In my youth, I remember hearing stories of the diligence of our esteemed local police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The story that caught my attention was the one where an individual was ticketed for not coming to a full stop. They had braked, looked both ways, saw no danger, and kept on going. That action was not considered a stop by the ticketing officer.
The reason I mention this story is because today we have an alarming number of motorists who regularly run red lights and stop signs when they are driving.
I have found that most of my driving is done when I’m by myself which is about 80% of the time. When I am by myself I’m training in habits which come into play later when I am distracted.
Those distractions include arguing with my partner or children, and listening to a radio program or a CD. I don’t have a cell phone so I can’t include that, but in all honesty, if I had a cell I would include that too.
Getting back to this business of disobeying the stop directors, I notice that most drivers are by themselves…….usually that includes going to work or returning from work. Most people work five days a week and many travel more than a few kilometers to work and back.
Rolling through a stop sign is programming your brain to not see the stop sign. It is said that it takes a repetition of 27 times to establish a habit. Truckers and taxi drivers beware, for you could be setting yourselves up for catastrophe by ignoring the stop directors.
When I drove taxi, I stopped more than 27 times per 12 hour shift. I was conscious then of our human ability to program ourselves either for our good or for our bad. One time at 3 AM, I sat at a red light.
I was thinking there are no police around, no other cars around, I could easily make my turn safely. At the same time I would be training myself to ignore the warning to stay stopped until I saw green. I stayed put until the light changed color.
We hear of terrible crashes at intersections every day. The worst ones seem to occur on highways with intersecting roads marked with a stop sign. I think these crashes are because of the programming issue.When a driver habitually disobeys the stop directors when he is by himself, then, when he is distracted he fails to see the warning signs and drives into his peril.
We can help reduce serious traffic crashes if we make a more conscious effort to come to a full stop at all stop signs and red lights all of the time.
I am not aware of anyone being ticketed for rolling through a stop sign in years. Our local police have much more on their plates today than they had when I was a boy. Why do our police have to remind us to be responsible? Why can’t we be responsible because it is the right thing to do? It may save your life and someone else’s someday.