At 04:36 PM 5/2/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I like your suggestion, but would like to add a bit. In Germany, it costs
>thousands of dollars (exchanged from Mark to $$, you get the point) to get a
>license. You actually have to pass a test that is challenging, most fail 3
>times.
Yep, and surprise, surprise, fatality rates are lower than in the
US! (The report released a while ago by the NHTSA claiming otherwise
is fraudulent. The blatant lies in that report were publicly exposed
by Car & Driver, the National Motorists Association, among others.)
I don't think it should be prohibitively expensive to get a license,
but I do think that people should be properly trained. Can you imagine
the impact on fatality rates if everyone on the road had the same
knowledge and skills (or even just a percentage of the skills) of an
autocross driver?
I do have a problem with driving being a privilege rather than a
right though. (I always have.) It just doesn't seem right to me
that the government can hold this over our heads. I think driving
should be a right. This does not mean that we have to tolerate
idiots who threaten the safety of others or fail to follow the
rules of the road though. We take away the rights of criminals
(by putting them in jails, people on probation can't leave the state,
etc.) and we can take the right to drive from the "criminals of the
road". Having driving be a right is mainly just a matter of semantics;
it would probably operate in much the same way it does now. It's the
principle of the thing. I don't see any reason why driving has to be
relegated to "privilege" status. It is merely another nail in the
government's attempt to exercise complete control; yet another way to
assert their power over the very citizens whom they are supposed to be
working FOR.
Relevance: Skip Barber uses Dakotas in his training course, which all
drivers should be required to take. (Ok, that's stretching
a bit, I know.) ;-)
-Jon-
.--- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu -- http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ---.
| DoD# 1038, EAA# 518210, NMA# 117376, USUA# A46209, KotWitDoDFAQ, RP-SEL |
| '96 Dodge Dakota v8 SLT Club Cab, '96 Kolb FireFly 447 (#FF019) |
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I do not speak for the SUNY College at Fredonia; any opinions are my own.
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