Does the whole County need remedial driving class?

This post has been on my radar for about two months since I spoke to a man-about-town who lives a half block off of the California Dr. speedway.  He told me about a guy in a new Corvette who blasted down California, but an officer just happened to be nearby for another reason.  One got caught, but he says most don't.  Then last week I was at the ECR-Howard Ave. Safeway intersection when two incidents happened within 10 seconds of each other.  First, someone seems to have forgotten that drivers coming straight at you from across the intersection have right-of-way over you turning left.  Horn blows.  And then someone driving west on Howard decides to do the medium speed "California stop" turning north on ECR.  Except there are three people well into the crosswalk.  The pedestrian closest was fortunately agile and quick and he needed to be to avoid spending a week in the hospital.  This is a regular occurrence there.  Lyon-Hoag has been complaining about this for years.

The stories go on.  A merchant on B'way told me a pedestrian did get clipped there a week ago even with the seizure-inducing crosswalk lights going off.  That's before jaywalking becomes legal statewide in the pursuit of "racial justice".  And of course, there is the absolutely tragic, heart-breaking story from Redwood CIty of a 23-year-old racing a 17-year-old in a BMW M-series at 80-90 mph on ECR at 8pm.  Two parents killed and twin 7-year-girls orphaned.  You can see drivers doing 50+ on ECR in B'game all the time even with the lousy road surface.  Maybe we really don't want it fixed?

Does the whole County need remedial driving class?  Maybe, but for sure we need more traffic enforcement--a lot more.  Recall during the 2020 Townhall on "use of force" when my second question was asked:  "If the city allocated 10% more funding to BPD today, how would it utilize the funds?"  This was during the nationwide idiocy called "defund the police".  Chief Matteucci took about 1.5 seconds to respond, "I would add more traffic enforcement".  Exactly!  But our city council doesn't quite get it yet.  During the non-debate prior to the last non-election, three candidates were asked about public safety.  As Russ wrote in the post

In short, (Ricardo Ortiz) stated that the council has not been asked to increase the number of patrol personnel, so by inference, there is no need to increase the number of individuals on the BPD. Wait? What?

I think it's time we asked for a couple more cops on the street.  I would say "let's get ahead of this curve" but we are already behind the curve so let's just catch-up.  None of the statistics show the near misses, but if you are regularly walking, riding or driving in town you see them.  In the meantime, keep your head on a swivel.

Comments

[Gerald Weisl]

Coming "west" on Carmelita I stopped at the red light at El Camino. Maybe 4pm...there were four cars heading in the direction of California Drive on the other side of El Camino. The first car edged forward and I figured he was intending to have a look to his left, check traffic and make a right turn on that red light.
But no...he came out another foot and stopped. Okay...now maybe he will make that right turn.

Nope!

The pedestrian "countdown" indicated about 10 seconds before the light would change.

And then suddenly he hit the accelerator and gunned it across El Camino, against the light, with about 7 or 8 seconds to go before it changed.

Apparently the traffic signals are merely "suggestions."

[Peter Garrison]

From and old commercial pilot and erstwhile motorcycle guy…

Low sun and shadows.
And, thanks to daylight savings, low sun and shadows four times a year during commute hours…

Look into the shadows.

Also, drivers not clearing their view around their front cabin pilon when turning and not seeing the pedestrian crossing to their left or right.

Move your head.

PS- Wave to cops. They’re your friends.

[Jennifer Pfaff]

Speaking of pilots (or lack thereof), I was thinking it must be April 1st when I heard on the news that a number of international airports are pushing to change the 2-pilots-per- cockpit regulation.

Seriously?? Coronary arrest, disruptive passengers, hijack, second opinion, etc. etc. Somebody better start training the Flight Attendants in piloting skills, pronto!

If they intend to cut essential staff, it makes me wonder what else in these machines has already been "abbreviated" for cost-cutting.

[resident]

My pet peeve is people who don't know how to back up. Either parallel parking or just backing out. People, turn to the right, put your right hand on the passenger seatback, turn your head, push accelerator.

[Mom]

Be on the lookout for Steve McQueen — A white Mustang driver swerved throughout the lanes and ran multiple red lights on B Street and Third Avenue in San Mateo, it was reported 7:10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18.

[Joe]

Can you imagine what speed one must be doing in a PARKING LOT to have this happen?:

One of the three people involved in a collision involving multiple vehicles in the parking lot of a San Mateo Target store last week has died, the San Mateo Police Department said Monday.

San Mateo police said the driver involved in the collision died, with the other two people hospitalized.

The Nov. 16 collision was reported shortly after noon at the store at 2220 Fashion Island Blvd. Officers arrived to find multiple victims and three vehicles involved. The incident took place at the Bridgepointe Shopping Center.

Speed played a significant role in the accident, with an investigation still ongoing, police said.

https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/person-in-san-mateo-target-collision-dead/article_5d47bb34-6a21-11ed-be5a-ab958edfe122.html

[hollyroller@ gmail.com]

We have to be kidding ourselves if increased Police Presence will have any effect on the Shitheads that have the money to provide themselves and their children a vehicle that may be capable of extreme speed. Yet accidents happen between 35-50 MPH.
This is "The Way of Burlingame and will continue to be so. Just get used to it.

[JP]

There is plenty of evidence to the contrary. Go Google the "broken window" theory.

[MBGA]

Seems the solution to the speeding and reckless driving problem is to impound the cars while the perp awaits trial for this type of traffic crime. If the city chooses to do a few of those actions, word gets out that Burlingame is not a place to drive fast.

I’m not a lawyer so I don’t know the constitutionality of this, and looking it up, it seems it can be argued either way. In addition, there are some cases of abuses by police departments that take money and other items found in cars, based on possibly false drug charges, and then they make it near impossible and certainly not worth the legal costs for people to try to get back the money absconded by the police. It’s a slippery slope. But what isn’t.

That aside, at least temporarily impounding the cars being used to grossly break safety laws would go a long way to stop willful bad driving.

[Joe]

That is the reputation I would like us to work towards, MBGA. I remember driving from Massachusetts to Albany, NY with my parents. One little hamlet, Nassau, NY, was a couple miles before the interstate (I-90) and people would buzz thru knowing they would be going 65+ mph in a couple of minutes. My parents would always remind each other to "slow down in Nassau" as it was a known speed trap.