Dave's Good Stuff

Understanding. Empathy. More than skill, I think that’s what’s lacking on the roads. People don’t understand the rules and laws, and (to the point of this post), more importantly, they don’t understand what it’s like for other drivers of different vehicles. Bear in mind that I include myself wholeheartedly in this group, which also, I propose, includes each and every one of you.

The typical car driver doesn’t understand what it’s like to be a bicyclist on the road. The typical bicyclist doesn’t understand what it’s like to drive a semi. How many of us understand what it’s like to drive a bus? Some, to be sure, but not most. What about a garbage truck? 30′ moving vans? Fully laden cement mixers?

As I spend more time as one of the smaller, more vulnerable users of the road, I spend more time thinking about such things. I’m coming to believe that in order to operate a vehicle on todays roads, we should be required to have a deeper understanding of what it’s like to operate a wide variety of vehicles. That means licensing.

What prompted this line of thinking was the many times drivers, in vehicles of all sizes, display an obvious lack of understanding of what it’s like to be me, on a bicycle, sharing the road with them, in their much larger enclosed vehicle. They wait for me to pass when I’m hundreds of feet away (not a horrible thing), or they perceive me going slower than I am and pull out right in front of me – even when it’s clear they see me. They pass without giving me adequate room, or endanger themselves by giving me too much room. These experiences and many more tell me that many drivers just don’t understand what it’s like to take a bike to the roads.

Then I took this logic to the next step. Sure, they don’t understand what it’s like to be me, but do we understand what it’s like to be high up in a semi, or dragging a heavy garbage truck or cement mixer around the city streets, or a school bus full of children? Wouldn’t it help us all to really *know* what it’s like for the rest of the drivers on our shared roads?

Though I doubt it will ever come to pass, in the ideal world, I think we should all be licensed to operate all legally operational vehicles that share the roads with us. Maybe that would go somewhere towards giving us the understanding and empathy that is so lacking on the roads today. Probably not, but it can’t hurt, and it may just make people take driving a little less for granted, and a little more seriously.