I’ve been thinking a lot about bad drivers. The holidays seem to bring out the worst in people. They’re in a hurry. They’re rude. They take the laws of self-preservation less than seriously, then get mad if you so much as touch your horn in protest.
I think I have a solution.
No, it’s not traffic cams. It’s not more police on traffic duty (although, that wouldn’t hurt). It’s not stiffer fines for reckless driving.
It’s a phone number.
Here’s the concept. You see somebody driving like an idiot. You call an 800 number, and report the behavior, along with the license plate and a description of the vehicle. You give your name and YOUR license plate and you hang up.
Here’s the cool part. Nothing happens, unless more than one driver reports the same incident. If two or more drivers report it within, say, five minutes of it happening, the offending driver gets a letter from the police. If they get more than one letter within a certain period (I’m thinking three months would be just about right), they have to appear in court. (That’s where the volunteering your identity comes in – you might have to testify.)
I’m guessing that once this program got started, the number of idiots reported would skyrocket, then start dropping off – dramatically – as bad drivers realized they were gonna get narc’d-out by their fellow drivers. While this plan does have a vague kind of “rat out your neighbors” theme to it, I’m willing to bet that it would cut WAY down on left turns from right-hand lanes, cutting off people in traffic, putting on makeup while driving, and so forth.
At any rate, it would be interesting to see what would happen.
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