It’s one of my regular Wednesdays on my way to work.
I incorporate a number of different routes, but today I’m in the mood for some hills to keep the legs strong.
After a little climbing scantering along streets I’ve never learned the names of, I’m up on Mulholland heading towards Mt. Lee for some more hills.
I do worry about speeding cars along this stretch, but you have to be aggressive in taking the lane so drivers see you and slow down.
Wednesdays are also trash day, so I’m a little more careful, but of course, some aren’t.
Coming around the corner near where Nichols Canyon spits out, a couple of hazard signs were placed on Mulholland which normally means roadwork, but I today I was witnessing something else.
Rear endings I’ve seen before, but this car was pretty far lodged underneath this garbage truck.
Even from a distance, I could hear a voice whining things to the garbageman like, “I can’t afford this!” and “Why won’t you let me use your phone to call my parents!”
Looking at the optics, I can’t see how anything else happened other than the kid driving way too fast into the truck.
You probably can’t make out most of the audio on this clip, but I can tell you there wasn’t any remorse coming out of the kid’s mouth.
The garbageman was stewing having to put up with this, but bit his tongue until other help arrived.
My worry is that we’re raising a whole new generation of drivers that have a larger disconnect between using a moving vehicle and the responsibility operating it.
Driving is a privilege, not a right.
Yes, this kid is the very definition of a small sample size, but it’s no secret when you’re out on the road the number of people you see speeding and driving distracted.
The odds of anyone getting ticketed is .0001% and really the only time someone may get charged with any accountability for their actions is after it’s too late and someone get hit.
I know this sounds like an indictment on the younger generation, but we’re really blowing this opportunity to make the streets a safer place.
We already have an age group that grew up in the freeway era that are still clinging to their auto-centric attitudes and people are still dying in the streets at high numbers.
Cars kill more people than guns in the US.
“Duuuddde……..”
This just isn’t on millennials, but all of us if we want to make a change. In this day and age, action doesn’t take place until tragedy takes hold.
No matter how old you are, everyone out there is someone else’s child, but there is no sense of urgency.
While it seems like we are making improvements, as Streetsblog is reporting, a bill is going through the state legislature that will allow cars to roll through red lights instead of stopping at them.
We know how the legal system works. This is such a vague definition that can you imagine drivers being held accountable for running red at all? Not likely.
Please contact your assemblymember and let them know you that SB 986 is unacceptable.
If you don’t know who your representative is, it’s easy to look it up here.
Let’s work towards making California a safer place to drive. For our children.