Driving Safely

IN 1971, when I was 16, my father, who was driving drunk at the time, which made me a mite nervous, said: "we're gonna have to get rid of these things, you know". He was talking about cars. Looking back, I think he was thinking about the air pollution, which everyone knew was a problem in 1971, as every big city in America was chocked with cars, exhaust fumes, and constant smog. I recall standing in downtown Los Angeles at high noon in 1978 and wondering why it was so foggy, until I figured it out. So we ended up with fuel efficiency standards, catalytic converters, lead free fuel, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the rest, as they say, is history. My father was wrong about "giving up cars", since there aint no way in hell we're gonna ever even consider doing that - but he was on the wright track. Cars were, and are a problem in many ways, but at least we are working on it. Many years ago I mentioned to my mother that the day would come when cars were driving by computers, and the annual number of vehicular fatalities throughout the world would reduce from about million, to zero. Her response? "Hell, we already have too damned many people in the world." Never a dull moment with my parents. Mom was quite a gal. About half of America's public schools are within walking distance of a major heavily trafficked roadway, and yes, studies have proven that the kids do inhale the pollution, and it indeed has adverse effects on them, while our society keeps its head in the sand concerning this dire fact. That, according to the National Institutes of Health. We are now beginning to keep the windows closed in schools. The advent of electric computer driven cars will make the world a better place, even though, as my mother cogently observed, it will only add to an existing over population problem.