[stovt001]

Absolutely agree. And you're right, the problem is people becoming lax in their driving habits. The cause is our attitudes towards driving. The ability to travel freely is taken as a right, and the ability to travel by personally driving a car is assumed as granted. Driving has lost its status as a skill and a privilege. Hence, it has become "routine", a "necessary evil". The population takes driving for granted. And like anything else that becomes part of the routine, shortcuts are taken, attention is diverted. If we actually treated driving as a skill, and the responsibility of controlling a two ton machine hauling precious human cargo at high speeds among similar machines with similar cargo and speeds, and actually made it a privilege for the select group who were talented enough to do it right and responsible enough to take it seriously and give it their full effort and attention, we'd solve these problems. Traffic would be reduced, as would accidents, insurance costs, and driving frustrations. The government must crack down on the licensing process and only allow people to drive if they are exceptionally skilled and responsible. In so doing, traffic laws should also be relaxed to reflect the skill of the licensed drivers. Of course this will never happen, as citations, licensing and registration fees are serious revenue sources, and politicians pander to the electorate by pretending they are all worthy of being drivers.