At this time of year many people express the holiday spirit by driving very badly. I don’t know if the number of accidents increases but the amount of agressive left turning and grabbing for parking spaces definitely increases as we near Christmas. And it makes sense, everybody is busier and going to places they have never been before to buy gifts for people they hardly know. Stress is up.

Part of the beauty of driving in the city is that we are anonymous. Bad behavior while driving does not reflect back on us in other situations. The people who offend us by changing lanes without signaling don’t know who we are, will probably never see us again and therefore don’t care. What if they could know who we are? Would we drive a little more politely if the people in the other cars were able to see us as more than the white Toyota Celica. I think so and the internet offers us the possibility of doing that.

Imagine a web site for Southern California called TrafficIncidentReport.com on the site you can search for a car license number and see if it has been reported for bad behavior or you can file a report. This site will have nothing to do with the police, it will be strictly for regular people to report bad behavior on. It will be possible to be notified via email if any car you register or report has additional reports filed on it. It will also be possible to file a rebuttal to a bad behavior report. It will also be possible to file a good behavior report.
In the margin this might help make people see that even when they are in their cars they are still part of a community and should act politely toward those around them.

The revenue stream could come from advertising by lawyers, body shops and car dealers among others.