Two Idiots enter an intersection...

 We approached this intersection at Lomas and Broadway this morning about 11:00 AM on a sunny morning.  The traffic was light, we were in the center lane heading west.

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I saw a sporty red car coming up fast on my rear.  As I expected, the driver swung over in the right lane to pass and then moved leftward as he entered the intersection.  Just then a gray sedan in the oncoming turn lane lunged forward. The red one caught the gray one right in the middle,  caving in that side of the car.  The gray car was pushed up against the corner curb, while the red one came to rest at the divider with its right front fender nearly ripped off.

I thought it was a pretty good demonstration of the current state of traffic affairs.  None of the other drivers in the vicinity were behaving inappropriately at the time and the scenario might have accommodated one instance of poor judgment, but not two simultaneously.

If, like me, you tend to travel somewhere close to the posted speed limits you will find yourself being passed by most of the drivers on the road.  Speed limits on highways and city streets seem to be treated as mere suggestions, and they are mostly ignored.  That means that any small deviations from expected traffic movements become potential sources of accidents as a few milliseconds of response time are lost.  I'm pretty sure Albuquerque is one of worst places to drive a car in the country, but I'm guessing the situation is not a lot better anywhere else.

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Same day in northeast Albuquerque:

Police investigate 6-vehicle crash in northeast Albuquerque

News from Slashdot.org

 Speed Limiters Now Mandatory In All New EU Cars

"Cars have been able to figure out when they're speeding for a while, thanks to GPS as well as traffic sign recognition, and they've also been able to pump the brakes automatically when needed. Having a computer automatically slow down a car in response to posted speed limits, therefore, was not really a question of technical feasibility for some time -- but mandating it has been a question of political will. That political will has materialized in the European Union, and starting July 7 all new cars sold in the EU will feature intelligent speed assistance (ISA) systems..."

 The EU law will leave it to manufacturers how to respond to the speed-awareness of the new cars; that will allow a range of possibilities from alerting the driver to automatically initiating speed reduction.  So, probably not a guarantee of any drastic reduction in speed-related incidents, but a start at least.

The EU law points to the fact that currently available technology opens up a lot of possibilities.  They are probably not as great as is implied by every TV police procedural which seems to enable law enforcement to instantly monitor the location of any car on the road. However, there are some more modest possibilities which could make life in cities a bit more bearable.

One possibility would be monitoring of horn honks. There are times when a slap at the horn is an important resource for avoiding collisions or worse, but those events are pretty rare. A reasonable standard might be to allow everyone three or four free honks. On the fourth or fifth honk, the recorded infraction might generate a small fine -- say a dollar.

The next honk could double the fee, and so on.  A dashboard display could provide immediate feedback.  When the fee got up to around $100, perhaps the car's engine could by rendered incapable of speeds over 30mph. Or, maybe a requirement could be transmitted to the MVD when license renewal is due to test the horn-happy for psychopathology.