Failure to Yield: It's Epidemic

From my office window, I have an excellent view of a quarter mile section of the westbound lane of I-40 through West Knoxville. Almost daily, and often more than once, motorists are pulled to the side of the road and issued a traffic citation for speeding. However, Failure to Yield is the true root of the traffic problems and road rage on our highways.

What is Failure to Yield? It’s driving in the left hand lane when traffic is backed up behind you, or the right lane is clear. It’s turning on your indicator and assuming you have the right to pull over. It’s pulling from an on ramp into traffic at 20 miles an hour below the posted speed. For the purpose of this article let’s focus on the left hand lane; the passing lane.

Just so you know I drive fast. In my defense, I walk fast too. The fact that someone drives faster than you, or the speed limit, doesn’t give you the right to tie up the left hand lane. I have a good friend that refers to their self as a “blocker.” He believes that it is his duty to slow traffic down in the left hand lane. The left hand lane is a passing lane. The sole purpose of this lane is to allow traffic to flow unimpeded. If you drive in the left hand lane you will notice a sign in the median that says, “Slower Traffic Keep Right.”

My wife would say, just pass them on the right, what’s the big deal. The big deal is I already know they can’t drive and to pass them on the right puts me in their blind spot. It causes me to merge into slower traffic and find enough room to get around them, when they are going the speed of traffic in the right hand lane already. And, it’s illegal to pass someone on the right hand side. That’s why we have a passing lane. Unfortunately, one does not have to venture very far to observe the behavior of these “blockers.”

Take Pellissippi Parkway from I-40 towards Maryville any weekday afternoon and you will observe far more traffic in the left hand lane than in the right. Oddly enough, I have noticed a pattern that many of these individuals have Blount County tags (that’s a tip for the officers in the area). You will notice a pattern of 8 to 10 cars in a line in the left hand lane and 2-3 in the same section of roadway in the right hand lane. This is what causes road rage. This is what causes accidents. So, how do you prevent it?

I would estimate that the Knoxville Police Department generates nearly $10 million each year in revenue from citations issued. This information used to be published in an annual report. Somewhere in the last 30 years that document went from being an accounting document showing revenue and expenses, to being a slick PR piece. If a breakdown was available of the number of citations issued for speeding versus those issued for failure to yield, I’m sure you would see why this is an epidemic problem on our roadways today.

This is not just a local problem. You can see this pattern on any interstate in the country today, no matter where you drive. The problem is not caused by our law enforcement officers it is the fault of the individuals oblivious to those behind them. So, if you are one of these “blockers”, move over. Your actions are just as illegal as the person behind you trying to pass.


This blog is the personal opinion of the writer and is published as editorial comment.

Bruce Pearl Has Paid the Price: Fight the NCAA

As an alumni of the University of Tennessee, I would like to go on record as saying that I believe we should keep Coach Bruce Pearl. Did he lie? Yes and he admitted that before the NCAA found out. Have we all made mistakes in our lives, absolutely.

So this comes down to deciding if we allow a man to make a mistake. I can guarantee you that if we let Bruce go our next coach will not be perfect. Bruce accepted and dealt with the punishment from the University and the SEC. If the NCAA comes out with additional sanctions, then they are saying that colleges and conferences are not capable of handling problems on their own. If the NCAA brings additional sanctions, then the University and the SEC should say in the future, “Why should we punish anyone, when the NCAA is going to do it.”

If the NCAA comes out with the death penalty and bans Coach Pearl from coaching for a period of time, then Mike Hamilton and the University of Tennessee should fight. Or maybe they have forgotten that the first six weeks into his first season we made more on concessions at Thompson Bowling than the whole previous year.

The University appears to be throwing in the towel and quitting. They should be defending the actions they have already taken; along with the conference. They should be fighting for not only our coach, but the good of our program moving forward. They should be pointing to the “body of work” that has occurred under Bruce Pearl’s leadership of the team and not allow the NCAA to throw all of that effort away.

Until Bruce arrived, our track record of hiring basketball coaches was pretty bleak. Do we think that all of a sudden we will be better at hiring a new head coach?

Practice forgiveness and keep Coach Bruce Pearl.

This blog is the personal opinion of the writer and is published as editorial comment.