What do we do about antisocial jerks who pollute the roads with their dangerous behavior? There is no end to the list. Tailgating, texting, failing to yield to bikes and pedestrians on turns, merging with the “bigger car has priority” approach. On and on. How about we take their cars away? The cops can’t be everywhere all the time, right? We set up a system whereby citizens can report abuses to the state. Each report requires the witness to make a sworn statement to the appropriate state authority, and only one report can be counted from an individual witness for each vehicle. Just like the point system, when six reports are gathered for a vehicle, a warning letter is sent to the owner. When twelve are accumulated, the state takes possession of the vehicle. Who was behind the wheel at the time is not considered. I bet this would make drivers a whole lot more polite and law abiding.
Ok, what if a bunch of employees decide to prank their boss and all report him? What if there is a “family feud” going on and a dozen members and or friends of members target a member of the other family?
A sworn statement is not enough to take punitive action against another driver, it has to go before a judge.
I agree with Keith. Such a proposal won’t cut it legally but we need some way to make the roads safe from the mentally unstable and/or mentally challenged drivers.
Robo, why don’t you just become a cop? Then you can run around throwing people in jail and taking their cars to your heart’s content. Of course, you won’t last a week no the force.
But there is something YOU can do. Stop judging everyone else. I’m just guessing, but I’m guessing that you’re a “road rage” incident looking for a place to happen. I’m guessing that you drive around trying to get everyone else to behave the way you think they should.
By the way, you can already call 911 to report an unsafe driver. In NH, if your report suggests a serious situation or more than one report is received, the cops will send a patrol car to check it out. If the cop sees the driver driving dangerously, he will pull him over and check it out. I’ve called in a drunk driver before and witnessed the car being checked out and ultimately pulled over. The cop has to observe the bad driving, however. “Hearsay” is not admissible, and does not constitute probable cause.
Boy, I can think of a lot of other places I would rather place my anger. Every good driver I know has at some time or another, mistakenly or intentionally committed a couple of those of those offenses.
I’m with @SameMountainBike. See if there’s position open. Otherwise, citizens with a grudge and no training can create more problems then the ones you are trying to solve. Modest proposal ? Sounds like a legalized vigilantly proposal.
robo2071, I agree, it can be a zoo out there in some areas. We have driven a lot in Central Florida before and after red light cameras came into use. We saw very few red light runners a few weeks ago and it seems that the discipline imposed by the cameras has had an effect on drivers to control other bad driving behavior as well; just my anecdotal opinion.
With few exceptions, I find drivers in the upper midwest and away from large cities to be more tolerant of others and less inclined to drive aggressively.
An option is to drive as little as possible in your area.
@robo2071–I also detest dangerous and aggressive drivers.
However, your idea is so prone to abuses of the system that it is frightening to consider ever having such a plan in place.
I think that you need to re-think your idea, especially since it is NOT a modest proposal, and instead it is a draconian approach to a problem.
Its a dangerous world out there so best just to keep your distance if possible. There is the citizen arrest already but I have to tell you with all the crazies around, I’m not about to stop for some guy without a badge or light bar trying to stop me. Then all the liability issues of being sued for false reports.
@robo2071 …I hear you but your approach to a solution is fraught with problems that can’t be overcome. Traffic doesn’t bother me nearly as much as waiting in line at the checkout stand in a large supermarket. My local supermarket has 24 checkout registers and there are usually only 2 or 3 open at any one time. It’s the same at the other supermarkets as well. I have a solution…but like yours…it’s fraught with problems that can’t be overcome.
I think a fued or all people reporting that are tied together would be easy to rebut a report. Secondly, if they are lying they could say it happened a certain time or date in which the accused could prove they were elsewhere.
I had a jerk cut me off from his stopped lane into my lane which was moving stedily. I almost hit him. I honked and next thing I knew, he threw trash back at me from his sun roof.
Driving an expensive lexis car. Not that all lead driver drive like entitled jerks, but I’m thinking that’s why this guy thought he was above not only me, but the earth. I was more mad about him blatantly littering more Than anything. He proceeded to try to cut me off again. And though I was driving a mountaineer, I’m usually a van driver and I’m pretty professional at not letting jerks cut in front of me so I wasn’t havin it. Haha just a recent experience I am obviously still pretty pissrd about. I do not think he should have the privilege to drive
"I’m pretty professional at not letting jerks cut in front of me so I wasn’t havin it. Haha just a recent experience I am obviously still pretty pissrd about. "
This statement is scary. It isn’t a battle to be won out there. This isn’t war. The need to emerge victorious from road confrontations gets innocent people killed. And for what?
I’m not sure he’s the one that shouldn’t be driving.
I am not aggressive about it, more manipulative. I wouldn’t tailgate a car nor spread up right as they are trying to cut me off, but rather just know that that is what their next move will be based on how they have been driving and stop it. I’m talkin about cars that are trying to make a move that will damn near clip my front end. I use more intuition than anything. I am not a passive driver but I am way far from aggressive. I don’t make any move that is dangerous or aggressive. My most aggressive move would be honking my horn.
It’s more so the person slows down and stops tailgating people and cutting them off. Certainly not to feel victorious. I don’t take driving to be a game but sometimes people need to be stopped from driving aggressively. If I can stop it with my intuition then I will but I would never do it if I had to make an aggressive move
Consider it karma or poetic justice, but those jerks do often find each other, trying to occupy the same space at the same time. I just try to stay out of their way.
How does one weed out the people who have a personal dislike for someone and just wants to get even in some way?
What if Neighbor A doesn’t like the shrubbery in Neighbor B’s yard and decides to falsely report B half a dozen times just as a means of sticking their thumb in B’s eyeball?
This system kind of comes across as anarchy.
Years ago, I saw an interesting road rage incident on a freeway
Two cars kept taking turns cutting each other off. One car would get in front of the other car, and slam on the brakes, forcing the other guy to also step on the brakes. Then the guy that was cut off would get even and do the same thing that just happened to him.
Finally, one guy cut the other guy off and completely stopped . . . on the freeway.
They both got out of their vehicles and proceeded to duke it out. Fists were flying . . .
When encouraging phone ins you will find one thing to be true…
It will ALWAYS be the same short list of whiners who who do all the griping !
Some of those driving constantly with the phone in one hand and their thumb on speed dial.
And then only the bad stuff…NEVER a good comment, ever, and that skews the stats.
“What do we do about the antisocial jerks…tail gating…”
While on my way to work a few years back, I had to deal with a “jerk” just a few feet from my bumper at 55mph. I finally found a safe place to pull over and let they driver past. As fate usually has it, the driver was never able to get to their destination any sooner then I. That driver, when “she” exited her car, was my new boss whose car I did not recognize.
Sure glad I didn’t do anything stupid like, “not letting jerks out in front of me” . That would have been tough to explain at the next employee evaluation meeting I had with her, regardless of how terrible a driver I thought my boss was.
Sometimes “in the ideal world”, it’s best just to…get the heck out of the way. If all the good drivers did that, we could just let all “the bad ones” do battle and “pick up the pieces” later…“in ideal world of course.”
Here in China, technology advances is growing exponentially but people are not catching up to the tech. in many respects. One of the sorely lacking aspect of this phenomenon is driving etiquette.
This is a place where about half the people drive around with a digital video recorder mounted on the windshield. When you have an unavoidable accident, they are useful for settling liability. Drivers can also submit videos of people driving dangerously and the police will lock people up for doing so.
As many had suggested, a sworn statement is not good enough.
In Russia they just jump out of the car and beat the offender. Tough place, Russia.