{"id":9636,"date":"2016-10-07T11:49:10","date_gmt":"2016-10-07T15:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/?p=9636"},"modified":"2016-10-07T11:49:10","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T15:49:10","slug":"traffic-deaths-in-the-us-have-seen-the-biggest-increase-in-50-years-and-nobody-knows-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2016\/10\/traffic-deaths-in-the-us-have-seen-the-biggest-increase-in-50-years-and-nobody-knows-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Traffic deaths in the US have seen the biggest increase in 50 years\u2014and nobody knows why"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
I can tell you why: Nobody can fucking drive, that’s why!
\nHonestly, self driving cars can’t come soon enough. All of the safety advances and conveniences that have gone into automobiles in the past 30 years, have turned drivers into distracted clods who see no merit in improving their driving skills, because they believe that the car will protect them. Cars are safe right?…so why should they have to learn how to actually drive?
\nBack when there were no seatbelts or airbags in cars, and crashing usually meant serious injury or death, learning how to operate your vehicle to the best of your ability had REAL merit…it could save your life. For years I refused to wear my seatbelt (while insisting that my passengers wore theirs) so that I would not lose sight of the fact that a crash could mean DEATH for me or my riders. It kept me SHARP. Always alert. Sure, it was more dangerous…but driving is a dangerous activity. It is RISKY. You can DIE. If you believe there is no risk, you get complacent…distracted driving is the result of that complacency. I know…the cell phone is a distraction. That coffee. The radio. There are no end of potential distractions behind the wheel. But if you were really focused on the road and driving, they wouldn’t distract you any more that shifting gears or putting on your turn signal. You CAN use your hands for other things AND operate a vehicle safely. As long as your priority is THE ROAD.
\nThe REAL distraction for drivers is the illusion of safety. We hurtle ourselves around at a mile a minute in a daydream, sipping our coffee…thinking about our jobs, families, school, friends…whatever is important in our lives, and “forget” that no matter how safe the airbags and seatbelts and collision avoidance devices are, it’s still ultimately up to US to stay safe by keeping our heads in the game and our skills sharp.
\nIt’s that second point that is most often neglected. Driving is a skill, one that you improve at with more practice. I look at every ride I take as an opportunity to improve my skills…and I have been driving for 40 fucking years. Meanwhile, most drivers I encounter out there don’t even know the fucking rules of the road anymore. How are you going to stay safe if you don’t even know the fucking RULES OF DRIVING? Get a self driving car, that’s how.
\nYes…self driving vehicles cannot come soon enough. All of you idiots who turn the key and then drive around as if someone else is ALREADY at the wheel, and all you dumbasses who grip the wheel with fear as you try to convince yourself that you aren’t scared shitless every single minute that you are behind the wheel …you will all be able to get around without putting every other car on the road at risk of your ineptitude behind the wheel.
\nThen, for the rest of us who love the sport of driving and perfecting the art of vehicle control, the roads will become much, MUCH safer.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/bit.ly\/2cZJXwx<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can tell you why: Nobody can fucking drive, that’s why! Honestly, self driving cars can’t come soon enough. All of the safety advances and conveniences that have gone into automobiles in the past 30 years, have turned drivers into distracted clods who see no merit in improving their driving skills, because they believe that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[14,480,456,132,429],"tags":[523,159,33,530,552],"class_list":["post-9636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-facebook","category-jamie-gray","category-news","category-shared-link","tag-blog","tag-facebook","tag-jamie-gray","tag-news","tag-shared"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13865,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2017\/07\/are-americans-warming-up-to-self-driving-cars\/","url_meta":{"origin":9636,"position":0},"title":"Are Americans Warming Up to Self-Driving Cars?","date":"July 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I say bring 'em on. Then we can put all these morons who don't take the time to learn how to drive or practice\/improve their driving skills into them ASAP. Make the driving test for REAL cars HARD -- more like the tests for Aircraft Pilots with weather certifications etc.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9984,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2016\/10\/drivers-cant-wait-to-treat-self-driving-cars-like-garbage-roadshow\/","url_meta":{"origin":9636,"position":1},"title":"Drivers can’t wait to treat self-driving cars like garbage – Roadshow","date":"October 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I know I'm ready. Seriously though, I would rather deal with self-driving cars that are unable to break the rules of the road, than some of the idiot drivers that don't even KNOW the rules of the road.http:\/\/cnet.co\/2eixAPF","rel":"","context":"In "blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9368,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2016\/09\/self-driving-cars-will-have-to-pry-the-steering-wheel-from-our-cold-dead-hands-poll-says\/","url_meta":{"origin":9636,"position":2},"title":"Self-driving cars will have to pry the steering wheel from our cold, dead hands, poll says","date":"September 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Not giving up my steering wheel anytime soon. I'm actually looking forward to fucking with self-driving cars that can't break the rules. Bring em.http:\/\/bit.ly\/2dru5J2","rel":"","context":"In "blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14980,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2017\/11\/10-winter-driving-tips-to-survive-the-slippery-snowy-streets\/","url_meta":{"origin":9636,"position":3},"title":"10 winter driving tips to survive the slippery, snowy streets","date":"November 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a tip: If you don't know how to drive in the snow, stay home. If driving in bad weather makes you nervous, stay home. OR you could go do some donuts in an empty parking lot until you feel confident in recovering from a slide. Because #driving is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16057,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2018\/03\/autonomous-cars-may-soon-navigate-better-in-fog\/","url_meta":{"origin":9636,"position":4},"title":"Autonomous cars may soon navigate better in fog","date":"March 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In theory, autonomous cars could be better at driving in fog than humans...thanks to technology like this, which could allow the vehicle to \"see\" where a human could not. Assuming the technology can actually penetrate the fog and the software \/ AI properly interprets the output, of course. The Article\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13559,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2017\/06\/shanghai-is-getting-an-absurd-futuristic-self-driving-store-on-wheels\/","url_meta":{"origin":9636,"position":5},"title":"Shanghai is getting an absurd, futuristic self-driving store on wheels","date":"June 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Self driving cars. Self driving busses. Self driving trucks. Now there's the self driving store. Really? A store? Sounds like traffic congestion squared to me.http:\/\/bit.ly\/2rvL0Ax","rel":"","context":"In "blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}