Defensively Driving

So I’ve spent the entire day doing the online defensive driving thing. I’m not kidding either, I knew it was a 6 hour course, but its non-stop, and its relentless. I’ve been going since about 10 am. The main thing I’ve learned so far today, is that I read about 30% faster than they expect me to. Every page has a minimum viewing time and you cannot proceed until that time has passed. I consistently finish the text on the page before the timer runs out. I had anticipated this, but had not realized how many, and how short the timers would be. I was assuming more of a “you have 15 minutes to finish this section,” and I would finish in 10 and have 5 minutes left over. Instead its “you have 45 seconds to finish this section,” and I have 15 seconds left to wait… that shit adds up. And it gets boring.

The other main thing I have learned, and this is obviously why its called “defensive driving” is that it is your responsibility to get to get the hell out of the way of people who are breaking the law. There’s logic to this, sure, but it just feels contradictory. It makes a lot of statements to the effect that if you are driving correctly and obeying the laws (especially in the right of way portions), and someone slams into you as a result of their illegal actions, its somehow your fault for not allowing them the right of way that they didn’t deserve.

This was most obvious when they were talking about motorcycles, and how as drivers, we should treat them as full sized vehicles… imaging a car sized space around the rider. This is practically impossible to do when they are weaving through the spaces between cars, up between two lanes, avoiding traffic by riding the inner shoulder, and all kinds of other things that would be impossible, if they were, in fact, full sized.

I did, however, learn that in lieu of having insurance, you can have a $50,000 check on record as your form of insurance. I guess that’s a viable alternative for those who can afford to just set aside $50,000.