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I hate to say it, but I told you so. OK, so I really don’t mind saying it. A few years back in this column I speculated on my perceived notion that there were people out there who were cheating. Cheating when it came to handicapped parking spots, amongst other driving related shenanigans.
In true government fashion, the ever-vigilant Department of Motor Vehicles began to think that there was too many handicapped parking placards being issued. They, of course, did it by looking at data compiled from their computers. I, on the other hand, had come to the same conclusion by just driving and attempting to park in the San Gabriel Valley. I mean when you see a solo driver park in a handicapped spot, put up their placard, and walk without so much as a limp, you’ve got to know something is up.
As all of us who live in this driving hellhole know, if the DMV wants to truly find out how bad the state of driving has become, all they would need to do is drive around the SGV for a couple of hours. It isn’t any great secret that we are home to some of the worst drivers in the United States, if not the planet.
That said, the DMV while perusing their data, came to the aforementioned epiphany and decided to investigate. Sure enough, the numbers were staggering and they decided to take it a step further. One of the DMV workers, who was not in a coma and had an extra couple of minutes on their hands, decided to check the dead.
Yes I said the dead. Low and behold guess what they found? That’s right. There were placards issued to people who were deceased. I am not talking about people who had the placards before they died, I am talking about people who had applied for them after they had died. I think it was the name Anne Nicole Smith that caught their attention. Boy those dead sure do get around, don’t they?
Even though they weren’t really dead when they applied for them, if you have ever had to spend any extended period of time at the DMV you may want to argue that point. I could swear that the last time I was there, there were some people waiting in line that looked like they were part of the living dead. Maybe it was due to the amount of time that they had spent in line and felt like they wanted to die, or perhaps it is because there are no cleanliness restrictions for being allowed into the DMV. That in itself should have the DMV changing their policy to “No bath, No license”.
Anyway, back to the real dead, instead of those who just look and smell that way. The crack staff in the computer rooms at the DMV found that there were 25,000 of them who had placards. This might explain why some of those cars never seem to leave those handicapped spaces. They just parked them there and passed away in the store and nobody bothered to move the cars.
When the DMV realized something was up they decided to take action. They did this by actually sending operatives out in the field to observe some of these “handicapped” individuals. I never knew the DMV had operatives or field agents to deploy, but you learn something new every day. In the DMV’s case, every decade or so.
It probably wouldn’t take them that long if they actually got out from behind their glass cages and went on a few field trips to the SGV. Put them all in a double decker bus with a tour guide, me for example, and view the insanity that goes on every day. Not only would they see the absolute nonsense as far as the handicapped spots go, but they would also see the horrible drivers they are unleashing on the city streets.
That is if those crappy drivers ever went to the DMV in the first place. It has always been my contention that half of the bad drivers are driving without valid driver’s licenses. That, of course, would take it out of the blame column for the DMV and put it in the “things to do list” for the police, Sheriffs, and CHP.
Sadly, as we have all been told time and time again, our law enforcement agencies are over taxed and under staffed. Which brings us to the next little chapter in this cheating saga. That would be the people who abuse the car pool lanes on our freeways.
Too many times we have all been stuck in traffic that is stopped in its tracks and sit and watch as car after car whizzes by us in the carpool lane. We sit there wishing that we had just one more person in our car so we could join the high-speed party. As we sit dreaming of going more than 2 miles an hour we notice some of the drivers are solo and are taking advantage of the situation.
With the CHP not being able to be everywhere all of the time you shift uncomfortably in your seat and steam helplessly. In the back of my mind I want to have a direct line or a link to the CHP so I could report them. Unfortunately we, the general public, don’t have a hotline to call as of yet.
On Tuesday’s local morning news there was a brief report of a man in Pasadena who not only was feeling my pain about this, he was attempting to do something about it. Apparently he is photographing the violators in the carpool lane and capturing their license plate numbers. As usual, they told us little else, and had no follow up. But I want to know more.
It is time that members of the public started taking an active part in the policing of our streets and highways as far as traffic infringements go. Law enforcement thinks nothing of asking our help in reporting people who are dealing drugs, abducting children, or ones who have committed violent crimes like drive by shootings by gang members. Why not those who are breaking the most fundamental of driving laws?
If a camera mounted on a traffic light is enough proof to issue a ticket, then why not a camera or video camera wielded by a concerned citizen? If they can trust the information supplied about a gang member by someone who was a drug dealer, who by the way would probably kill you if he found out, why not information on somebody in a carpool lane, handicapped spot, or running a stop sign. They want us to take the risks on the big things, but claim to have a handle on the rest.
I don’t know about you, but I have more bad drivers making my life miserable than drug dealing gang members. I would like to see them both off the streets because both are a danger in their own way. I just think that considering how rampant the devil may care attitude of drivers has become that the police need all the help they can get. It is very obvious that the driving public is out of control.
If they can’t keep the cheaters out of the carpool lanes, handicapped spots, and ticket the ones that run stop signs, they will be completely overwhelmed when January 2008 rolls around. That is when the “no driving when you’re on your cell phone” law takes effect. They’re really going to need our help when that sucker kicks in.
I hope they let us help now and not wait a few years. I’d hate to have to say I told you so.
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