Let’s disarm all the bad drivers on the road
Mar 27, 2018, 6:10 AM | Updated: 6:10 am
Twelve percent of drivers are phone addicts who can’t control their urge to look at the phone., Dave Ross says. (MyNorthwest)
(MyNorthwest)
Every time the gun debate gets serious, we hear this argument: “If we’re going to crack down on gun owners, what about car owners?”
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To which, as a daily commuter, I say amen! I saw a new study on driving habits using motion data collected from the phones of 2.3 million drivers. It tracked driving habits and phone use.
It turns out that about 12 percent of drivers are phone addicts who can’t control their urge to look at the phone, even if it means killing themselves or other people.
And yes! Just as I would want to disarm a gun owner with that attitude, I would de-car them too.
Because cars, in the wrong hands, do kill as many people as guns. It’s not an argument for going soft on the gun abusers – it’s an argument for getting tougher on the car abusers.
And I would completely change the license exams. None of this parallel parking between traffic cones. I’d put you in a virtual reality 3-D driving simulator, using an old style clutch shift, in heavy virtual traffic. As you’re passing a double trailer truck, 60 seconds from your exit, the instructor would put a real donut in your hand and spill real coffee in your lap, just as your phone rings.
If you can downshift successfully and exit without crashing you get your license. If not, he hands you a bus pass and tows the car.
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And now, with that settled, we can get back to deciding who we trust with a weapon.
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Tune in to KIRO Newsradio weekdays at 5am for Dave Ross on Seattle's Morning News.
