Dreaming of care-free driving
2:15 PM Thu, Mar 15, 2007 | Permalink
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Providence Mayor David Cicilline dreams of looking out his office window and seeing a downtown uncongested by cars, an idyllic place where people have left their Fords and Hondas home in favor of walking or taking streetcars. The ambitious young mayor has a better chance of looking out of his office window some day and seeing Pennsylvania Avenue. 
Journal file photoAt one time, street cars and pedestrians were the preferred mode of transport in the downtown area bounded by City Hall and the federal court building, now known as Kennedy Plaza.
We'd rather sit alone in our Suburbans or Cherokees with the freedom to cut and flip each other off while we weave through traffic on Route 95. That's why we insist on driving no matter how long we have to sit through the morning commute on Route 195 in East Providence, idle on Mineral Spring Avenue in North Providence or overheat near the Bourne Bridge on the way to the Cape. And that's why we will insist on driving no matter how much profit oil companies make on our appetite for convenience or how many high-tech systems cities employ to catch us trying to park for free. Still, no matter how much we drive, we don't seem to get better. Massachusetts drivers have a reputation for being the worst, but anyone who's driven in Rhode Island knows that Rhode Island drivers are every bit as capable of scaring you out of your seat. It's so bad in Rhode Island that some drivers don't even show courtesy to the police. A motoryclist was arrested yesterday for allegedly trying to run down a state trooper. And state Rep. Peter Kilmartin, who is also a Pawtucket police captain, has been trying to prohibit drivers from using hand-held cell phones since he was almost run over by a yakking motorist while he directed traffic eight years ago. Connecticut drivers apparently aren't any better. A report came out this week saying that highway fatalities in Connecticut reached a 4-year high last year. A headline on the Associated Press story read, "Figures show speeding, reckless driving behind highway fatalities." Really? Speeding and reckless driving cause accidents? Conclusions like that make me hope that too much money wasn't spent on the research. I saw an advertisement recently for "adult driving lessons." I figure this business has a huge potential market, but, in reality, draws few veteran adult drivers. There are plenty of bad drivers who could use a refresher on finding the blinker or a lecture on the dangers of tailgating, but nobody I know admits his or her highway faults. We're all great drivers. It's the other guy or gal who can't drive. So, Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry, but the rest of us will wait for those other drivers to hop on the bus or the streetcar. We'll let them solve those congestion and safety problems. After all, it's not our fault. 
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I don't know how many times I've been on a highway in Florida when all of a sudden the left lane is clogging up with traffic while the right lanes are free. I always say "It must be a Massachusetts driver" and I'm almost always right. I guess "Keep to the Right except when Passing" is no longer the rule of the road in New England.
One thing I notice when I'm outside of the Northeast is how much more courteous drivers are. Using turn signals, yielding at yield signs, moving into the right lane when going slower than prevailing traffic and pulling off the road when there's a two mile line of cars in back of you shows that there is a respect for others that Rhode Islanders don't have. I don't know whether it's poor driver's training or just poor upbringing that we see on RI roads, but it needs to be corrected.
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