I recently had the chance to sit down and talk with Senator Steven Baddour (pictured below), the Democratic Chairman of the Joint Committee on Transportation. As you may have read in the past, I have an ongoing interest in improving how we drive in Massachusetts. We are world famous for being bad drivers; we’re aggressive, we flout the law, and we’re proud of it. No one seems able to put their finger on why, whether it’s cultural, educational, a law enforcement issue, something about the way our roads are built, or something else.

Even Senator Baddour has a hard time defining why we drive as badly as we do, but he doesn’t think the law is the problem. “You can’t legislate common sense”.

Baddour says “I think people in Massachusetts are in too much of a hurry. People need to take a deep breath and slow down.”

He also thinks that how we drive is affected because “we feel empowered…people are distracted by cell phones and navigation systems and everything, we act like the car is on auto pilot.”

The Senator has been focused recently on passing legislation to improve the skills of younger drivers. At the end of 2006 the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill mandating more training for teen drivers and newer, higher penalties for speeding and drag racing.

He is specifically focused on working to improve drivers’ education in Massachusetts. He says “Look at how we’re taught to drive in this state. Teenagers think Drivers’ Ed is a joke, and they treat it like one. I don’t think they get the message about how dangerous driving is. They feel that driving is a right of passage, it’s not.”

The new legislation is clearly a positive step toward improving the skills of new drivers. But what about improving how the rest of us drive?

Here Senator Baddour points to the SCARR (State Courts Against Road Rage) program which provides some additional education for drivers who have been cited for speeding, aggressive driving, or road rage incidents.

Baddour expressed a general frustration with the way we drive in Massachusetts, but didn’t feel there is a single action that can be taken to solve the problem. “Police don’t enforce the laws as well as they could, it’s culturally accepted. I think we should encourage parental involvement.”