Another Idiot Heard From

Why do these folks always get on TV? Are the newscasters so desperate that they'll take the stupidest comment on a story just in order to have one?

The news report - the real news - was that Hwy. 17 in Arizona is the 4th most dangerous in the country, with Hwy. 4 in Florida being top worst. Nobody could bother mentioning any others. Or why it was dangerous. Or what might be done to fix it. I guess they had to save time for the idiots.

For those unfamiliar, 17 runs north/south from Flagstaff to Phoenix, ending right next to Sky Harbor Airport. It changes vertically by about 6,000 feet, with a couple low points in the Verde Valley and "The Valley", aka Phoenix. Once you are out of the greater metro area, it has two lanes each northbound and southbound, often widely separated by terrain, which incidentally cuts way back on head-on collisions.

It doesn't have to be unsafe. I've driven it many times. It's freeway all the way, so no cross traffic to watch out for. While I've seen signs warning about elk, I've never seen wildlife along any part of this road. The curves aren't sharp, the hills and valleys aren't steep, particularly for mountain driving, and the worst part uphill has added a 3rd lane for those trucks that just can't maintain speed on such a long upward haul.  Signs are many and clearly visible advising slower traffic to keep right wherever your particular  part of the roadway is climbing.

Yes, gorgeous scenery can be distracting, but one can easily watch the road, sparing the briefest glimpse periodically, or save the tourism for pullouts or exits. And commonsense - OK, rare and uncommon too often - will inform one that weekends will see heavy traffic northbound late Fridays and heavy southbound late Sundays. People find all sorts of reasons to change the ambient temperature of their surroundings, from escaping summer heat to seeking winter snow.

Of course there are distracted and impaired drivers and jerks behind the wheel. You find them everywhere. That's what defensive driving is all about. It should inform your driving patterns when and wherever you're behind the wheel. I had to take those 8-hour courses every two years for my job. Out of those 8 hours, the part that was most stressed was the two-second rule: note when the vehicle ahead of you passes a particular spot. A tree, a signpost, a discoloration in the pavement. Count off the seconds until your car gets to that same spot. If it's less than 2 seconds, you're too close for your reaction time to kick in so you can avoid whatever emergency the car ahead of you might have. Then add at least a second more distance for each of the following conditions: poor weather, sun in your eyes, ice or snow on the road, erratic driving ahead of you, whether either of your vehicles is a semi or a motorcycle. If you forget everything else you learned from the class, remember that!

So the idiot interviewed about Hwy. 17 is going on about how he can't keep a following distance between himself and the car ahead on that road because if he does, three more cars will crowd into it.
We tried that one on the defensive driving instructor back when ourselves. He reminded us that if a car moves over and fills in the space so you have to drop back again a bit, it will delay your getting to you destination by a whole ... two seconds!