[speeders] new members and safety

["B. Douglas Jensen" <bdouglas@joimail.com>]

I want to put in my 2 bits here on safety and new members. I have been a
member of MOW since 1993 and a coordinator since '99 and have watched the
changes occurring in our hobby, overall, with delight.

Over the past few years I've had the pleasure of being a coordinator on
several runs, where for many of my operators, it was their first excursion.
Their enthusiasm is usually overwhelming and they are very concerned that
they do everything right. Their cars are usually in better shape than the
older member's cars and when I do inspections I hardly ever have to ask them
to fix something vs. the rest of us who have become more relaxed about
maintenance. They usually operate with extreme caution and I have yet to see
a mishap by them. I find them approachable when it comes to any criticisms I
or others need to make to them.

Its the older members who I find have become sedate regarding rules and
such. It's tough to go up to someone who has been operating their car for 15
years and  10,000 miles and ask them to watch their stopping  distance
between cars or to slow down rather than blow though dirt crossings, or to
remind them what their flags are for. When I inspect their cars and find a
problem they usually get defensive about something that is wrong and assume
I'm going to overlook it (ain't going to happen).

Luckily I have not had any accidents on my trips (small mishaps, yes) but I
have been made aware, through other's observations, who  is a potential
accident waiting to happen, and I have to say that it is overwhelmingly the
older members that I'm hearing about. I do not exclude myself from the older
member profile since I know I have become more relaxed in my operating style
and will take certain things for granted. Of the accidents and mishaps I
have heard of lately, the operators, more often then not, seem to me have
been experienced high mileage veterans (can someone give us that
statistic?).

MOW requires mentoring and  testing and follow through with our new members.
When someone on our excursions is not operating properly the word does get
out - after all you get to observe that car a head of you for as much as 10
days and 1100 miles and the same for the guy behind you -  and we talk. Peer
pressure in this hobby can be tremendous and has its purpose and value. As a
coordinator  when I have a problem operator it comes from such observations
and I get to be the bearer of bad tidings and talk with the offending member
(but that's another topic).

When driving an automobile if I don't like the way someone is operating
their car I can either pass them, slow down and let them get way ahead of me
(how many of us do that???), or pull over.   And I don't know of too many
occasions where our country's DMV's have not allowed someone to operate an
automobile  when they really shouldn't be (observe the number of people with
licenses in their 80's or the number of teenagers with licenses - UHG!!!).
Most highways and roads have been designed for the automobile and hopefully,
ergonomically, work in the auto's favor. Railroads were designed for trains,
not motorcars - we do not get to take advantage of lighted crossings or
signal systems. 120 pound rail is very tall and built on steep ballast which
raises our profiles higher and a derailment from that height can be deadly.
Spring switches work much better for a 240 ton locomotive vs. a 1200 pound
speeder. Motorcars weren't necessarily designed to follow 20 other motorcars
(witness our need for brake lights, tail lights, flags, radios, hitches on
the front, and so forth).

Mr. Van Loo can criticize the West Coast Club's for aggressively signing up
new members all he wants, but to say that we have pursued these members to
gain more numbers and power and ignored safety related issues I think is
quite an unfair observation. And I would say that if you look at the NARCOA
board's makeup the west coast is not overwhelmingly represented considering
the number of members that we have (this is not a complaint on my part since
I feel the board is doing a fine job).

Doug Jensen