I think anyone who has driven long enough in New Orleans can recall a time that they witnessed some blatant traffic violation. I’m not talking about a rolling stop at a stop sign or a mistimed right on a red light.
I’m talking about a driver who may be three or four cars behind the line at a red light deciding that they don’t have the time to wait and pulls out in front of everybody, negotiates the intersection and decides it’s perfectly fine to pass on through.
Stop signs, red lights, even school zone speed limits sometimes seem like mere suggestions to the reckless drivers who disregard them. Of course, “bad” drivers are not a uniquely New Orleans phenomenon. I clearly understand that. But there are some local factors at play: the shortage of officers with the New Orleans Police Department and the prioritization of addressing violent crime over other forms of lawlessness.
“The drivers in New Orleans drive according to how the laws are enforced. New Orleans traffic laws are just not enforced. That’s why you see drivers running the red lights they know they’re not going to get no traffic tickets when they run that light,” said Jewel Carney, owner of New Orleans Safe Driving School.
Carney has been a driving instructor since 1984. Before that, he spent 15 years driving buses for Greyhound. In his line of work, he spends a tremendous amount of time on the streets of New Orleans and has observed plenty of wrecks and near misses. I thought he’d have an informed take on the kind of driving that takes place in this fair city of ours. I recently hopped into the car with Mr. Jewel as he was instructing a local teenager preparing to get his driver’s license. From painfully high auto insurance rates in Louisiana to the white-knuckle moments we’ve had while driving in New Orleans, our car conversation covered a lot of ground. Some of it was funny, some of it was serious. It kind of captured the ridiculousness of the state of local driving. Listen to the podcast here.
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