 10 car wrecks that occur amoung the teen population are caused by female drivers. Its an incredibly sexist and biased system, that needs to change. However, it will most likely not.

In my experience, it's always the idiot guy drivers that cause the accidents. But that just goes to show how useless our isolated test groups are. The insurance companies aren't charging men more because they hate men. It's because they are in more accidents and get more tickets.

You say it's unfair to charge the more at risk groups a higher rate, I say it's unfair to charge the low risk groups the same as the high risk groups.

First, I live in a very small town, so my experiences are definately not a good indicator, I know that. Also, I never said they were charging men more because they hate them. Their basis for rates are based off of gender, most people would say that is a form of sexism. Whatever the case, the whole basis of how much their rates are is still wacked out. Increasing every guy's rate simply because some other single men are idiot drivers is stupid if you ask me. The simple fact that I am single vs married and 24 years, 364 days old vs 25 years makes me a lower risk driver? Does that make sense to you? They should base rates more off of each person's driving record, instead of their gender and marital status.

Actually, most insurance companies do lower rates for drivers that have shown themselves to be safe. If yours isn't, you're not shopping around enough.

Insurance companies have to rely on statistics. I'm sorry if you feel that's unfair (and I'd agree, it is....but the old adage "life isn't fair" comes to mind) but it's the way it is. And seriously, I'd challenge you to come up with a better way for them to do business. Remember, that's what it is, a business.

And, just as a continuation of the devil's advocate role I'm playing....sexism is "attitudes or behavior based on traditional stereotypes of sexual roles."...and the generally accepted stereotype is that women are worse drivers than men.

 

[Mariena]

I had a pretty nasty motorcycle accident when a drunk driver hit me from behind. Heavy concussion and a broken arm was the result (including a totally wrecked bike), so naturally I'm fanatically against drinking and driving, hugging, talking on the phone, "heavy" conversations (Where people actually LOOK at each other while driving.. A big no no! Bad!)...

And so many other things. No blinkers, doesn't look over his or her shoulder when changing lane, etc, etc, etc. I'm annoyed by these people every single day. And to mention that this is The Netherlands! That little place in Europe that has one of the lowest annual traffic deaths. Our driving licenses are not easy to acquire, either. Yet so many people just throw these damn rules out the window. Chances are they'll never get caught anyway. All the traffic police is hiding in bushes setting up sneaky cameras to cash in on speeding drivers..

Also, it is true that the youngsters are probably responsible for a lot of car accidents (and to be honest, I'm glad that we don't have people of 16 years old driving cars here. You can have that freedom, USA (or Aus)! I think it's bad enough that they drive those damn mopeds), probably because they're usually overconfident in their driving ability or barely passed the test. Inexperience is a killer!

While the youngsters usually get the blame... There's another group I have a bone to pick with. THE ELDERLY! These people are so lacking in cofidence, they drive so slow.. at every corner they hit their brakes, they drive 60 kph where 80 is the max (and for me, the minimum). Every turn must be checked 4 or 5 times.... God, I better stop here. I might explode.