Dear Driver:

Dear Inconsiderate Driver:

If there is frost or snow, please scrape your vehicle windows before driving away.  You may think that making a gap in the front wide enough to peek through is good enough, because, after all, you’re only driving a short way, or your defrosters will take care of the rest before you arrive!  But when you have nothing but a peep-hole in your front windshield, it makes you like an ISU-122 tank in more ways than just the scope of your view.

Let’s do the math:  let’s say your lane is approximately 10 feet wide.  If your peep-hole is 12 inches wide, directly in front of your seat, that leaves 9 feet of lane that you can’t see, and that’s just in front of your vehicle.  So if someone is in the crosswalk on the passenger side of your vehicle: Surprise! You can’t see them!

Then there’s that intersection you are approaching.  If there is a car with the right-of-way that you can’t see, you will sometimes inch forward and hope they’ll honk, then when they don’t, you gun it so you can clear the intersection.  Well guess what?  Pedestrians don’t have horns, and you won’t hear a bicycle bell with your windows up while playing your stereo and talking on your cell phone.

I have heard all kinds of excuses why you might not scrape your windows.  My favourite is “I didn’t have time.”  Well if you’re involved in a collision, you’re going to be a heck of a lot later than if you’d just taken the 2 minutes!  It isn’t like you don’t know frost and snow can be an issue at this time of year.

If you think the risk of “that happening to me” is so low that you can’t be bothered, think instead of the consequences if you take that risk, however remote, and it happens to be your unlucky day.  How will your life change in an instant (never mind the life of the person you hit)?  At best, you’ll have to pay a ticket, make an insurance claim and be very late.  Anything worse and you could be looking at serious charges, court dates, explaining to people you know why your name is in the local paper….

Is it worth it?

Love,

*Runners, Pedestrians, Cyclists, and Smart, Considerate Motorists

P.S. If you think I am being harsh, I am sorry about that; but I guess it’s because I think you are being stupid.

*I am sure every reader of this blog falls into one or more of these categories, so just so you know, I realize I am ranting preaching to the choir here!