Taken For Granted:

The road warriors are back at Glendale Community College, and our city’s few remaining law-abiding drivers are once again at risk of life and limb while in proximity of the school. With thumbs a texting, arms akimbo on the steering wheel, a Red Bull in the drink holder, windows down and the CD player blasting away, our young speedsters clock in at 35 mph through the parking lot, accelerate with a screech around the turn out of the college onto Mountain Street, Glendale Avenue, Cañada Boulevard or Verdugo Road.

Texting, of course, precludes use of a turn signal when cork screwing around a corner or changing lanes. And the object of the lane change is to ride a foot off your rear bumper. And even if he or she could, this young driver doesn’t know how to activate the turn-signal indicator. The Department of Motor Vehicles manual long ago did away with the hand signals we old guys had to learn, and the only hand signal these youngsters seem to know involves one finger.

It didn’t receive much play in the media, but one of the measures in the original stimulus package, enthusiastically supported by the auto insurance lobby but unfortunately rejected in committee, was a “Cash for Crunchers” program designed to put cash in the pockets of college students while increasing the survival rates for the rest of the driving and walking public. The program would have been implemented on a trial basis in several of the more dangerous driving cities, and Glendale was right at the top of the list.

Here’s how it would have worked: Any driver age 17 to 25 would be paid a stipend to stay off the road at least one day a week. Payments would be calculated on the basis of age, the number of “crunches” the individual had caused and the number of moving violations. The younger the driver and the more accidents and violations, the bigger the paycheck. BMW, Mercedes and SUV drivers would rate at the very top of the dollar chart for the “cruncher” program. And an extra cash bonus would be awarded to those unable to see over the dashboard.