Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Levels of Driving Danger

Since this has been a pretty hard winter here on the East Coast, I am sure all of you are aware of the dangers of traveling in adverse weather conditions.  This is not what I am talking about for driving dangers.

Everyday we hit the highways and commute somewhere.  On that trip there are things you see time after time that begin to form an order of danger to you.  My list of was developed after years of  driving the most dangerous route I ever encountered, the trip to drop the kids off at school each day.  I travel highways now daily, but it was the local town roads that seemed the most likely place that I could end up crunching bumpers.

Here were the danger signs I developed.  
 1.  Blond female.  
 2. Blonde female with a spiral permanent.  Since the spiral perms have now gone out of fashion, I have expanded this to teased, or one of those styles where the hair is gathered up in such a way to see how many directions it can point at one time. 
3. Blonde spiked female in a red vehicle. 
4.  The ultimate danger, Blond female with hair in all directions, driving a red car with children, and talking on a cell phone.  

 It had gotten so bad, that I would just sit at the edge of an intersection if I saw a car with all four levels of danger, and wait for them to make the first move.  There is no predictive nature to this type of driver, so it is safer to let them go first.

I was discussing this with a friend, who had a different warning level system worked out.  He rated the dangers as:
1. Short old man with big ears. 
2. Short old man and big ears with a funny hat.   
3. Short old man, big ears, with a funny hat and a huge car in which he can barely see over the dash.   

The other day I encountered a whole new category.  I came up behind a beautiful forest green Camaro.   It wasn’t long before I realized this car was traveling fifteen miles an hour in a thirty-five mile zone.  After closer scrutiny, I discovered a silver haired old man driving it.  My daughter suggested that perhaps they are now camouflaging themselves.  Wow, I guess I will have to go back and revise the danger list.

It depends on what your daily commute is that makes a person decide what the danger criteria was.   It may be SUV drivers, Vans, or anyone that has a cell phone to their head.  

What does your warning level system consist of?



No comments:

Post a Comment

I like to hear ideas.