I was deeply disturbed upon reading your recent article titled “Lakewood Drivers Ranked Among The Worst In The Country.” The article, while humorous, makes light of an extremely serious situation, and even worse, implies that it’s not a problem at all.
Your article says that Lakewood drivers are terrible and have been ranked as some of the worst in the country, then quickly pulls a 180 and reveals that the city being discussed is actually Lakewood, Colorado. You then write that “before impugning Lakewood drivers, ask yourself: If they are indeed so bad, why are they consistently not making the list in such rankings?”
This is the most ridiculous statement you could make. Firstly, I looked up the study you cited. That study is specifically ranking cities on fatalities per capita – not crashes per capita. I wonder where Lakewood would rank in a study of crashes per capita, or in a study that ranked bad or dangerous driving.
Take a drive up the 9 in middle of the day and you’ll know exactly what I’m referring to. Vehicles apparently driven by blind people dart out left and right. I seriously wonder if some of these people are trying to get into a crash.
Or how about going down New Hampshire toward the 70? I did just that yesterday and filmed it. Take a look at what’s happening at the intersection with Chestnut. A line of vehicles is just crossing straight into New Hampshire, without anyone bothering to look at oncoming traffic.
In this particular instance, an off-duty EMT blared his emergency horn, so you see everyone back off a little. Usually, you won’t see that. On multiple occasions I’ve had to slam on my brakes because the cars just don’t stop coming.
Your article was very cute, but also very damaging. Don’t make people think that there isn’t a problem when there certainly is one. And if you think there isn’t a problem, I have one question: Do you live under a rock?
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I agree. When I first moved to Lakewood I was too scared to drive here, even though I’d already been driving for years. I still don’t like driving here, but I do it out of necessity.
I watched the video you show above. I don’t see any issue with the drivers making a left, as it is a very difficult street to make a left with no light, so if there is enough room between on coming cars they will have that judgement call and make the left . But I have a strong feeling you did not have to slam on the brakes but tap it to slow down, unless you were very impatient and in a rush so you kept up the speed and then had to slam on the brakes. Perhaps a bit more patience all around would make driving all around safer.
Your video shows nothing.
Maybe some people in a little bit of a rush
Stop standing on a rock looking for problems