First I read an article in Autoextremist.com that criticized an article in The New York Times. Then I read the original article in The New York Times. Now I want to kill someone!

The New York Times article is an Op-Ed piece by Kent A. Sepkowitz. He is vice-chairman of medicine at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The article is about stopping drivers from speeding. So this is clearly a subject he understands (sarcasm). He implies that speed should be blamed for all non-alcohol related accidents and points out that the average car is capable of traveling faster than the average speed limit. His solution is to use "cruise control" to limit speed to 75mph. This not only overlooks the difference between "cruise control" and a "governor", but also overlooks going 75 in a school zone.

The Autoextremist article was written by Peter M. Delorenzo. He started his own website after spending 20 years in the automotive industry. His response was to insult Mr. Sepkowitz and go on some rant about "personal freedoms". This overlooks that driving a car on a public road is a privilege, not a right.

But in reading the reader mail section at Autoextremist, I found a mix of responses. The term "nanny state" was tossed around, but there was one email I did agree with. Here's part of it.

"First, most readers of this site would agree that state licensing requirements in the US are embarassingly, pathetically, dangerously lax. We license teens to drive before their brains have fully established the long-term-cause-and-effect circuitry, and most driver's license "tests" have 3rd-grade level questions and consist of 10 minutes or less on the road.

OTOH, my dad had to take the UK driver's test, which is rightly feared. More than half the applicants fail, and that's after months and sometimes years of practice. The road test takes 30 to 60 minutes, if memory serves, and is grueling. Minor errors count. Don't look in your mirror when merging? Fail. Drift into a road stripe? Fail. Exceed the posted limit by 2 mph? Fail. And so on.

I'm not saying the average Brit driver is significantly better than the average American driver, but s/he clearly understands that driving is a PRIVILEGE--not a birthright. Contrast that with the spate of 18-year-old girls chatting on the phoen who pass me in their Honda Civics at 90 mph--not maliciously, but because they've clearly NEVER looked at those moving things and flashing lights just behind the sterering wheel. So where's the push from "our side" for much, much harder driving tests? For tests every 10 or 20 years for renewals? For tests every 2 to 5 years for drivers 65 and older?"

Clearly this person understands that when a plane crashes and kills all the passengers due to pilot error, you're not supposed to blame Boeing. Now I don't mind a "nanny state" myself, but most of the people like me understand that legislating a cultural change [how people think] would work much better than legislating a law enforcement change [how people act]. Unfortunately we don't know how to change the way people think on a large scale yet. We'll get right back to you as soon as we do.