Jason's Jive October 2025

This month, let us talk about driving habits. I am not going to touch the demon of driving and texting that I see daily on the roads out here in Dallas. I know it happens on the roads in and around Beltsville, very often. My bigger concern is the issue of folks speeding through residential areas and more importantly, school zones.

I have a son in 10^th grade and have to drop him to school in the mornings for about 6:45 a.m. for practice. (In Dallas, because of the heat, most of these sports practices take place first thing in the morning). Driving in our neighborhood is a task, because we are an artery to a major road (University Boulevard – 380, kind of similar to Route 1/Baltimore Avenue).  Many motorists cut through and drive above the posted speed limit. From 6:30 a.m. till about 8:15 a.m., the residential areas are filled with students walking to the designated bus stops, parents walking with their children to elementary school, some students on bicycles on the sidewalk and other residents taking their morning walk or jog. There is no reason why you choose to leave your home late and then become a risk to other road users. These reckless drivers don’t care.

Last week, I almost got hit on my street by a driver racing up the road, presumably going close to 40 mph on a street with cars parked on either side of the road. Seconds after he passed me, a middle schooler popped up between parked cars and walked straight into the road to cross the street --- headphones covering his head, oblivious to what was around him. Had it been a few seconds earlier, I would presumably have been writing a different type of article. Very sad situation. Parents, uncles, aunts, we need to speak to our youth about road safety. They need to understand that the roads have a lot of distracted drivers and a few irresponsible ones, so they (students) should be aware of their surroundings and stay vigilant, just in case an irresponsible motorist puts them in danger.

Moving on, the posted speed limit in school zones is 20 mph, when students are present. The signs have posted times for compliance. There are the blinking lights for increased awareness. It is sad that many a time, I am driving 17 – 20 mph and cars will speed up and pass me. Folks are in such a rush to get to their destinations that they disregard others. Why do we as adults choose to do this? Oh, but when the police park a vehicle in the area, all of a sudden, folk realise that the speed limit works, and they are compliant.

This may sound harsh but I would like to see harsher laws for people who violate these laws. Here is what I would do: start by having the offender park and sit in the car for about an hour, so now they are really late for whatever activity they were rushing to.  Secondly, have them do pedestrian crossing duty for a week at the school zone, morning and afternoon. Paying a fine is too easy. Another thing would be to have them do community service at the school for a number of days. If the posted limit is 20 mph and you were doing 24 or even 28, then the number of miles you were over the limit by becomes the number of days you do janitorial work at the school. So, 28 mph gives you 8 days of being a janitor there. Harsh, but it will bring change.

Folks, let us slow down and drive responsibly. I am going to end this shortly.

School, roads, math --- a great combination. You cannot make this up. I blame myself for putting myself in a very embarrassing situation a few weeks ago. I went to a Dollar Tree store to pick up a few items. My bill came to $9.16.  Cashier was a young male of high school age. I gave him a $20 bill and as he proceeded to ring up my transaction, I remembered I had coins in my pocket. So, I quickly got out 16 cents to give to him, so I wouldn’t get a handful of coins back.  His face got serious all of a sudden and he said to me, “Nar, nar, nar Sir. You can’t do that. I already rang you up. You should have given that to me at the start.” I said nothing in return and others in the line looked at me, with smurks on their faces. Simple math he could not do.

Well, my math tells me it is time to wrap up. Have a great month. That’s the Jive!