Driver Education

* Re “Rude Roads,” July 21: Traffic Commissioner Beverly Mosley has it almost right. To prevent needless traffic deaths and fight increasing instances of road rage, we do need driver education classes reinstituted in high school curriculums. These classes also need to be made a mandatory condition of every license renewal. We seem to think that driving is an activity where 50 or 60 hours of training at age 16 is enough for a lifetime. I believe it to be an activity that requires continuing education.

RANDALL FREEMAN

Canoga Park

* L.A. needs more drivers like John M. Glionna (“Rush-Hour Confessions From That Other Guy”). Educating people how to drive in L.A. is a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it. Here are some guidelines:

Never look at the “student.” Eye contact can only lead to trouble. If you meet with unsavory comments and gesticulation, smile and wave.

When passing slowpokes (going 65 mph or less) in the inside lane, come up right on their tail and arc closely around them. Hopefully, the student will hit his/her brakes as you come around back into the inside lane. This should alert the student that he/she is traveling too slowly and cause him/her to move into the slower lanes to the right.

Audibly alert (with horn, never vocally) a student who is turning right from the second lane (on a six-lane street) instead of the curb lane. Often the outside lanes on six-lane streets are for parking, but never at the corners.

Always cut off any ‘90s station wagon (a.k.a. sport utility vehicle). These are cumbersome, unsafe cars that are wielded by housewives and emasculated husbands whose last car was a convertible Rabbit. Driving one-handed with the other hand pressing the cell phone to their ear only makes the student less able to control his/her car. They should all be in Cadillacs; they’re smaller and handle better.

CHUCK MASON

Tujunga

* I’m surprised there aren’t many more pedestrians getting run down. I could hit 10 a day and none of them would know what hit them. Why? They just don’t look! People step off the curb into traffic like there isn’t anything to be concerned about. Whatever happened to look both ways (and look again) before crossing a street?

ANDRE PAGE

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