On 25 Aug 2006 05:08:03 -0700, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:
Cars in general are SO much better now. I remember my Dad trading his
Pontiacs at 50,000 miles, because they were about run out. People who
got 100,000 miles were in the local paper.

I can remember a '69 Pontiac that I had that actually got scary to
drive past around 85 mph or so... The front end felt like it was
wanting to become airborne... Hell, my '95 Jeep XJ feels better than
that Pontiac at that speed and it has the aerodynamics of a ****in'
brick...

Driver's education is another area that is radically improved. In the
1960s, the majority of drivers had received NO instruction at all. My
son just went through it and received his license two weeks ago, and it
was WORK to earn that piece of paper, for both he and us.

For Iowa ??? I figured with all the damn straight roads up there,
they weren't too concerned with driving ability... For the same reason
that they don't have inspection stickers on cars...

Drunk driving laws -- something that barely existed until the '80s --
are now strictly enforced. This reduces fatalities dramatically.

I don't agree with the current drunk driving laws... I know for a fact
that with a 12-pack in me, I drive better than Grace's younger sister
even if she is perfectly sober... I think they should have an alcohol
rating on the drivers licenses so that you can 'qualify' with various
blood alcohol levels... If you can still pass the test with a certain
percentage of alcohol in your bloodstream, you can't get a DWI at that
level... Hell, that should make getting your license so much more
interesting... burp

There are some downsides, however. Traffic engineers have gone off the
deep end to ensure safety, often (IMHO) at the expense of common sense
and efficiency. In my neck of the woods, for example, traffic is
deliberately engineered to stop often, so that people can't drive too
fast. Worse, NO ONE is allowed to turn left at stop lights anymore,
without a specific, dedicated green arrow. We are no longer trusted to
determine whether it's safe to turn or not, regardless of oncoming
traffic -- or the lack thereof.

Texas is that way also... It really irritates me when I'm on a
motorcycle and the sensor in the road does not register my vehicle
being there and won't give me the arrow... Louisiana, on the other
hand, still tends to have generic non-protected green lights that
allow you to use your own judgement on whether you can safely make the
turn...