The Bay Area is the cradle of modern technology, a hub for global innovation, a cornerstone of American culture, and a home to inconceivably horrible drivers.
The Bay Area has the highest rate of per capita traffic fatalities in California and the fifth highest in the U.S. In the Bay Area, Santa Clara County ranks second in the number of accidents reported. San Jose identified Saratoga Avenue as a high-crash zone and one of the most troublesome roads in the city. These problems are not unsolvable; instead, some prudence and composure would go a long way toward making local roads safer and saner.
A single drive through Saratoga confirms the bad-driving stereotype. Getting off Highway 85 and heading toward the library, ridiculously rash Tesla drivers make hasty merges to stay on Saratoga Avenue and avoid the left turn onto Allendale, all the while cutting off rows of cars behind them.
Student and veteran drivers alike barrel down Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road in both directions without a care in the world. Driving up into the Saratoga Hills, Range Rovers make blind turns at a breakneck pace, scaring the wits out of bikers and other cars alike. A cursory glance at the school’s parking lot reveals numerous cars straddling multiple freshly painted lines (there’s no excuse anymore). On a lucky day, you may find yourself simultaneously cut off by one Tesla and tailgated by another. Is the autopilot designed simply to anger other drivers?
Yes, driving can, at times, be difficult. Although driving is a fundamental skill expected of almost every adult, to drive is to juggle a constant influx of various stimuli and to anticipate the decisions of every car, truck or pedestrian on the road. All the while, you need to operate a two-ton hunk of high-velocity metal. Assuming that infrastructure solutions to traffic problems like red-light cameras and increased barriers would be bureaucratically impossible, just a smidgen more patience by drivers can solve a host of problems.
Take two of the largest intersections within proximity of the school: Saratoga Avenue and Highway 85, along with Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road and Cox Avenue. The lack of red-light cameras in Santa Clara County leaves drivers emboldened, convinced that they can act with total impunity when they speed through red lights.
Many times, I’ve witnessed drivers slam on the gas and make the left off Highway 85 North just a second before the light turns red or just a second after. Regardless, once the light turns red, more often than not there’s a car or two still in the intersection.
Although this quick action may seem like a victimless crime that shaves a minute or two off a commute, simple actions can have drastic consequences. In 1992, beloved Saratoga Elementary School Principal Lenny Bee was killed by a young woman running a red light on Saratoga Avenue and Cox Avenue. Is saving an extra minute spent waiting at a red light worth risking human life? Perhaps the most vulnerable and at risk population of road-goers are the bikers who share the road with cars without the protection of a multi-ton metal shield.
“I do a lot of biking in and around the community, and sometimes cars have little to no regard for bikers,” senior Hanness Yeung said. “They’ll speed by or veer into the bike lane without considering the potential ramifications of even a slight misstep.”
Driving is more than a tool; it’s a responsibility. Every driver has an obligation not only to their community but to themselves to weigh whether or not the perceived benefits of any action — whether it’s cutting someone off in front of Saratoga Library or hitting 65 mph on the 2-minute drive to Safeway at lunch — outweigh the potential harms.
Yes, it is California, and every driver seems to think they have the inalienable right to speed. The Bay Area’s crashing problem is a symptom of its entitlement: Every driver believes that their task, their job or their business is more important than everyone else’s on the road. Before you press down on the gas pedal, however, take an extra moment to think. What right do you have to prioritize a negligible amount of your time over someone’s life?
Some steps require even less brainpower. My greatest pet peeve is driving down Herriman Avenue at night and all of a sudden being blinded by successive drivers who refuse to turn their high-beams off. Saratoga is infamous for dark and windy roads, but having high-beams perpetually on accomplishes nothing more than impairing other drivers and putting pedestrians and vehicles alike at risk. Seriously, turn your high-beams off.
The Bay Area has a well-deserved reputation for incompetent driving, but that can change. In the absence of significant infrastructure development, Bay Area drivers must remember to exercise caution, patience and prudence. Every time you step into the car you assume enormous responsibility, and the moral imperative of every driver is to ask whether or not their decisions are worth the risk. The burden of driving, especially as a teen, is great but necessary and must be treated with meticulous attention.
