Equality For All?

I couldn't decide what to title this post. It's about two news articles (although I'm not certain they warrant the label "news").

In the first article, a woman was found passed out in a stolen van in S. Dakota recently, and her blood alcohol level (0.708) appears to have set a state record. In fact, it was so high, it was nearly double the fatal alcohol level for half the population. She was arrested and taken to a hospital for treatment. Even more hilarious, she was freed on bond and failed to appear for her court date on 12/15/09. She was located by police passed out again in another stolen vehicle at the side of another highway. This time she was hauled off to jail. The good news is that at least she wasn't driving when she was so wasted. She clearly does appear to have some issues involving stolen vehicles and drinking vast amounts of booze.

The second article is about the fact that while drunk driving arrests of men still are much more frequent than for women, female drivers are closing the gap.

Nationally, the number of women arrested for DUI increased by 28.8 percent between 1998 and 2007, while the number of men arrested for DUI dropped by 7.5 percent, according to U.S. Department of Justice crime statistics.

Part of the huge increase may be attributable to the increase in binge drinking among women, and the fact that females have less water in their bodies than men. Another explanation given is that DUI laws are more strictly enforced against women drivers.

Or perhaps some women drivers consume huge volumes of booze and then pull onto the shoulder of the road to sleep it off (where they're easily found by cops). Maybe the drunk males manage to drive home undetected...

Red Lights and Shopping Carts

When I drive in the Chicago suburbs, I invariably encounter people who don't really seem to understand they're piloting a couple of tons of steel around the streets and highways. They frequently seem to be preoccupied with other activities, often involving a cell phone, and to be blithely unaware of the existence of other vehicles. I think it's just too easy to get a driver's license.

As a bike rider, I pay close attention to other traffic on the streets, and it's appalling how many people think stop signs are just advisory, and roll on by.

Right turns on red, are another cause of concern for pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vehicles. A ridiculous number of drivers don't recognize that right turns on red are supposed to only be made after stopping not instead of stopping: "drivers must come to a complete stop and yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic and pedestrians before turning" ). Because so many people don't seem to feel the need to stop before turning, or pull out without yielding to oncoming traffic, I think the right turn on red rules are among the worst rules enacted during my adulthood. I can't remember when the rules were changed to allow turning red at stop lights, but I'm pretty sure it was after I took driver training in high school back in the Pleistocene. I suppose it's too much to expect that people who don't stop at stop lights will stop at stop signs...

Too many people seem to think the rules only apply to others and that they are too important to have to slow down, stop, or otherwise change their course.

Those are probably the same folks who can't be bothered to put their shopping carts into the "corrals" in store parking lots, and prefer to just abandon them in parking spots. Recently I noticed two large lumber carts left in parking spots at a local home supply store lot, when a storage area was about one space away. Who are these people? Why are they in such a hurry? Why do they not care about anyone else's car getting dented or scratched because they abandoned the cart?

Anyone out there remember the concept of a "social contract?" I think the contract is broken.