Rules of the Road

Memo to the geniuses at the D.O.T. - On dead-end streets, how about putting the sign at the BEGINNING of the street instead of waiting until we drive to the end of the street before you tell us.

Remember those yellow "Baby on Board" signs people would put in their rear windows? What was that for exactly...so we wouldn't ram them! Those signs were dumb, but here's a better idea. How about a similar yellow sign in the window of a poor driver saying: Moron on Board? Now that would be useful.

There are so many busy intersections where you can't make a left turn because of oncoming traffic. Staten Islanders, being among the least polite drivers in the world, will never let you make that left. Here's another no-brainer, TURN ARROWS. That they are not at every busy intersection in every big city is testament again to the tiny brains at the D.O.T.

Even though I've been caught several times by these intersection cameras, I still think they are a good idea. What they have to fix however is the timing. On a changing traffic light they need to give drivers another second before the camera fires. Staten Island is notorious for tailgaters, and if you stomp on your brake as the light is changing you will be picking your teeth out of the dashboard. Either provide another second's grace before ticketing a driver, or use those big number countdown displays that show how long you have before the light changes.

School bus regulations need to be strict to protect kids, no argument with that. The current regulations in New York State are a bit over the top though. I can see having to stop when the bus is on your side of the road, but when its on the other side it just seems like an unnecessary precaution, even a safety hazard since drivers don't notice the bus on the other side of a major street, and are liable to slam into you when you stop. Just my opinion.

I like the cops who pull up behind you in bumper-to-bumper traffic and start flashing their lights and sounding their siren. I see you officer, but I can't levitate this machine to get out of your @&*$^%# way. A variation on this is when they do it in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel where the speed limit is 45 MPH and there are barriers in place to keep you from changing lanes. Do I speed up all the way through the tunnel and risk a speeding ticket, or maintain my speed and get cited for blocking the way of an emergency vehicle. There's a choice for you, name your poison.

You already know how I feel about distracted driving. (See "@#$%&* You, Moron!" View). What I fail to understand is the lack of enforcement of laws prohibiting distracted driving. At any given moment, at least one third of all Staten Island drivers are on their cell phones. I once got a ticket on the Belt Parkway for having my license plates in a frame with a clear plastic cover. The glare off the plastic don't you know keeps cops from reading my plate number as I drive away from that 7-11 stickup. How about ticketing these cell phone talkers! Their actions are far more dangerous than mine, yet I don't know of a single person ever cited for breaking this law.

We have really gone overboard with car gadgets. You can now buy cars with built-in computers, not the ones that help in operating the car, but ones a driver can use to surf the Internet while behind the wheel. You can also have a TV, DVD player, CD player, rear-view camera, refrigerator, GPS system, telephone, heated seats and a hundred other items unrelated to transporting you where you want to go. Often you have no say as to whether or not you want this stuff , it just comes with the car model you buy. Dealers add this crap so they have more things to fix when they break down. This stuff also makes for distracted drivers. People, what is happening to us?

SEE DATES ABOVE RIGHT FOR OTHER POSTS FROM "BRAINDROPS". ALSO, READ MY OTHER BLOG: SPALDEEN DREAMS

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