Fast Lanes For Better Drivers?
By Eric Peters, Automotive Columnist
Is anyone happy with the way our traffic system works?
We have what you might call a least common denominator, “one size fits all” licensing system that arguably serves no one well.
Example:
Drivers with experience and above-average skill (demonstrated by passing a more difficult driving test, or having successfully earned a certificate from a high-performance driving school such as Bondurant or Skip Barber, etc.) could probably be trusted to drive considerably faster than currently posted maximum lawful speeds of 70-75 mph (which is what speed limits were circa 1970) without endangering themselves or others.
In practice, of course, they already do.
But despite their ability to drive faster safely, they’re lumped in with the least competent via dumbed-down speed limits that put them in almost constant jeopardy of being radar-trapped into a $150 piece of payin’ paper.
On the flip side, marginal and outright incompetent drivers are not treated as such by the system. Jut the opposite. They are often rewarded — or at least, encouraged to think they are “good drivers” by dint of the fact that they don’t “speed.”
That they often tailgate, wander across the double yellow, blow through red lights — and so on — hardly seems to matter since for the most part, these offenses are not the focus of traffic safety enforcement. “Speeding” is the major no-no, even though driving faster than a number painted on a sign may have no bearing whatever on how safely (or not) you happen to be driving.
Since so little is expected of all drivers, the general level of skill is very low. This almost certainly makes it less safe out there than it ought to be — and easily could be.
But how to reconcile the good drivers with the bad ones — or at least, to not punish the good drivers just because they transgress against laws intended for the benefit of the not-so-good drivers?
A tiered system of licensing — with “fast lanes” on highways set aside for those who have passed more demanding proficiency requirements — could make driving safer and more pleasant for everyone. Such a system exists already in countries like Germany and the results have been hard to argue with: Germany enjoys a generally higher average skill level for its drivers (because getting a license over there is not an easy thing, as it is here) and an accident/fatality rate that is better than ours, despite often much faster rates of travel.
In a tiered system, there are two categories of driver’s license: The Basic and the Expert (with a Learner’s for teenaged/first-time drivers).
