(no subject)

[vicarz]

Now that drunk driving is at an all-time low, the forces of idocy are moving in on "buzzed driving."
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=1448925&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
See, this just fits a trend I'm sick of. Like the speed limit that no one obeys, not even your grandmommy, the laws about drunk driving are insane. We all agree that driving drunk is a bad idea, but they have set the limits and standards for drunk so low that many people who would otherwise drive fine are giving serious legal problems by a system that is judged on the numbers of convictions it produces.

Cops started complaining at checkpoints when they couldn't tell if people were "impaired" with the new legal limits so low, so a vast array of devices have been created to detect these low limits. Now, me, if I was faced with cops saying they couldn't tell if people were impaired, I'd say they weren't impairied rather than try to measure microscopic particles of split floating in the car.

The article accuses young men of misunderstanding when they say they drive after a couple of beers, which sounds reasonable, then back up that by a couple of beers they mean 8-10. Bullshit on that - show me those statistics and publish the study before you start generalizing. I don't buy a word of it - the most loathsome frat boy does not refer to 8-10 as a couple of anything.

This campaign is just trying to net more people. These anti-drunk driving zealots have outlived their usefulness. The mission was achieved, drunk driving is very low but at great societal cost. They could take on a new enemy, car safety, SUVs, driving tired, driving with cell phones, driving with the radio on, driving while switching cds or playing with the ipod, or better yet fight the greatest traffic hazard of all - children in cars. Nothing says lookthefuckout like a driver with a baby-seat. Those people should be kicked off the road. Don't agree? Then start looking for reasonable standards of care for driving with far less societal costs than we seem to accept today. No one seems to take these laws seriously when they are under the inaccurate belief that these laws don't apply to them.

Comments

[freja999.livejournal.com]

could you direct me to any articles about how cops were complaining they couldnt tell if someone was impaired and that is why they have to rely on devices to measure alcohol? i'd like to read up on that.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Hmm...crap I can't actually. I have seen such, when I was looking for state cutoffs (I think the site was from restaurant associations or legalize or some such group) but now I can't find it or remember the terms I was using to look it up. It was an LJ post, but ages ago.

It does however, match the progression of the technology with the law changes and changes in enforcement.

[joanarkham.livejournal.com]

The Washington Post had a recent article on how unscientific those little roadside tests are.

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

I don't know about frat boys, but problem drinkers often badly underestimate how many drinks they've had. "I just had a couple... stiff drinks at the bar. Oh and that one beer. Or was it two? The wine with dinner and the after-work snort don't count..."

(Not to say that the laws make any sense. From my pedestrian perspective, the cell phone is by far the worst impairing factor.)

[vicar.livejournal.com]

My other suggestion was to make driving harder! Make the lanes smaller and standardize car size, so if you're impaired for any reason (booze, phone, kids, idiocy, age) you simply would lack the ability to drive and be much easier to spot.

I am tired of laws made for the lowest common denominator...they're economically inefficient. Then again, I'm sick of tv, film, and music made for the same audience!

[dnaspydir.livejournal.com]

make driving harder! Make the lanes smaller and standardize car size

so, your solution to bad laws is WORSE laws that also ignore personal freedoms?...

[atrum-exsilium.livejournal.com]

I am down with the anti-cell phone action! Raise the DWI limit back up to where it is actually impairing, go with the tried-and-true roadside acuity tests, and work on cutting down cell phone usage while driving! I now actually have focused my road rage on cell phone drivers. Fuckers just putt putt along in the "fast" lane, or bob & weave all over the freaking road! I want to build a jammer, or go with my original road rage-borne plan of just adding rocket launchers and a battering ram to my car.

But c'mon, is it any surprise that the right wing and all these pro-law, pro-enforcement lobbies are continuing to whittle it down to the bone. Like so many fanatics, they don't know when to quit, and won't rest until it is stamped out completely. Fanatics don't see outside their own little worlds, and compromise is rarely an option. Sad too, because it is a good goal, but I agree, they need to move on. But then many of us think the same about legalizing weed and not cracking down on adult porn. Ok, so maybe that's just me ;)

[vicar.livejournal.com]

I'm torn - I see awful driving with and w/o cell phones. I'm tempted to hate them, but I don't own one. I suspect the ability to drive while cell phoning may be just a question or age or experience. Perhaps if you're used to it there is no problem.

I wish it was just the right wing. It seems politics are a group based solely on opposing someone. They're a bunch of anti-this and anti-that, rarely pushing a positive initiative. The quickest route to the top is to find (or create or redefine something as) a problem and solve (or hide or redefine or change the measurment of) it.

[atrum-exsilium.livejournal.com]

Well, that is true, its not specifically the right wing, I am just used to the extreme conservative and xian groups pushing so much crap.

As to bad driving, yeah, its true, so many people are just shit drivers, but the group that I universally see doing it badly is people using cell phones. 9 out of 10 times, if I see someone going slow, or hugging someone's ass when there is no other traffic on the road, or just driving like a moron in some way or other, it is someone on a cell phone. I am guilty of it myself, its what made me realize that its not about your driving skill, it IS simply a distraction issue. I almost killed myself after taking my GRE, I was so happy I did well, and I was calling someone in my glee and completely missed the fact that the green light up ahead did not have a little arrow on it, and I made a left turn across 3 lanes of oncoming traffic...I felt like the biggest retard ever. Yeah, ok, so I suck too ;)

[strumpetsrus.livejournal.com]

They have been showing those commericals up here. The first time I saw it, it was like "WTF? Are you kidding me?" These people need to get lives. The only commericals that have made me not drive when I am buzzed were those commericals with the home movies. That was more effective than seeing all the ones with the actors on it.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

The other question is what do they mean? So, is one beer a buzz for my weight, sex, and tolerance? 2? 4?

That's not even addressing the DUI levels and variances in impairment rates comapred to bac. Still, there is something fairly compelling about a measurable objective standard.

[strumpetsrus.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. I know has been a chart out for sex & weight that tells you, but that doesn't even take into effect your tolerance.

Unfortunately they will never have it. If one drink meant you are buzzed then they can get you on that though you are not in the slightest bit impared.

There is also driving when you are tired, which is just as bad or worse depending on how tired you are. But people do that all the time too. When does it end?

Here in my county there is not a public system of trains or subways. We have to rely on cabs, and can you find a cab at 2 am? Normally you have to wait at least a half hour to get one at that time of night.

[tehcas.livejournal.com]

in my province, we have public transport, busses and a train. but they dont run at night. and being drunk on them is "drunk in public" and with the transit police now fully armed with gun and law to arrest people, that isnt very drunken friendly. Not that it runs at 2am to begin with, but thats another issue i have with it.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

We can one-up that - for a while the police were raiding bars and enforcing drunk in public laws. Did I mention our country sucks? We call muslim nations conservative?

[tehcas.livejournal.com]

that sucks. Blow a .08 in a bar and get your ass hauled to the drunk tank?

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Well it was a short-lived initiative. After the public outcry made them shut up with that (they claimed people doing kareoke appeared drunk) they switched to making "Beer Pong" illegal.

[tehcas.livejournal.com]

I agree. They just want to make criminals out of people who are otherwise capable and throw some tear jerking sob story of some little princess who got run over by a drunk driver. Then they back it up with "if we can save only one, its worth it" bullshit which if done right, the life of some random person not killed by lightning is more important than the millions and millions of people it puts out.

[littlekitty78.livejournal.com]

Yeah, kids can be a big distraction in a car, expecially young ones, however, you can't really ignore them. My x-boyfriend used to yell at his kids all the time and when they were rowdy, they would scream so loud it was hard to pay attention (but ofcourse the idiot wasn't smart enough to put two card seats in the car). The girls were only three and four at the time, still very young to be out of the car seat. On the other hand answering my cell phone when I'm driving is something is something I do not do. If you call me and I'm driving then you won't get me, or I'll call back later. People get mad at me for this, but hey I don't want the bad habbit. People have almost ran into while being on the phone so that is why I always look to see what the person is doing. Cell phones are the necesary evil, though.

[calibraxis-x.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you. I'm much more dangerous behind the wheel when I'm opening a new cd or eating pizza in the middle of the afternoon than I am after a couple drinks.