Excellent suggestions there, Dave!!! (and also well said!!!)
HOWEVER...(and call me a "glass-half-empty" sort'a guy here if ya want here)...I really wonder if ANYTHING, be it "driver education" or "punishment" is EVER going to get a vast majority of cagers(or for THAT MATTER even the vast majority of M/C riders) to become more proficient and conscientious operators of their vehicles?
You see, I've always felt that this "healthy sense of suspicion" I possess about the apparent general lack of competence that most operators of motor vehicles in this country demonstrate daily(a sense that I've cultivated over my 56 years on this planet, and over 41 years of ridin' on these things known as motorcycles) is the MAIN REASON that I'm STILL ALIVE after all these years and able to type this here response to you!
In other words...I don't think the "average american" is either all that bright and/or able to digest a whole lot of "education" that won't fit into their little philosophy that their wants and needs should mostly come first and the heck with looking out for somebody else" OR anything other then THEIR little priorities in life! And I BETCHA we motocycle rider are pretty looooow on THEIR list of priorities, and always WILL BE!!!
And so, I don't think the idea that we're ever going to "educate" a vast majority of those folks out there TO SEE US isn't necessarilly a "pragmatic vision", my friend!
But, I suppose it's worth a shot, huh?! But of course THAT probably would mean(shutter!!!)RAISING TAXES to PAY for this "new education" ya know??? And given the present american mindset about THAT, well...my GUESS is that that RIGHT THERE is gonna be a "deal breaker" dude!!!
(hey...now didn't I tell ya I might be one o' those "glass-half-empty" sort'a guys???)
