Monday, September 19, 2005

So You Think You Can Drive

We need to build race tracks in every community. These would not be real sporting tracks. They would be proving grounds for all those people who consider themselves great drivers.

Anyone could drop in at any time to run a quick heat against whoever else was around. They would get no guidance and no training, just a starting flag and a finish line.

At regular intervals, crews would remove the wreckage.

In a closed environment, dangerous idiots would finally be a danger only to each other. Concentrated in that way, they would be more likely to take each other out.

Traffic would be two-way, to simulate the environment in which these self-perceived experts usually operate. To goad them further into doing something homicidally or suicidally impatient, we could insert remote-controlled slower vehicles.

Drivers would pay no entry fee. In addition, anyone convicted of a traffic offense would be sentenced to run a certain number of laps, increasing with the severity of the offense.

All participants would be encouraged to sign up as organ donors.

Spectators would pay huge admission fees. The money would go toward highway safety programs and improvements in bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

1 comment:

greatpumpkin said...

My friends who do race cars on tracks consider it to be safer than driving on the public roads. Some will not drive their irreplaceable vintage cars in traffic, but race them regularly on tracks. At the race track, every driver is required to be trained and licensed, and the cars are required to have proper safety equipment. The cars are all inspected before the day's racing. Yet the response of the general public to the suggestion they try it would be "no, that's dangerous!" Perceived danger has little to do with actual danger.