Georgia motorists should work on driving skills

They’re working hard on area roads. Is it time to work on our driving too? People aren’t signaling. They’re not yielding. They’re not stopping for yellow lights, or often, even red. They’re halting traffic behind them in order to turn around because they missed a turn. They’re stopping for no reasons. They seem to have no consideration at all sometimes. And have you noticed how many motorists of all ages are looking down and surfing on their smart phones — which, by the way, is quite illegal?

Of a recent evening, we saw a driver in the far left lane of Riverwatch Parkway suddenly stop and decide she needed the I-20 entrance ramp on the right side of the road. So instead of turning left and turning around, she stopped traffic in three lanes to get where she wanted to be — and nearly caused several accidents.

It’s the perfect storm of shortsightedness, selfishness and ignorance. It’s likely happening all over the nation, but a recent survey is particularly harsh on Georgia and South Carolina drivers. A national survey by the nonprofit Kars4Kids concludes that Georgia is 44th in the nation in courteous driving — and South Carolina is 49th — beaten for rudeness by only New York.

Wow. But can you say you’re surprised? What’s going on? Well, likely, a lot of things.

First off, driver’s education is less pervasive than it used to be. Many of us remember when it was a part of high school education. No more.

So, aside from private driver’s ed schools, society has left the teaching of driver skills and etiquette to parents — who are increasingly absent and boorish. You have to wonder: Where are people learning to drive? Rudeness on the roadways also likely is paralleling the increased coarseness in society in general. Except that the clods in cars are armed with tons of speeding metal.

As a society, there can be little doubt we’ve become more impatient over the years. It’s showing up on our roadways.

But what’s up with just stopping other traffic because you’ve missed your turn? We were taught to continue on to a turnout or street where you can turn around. And that car you’re about to pass on the left? Watch out: Rather than wait for you to go by, he’s just as likely to jump out in front of you to get around the truck ahead of him.

The No. 1 rule of the road today seems to be: Don’t inconvenience yourself; inconvenience the other guy.

Besides all the human factors that cause bad driving, there are all the doodads and distractions, from eating on the run to smoking to putting on makeup to, of course, phones and other electronic devices. According to DefensiveDriving.com: Forty-nine percent of adults admit to texting and driving Cellphones are a factor in 1.6 million auto crashes each year More than 78 percent of all distracted drivers are distracted because they have been texting while driving.

As much as 25 percent of all accidents may be the result of texting and driving

So, it’s not just manners that are going out the car window. It’s a lot of basic sense, too.

One of the rites of late summer here in Georgia, where school starts amid the dog days of the season, is back-toschool shopping. Though a boon to retailers, it is a tradition largely dreaded by kids who aren’t eager to surrender their summer fun, and by parents fearing the sticker shock of new clothes that will soon be outgrown and an ever-pricey list of school supplies and high tech gadgetry.

In recent years, Georgia parents got a bit of a windfall in late July from the annual tax holiday weekend, allowing them to buy clothes, computers, supplies and various other items without being levied sales taxes. The goal was to give folks a bit more buying power during a time many were obligated to deck out their students for the school year, all while helping retailers bring in a bit more profit.

But the tax-free weekend is gone this year, ended by a legislature that did manage to give yacht owners a break when they get their craft repaired in Georgia, and tax credits to music producers and video game makers. Each is designed to generate business growth, a worthy goal even if one can argue their merits. But when it comes to passing any kind of break for regular folks who pay taxes, this wasn’t the year.

Georgia had offered the tax holiday for 13 of the last 14 years, all but in 2011 when the state was forced to cut its budget to the bone. Shoppers came to rely on it and scheduled much of their pre-school buying for that weekend, though some school districts and teachers don’t always offer required supply lists in time for the occasion. Nevertheless, consumers always like saving, be it a few pennies or a lot of dollars, any chance they get.

But lawmakers listened to budget analysts from groups on both the right and left who claim the tax holiday did little to really spur sales, just piled them into one three-day shopfest. Meanwhile, estimates showed it cost the state treasury up to $70 million in uncollected revenue.

Local governments also were losing out on sales taxes as well, to the tune of some $30 million, in a time when many are already having to make tough decisions on budget cuts and tax hikes due to unfunded mandates and diminished funds from the state and federal levels.

Retailers welcomed the influx of shoppers, some of whom took advantage of the tax break even if they didn’t have children entering school. Purchasing a laptop computer worth several hundred dollars without sales tax, for instance, can save a nice chunk of change.

The problem with pulling the plug on the tax holiday is akin to any benefit, break, tax cut or entitlement: Once you offer it, it’s more painful to pull it back than if you never started it in the first place.

Perhaps this will serve as a lesson to legislators to do a little less pandering with hollow giveaways and focus more on bigpicture policy changes that will offer real help to taxpayers in the long run. While saving a little on backpacks is nice, it would be of more comfort to know your child’s teacher is better paid, that classrooms have the infrastructure and technology to boost learning and that schools in impoverished urban and rural areas have what they need to succeed.

A sensible tax policy that fairly distributes the burden while putting money into other vital services like public safety, transportation, family services and rural hospitals beats a few dollars saved three days a year on stuff some might not need anyway.

The tax-free holiday was nice while it lasted, but lawmakers concluded there was a better use for that money. If they can make strides toward spending it and other tax revenue more wisely, we’ll all be better off for it — and not just when the August credit card bills arrive.

FMike Lester, Washington Post Writers Group