Month: May 2023

Q: You say that seat belts save lives, but have you considered that those involved in a fatal crash don’t need extensive medical care? It’s the non-fatalities through use of seat belts that often require extensive and costly medical services.

A: It sounds like you’re suggesting that the reason we shouldn’t use seat belts is because it’s cheaper to have people die than to treat them. That’s pretty messed up. I see two possibilities for the kind of people who think like this: people who don’t care about other humans and people who don’t care about physics or biology.

Continue reading “Seat Belts Save Lives (and Money)”

Q: I’ve seen a few vehicles where their brake lights flash a few times when they first come on. It certainly gets my attention. Is that something available in new cars, or is it an aftermarket product? And if so, is it legal?

A: Assuming you’re not sending me this question from somewhere in Europe, it’s probably illegal. And when I say probably, I’m 99.9 percent sure it’s illegal. The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) section on vehicle lighting is about as long as George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, and way less interesting, so I didn’t read all of it, but from what I did, flashing brake lights are not allowed on vehicles in the US (mostly).

Continue reading “Blinking Brake Lights”

Q: What is the appropriate, safe, and legal response when I am travelling in a center lane, at the speed limit, boxed in by other traffic, and a non-emergency vehicle speeds up behind me and starts flashing its high-beams?

A: What do you already know about the driver this person is asking about, just from this question? Besides that. Yes, they’re feeling an excessive sense of urgency. As a practice, it’s wise to separate yourself from those kinds of drivers, and it sounds like you’re looking for the best way to do that.

Continue reading “Escaping From Tailgaters”

Q: I recently had a near-crash involving an older driver who probably shouldn’t have been driving based on his poor vision. Why don’t we require older drivers to take a driver test to keep their license?

A: I’m willing to go one further: Why don’t we require everyone to periodically take a driver test to keep their license? I know, it’s a great idea, but in our current transportation culture it has some problems. I’ll get to those in a minute.

There’s no debate that as we get older we lose our youthful abilities. My reaction time is slower than when I was 18, and it’ll continue to gradually decline. And like many other people who have lived at least several decades, I need corrective lenses to see clearly. But if we presume that we drive worse as our bodies incrementally let us down, why are young drivers involved in fatal crashes at double the rate of the rest of us?

Continue reading “We Should All Retake our Driver Exam”