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In his 1971 hit song, “Imagine,” John Lennon asked his
fellow “dreamers” to imagine a world of sharing with no hunger, greed, wars,
countries, religions or possessions. The utopian idealism of the ’70s has
suffered many reality checks over the years, not the least of which is the
contemporary triple combination of militant Islamic fundamentalism, a crisis in
the production and distribution of oil and contentious geopolitical
competition.

Still, there’s great power in imagination and its
handmaiden, creativity. What we imagine doesn’t have to be abstract or
impractical. In our summer of discontent over painfully high gas prices, here
are two “imaginings” that can stimulate actions that will make driving less
expensive and safer in Greensboro,
our counties and our state.

Imagine that we actually obey speed limits.

The first payoff would be that we’d save money and help
conserve oil. Estimates vary and are conservative given today’s prices: One
American Automobile Association report indicates that cutting from 65 mph to 55
would use about 10 percent less fuel; the U.S. Energy Department indicates that
every 5 mph over 60 costs about 30 cents more per gallon.

An International Energy Agency workshop concluded that the United
States could reduce overall oil consumption
by at least 4 percent by reducing highway speeds to 55 mph.

Secondly, we’d reduce stress and save lives. There is a sign
at the Maryland border entreating
us to drive “gently.” Not that it actually happens, but it’s a vivid phrase and
a compelling concept.

For the past month, I have disciplined myself to stick to
the speed limit. It’s stress-free when I have the road to myself, but when I’m
in traffic and doing the speed limit, my blood pressure rises. Everyone seems
to speed.

I’ve been menacingly tailgated by a garbage truck on Battleground
Avenue, nearly run off the road by an agitated,
elderly woman on Wendover and subjected to creatively animated lewd gestures on
I-40.

Why does obeying the law — particularly a law that saves
both money and lives — engender such anger? I think it has to do with our
frenzied life styles, our culturally ingrained sense of freedom and entitlement
and the illusion of interpersonal anonymity and power associated with
confinement in vehicles capable of speeds well over 100 mph.

We’ve kind of been there before. In 1973, as a result of an
OPEC oil embargo, Congress imposed an unpopular 55 mph national speed limit.
Those of us who drove during those times remember the emergence of the CB radio
as a means to spot and report the location of “smokies,” “county
mounties” and “local yokels.”
Today’s circumstances are much more serious and our practical “imagining” is
only to obey the current speed limits, not impose new restrictions or attempt
to outwit those charged with enforcement.

Imagine that we have broken our addiction to using cell
phones while driving.

We appear to have adopted a ritualistic pattern of turning
the key, fastening our seat belts and picking up the phone. It is impossible to
drive without encountering self-absorbed drivers with cell phones pressed to
their ears, slumped over their seats, drifting across lanes and erratically
varying their speed.

An emerging, and even worse, practice involves what is now
known as DWT (driving while texting). The research only lends credence to what
we already know: Lack of concentration leads to accidents. According to The
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly 80 percent of accidents
are caused by driver inattentiveness within three seconds before the crash.

Again, this is a limited “imagining.” It does not deal with
our overall epidemic of cell phone addiction. I have overheard spirited conversations from within rest room stalls,
business discussions conducted while standing at urinals and spousal arguments in
airport lounges. The first time I encountered a person with a hands-free device
engaged in an animated debate, I wondered how long he had been off his
medication.

I leave it to future social scientists to make sense of this
cultural phenomenon of oblivious self-absorption. The concern of this
“imagining” is when self-absorption occurs while driving a potentially lethal
vehicle.

Five states have prohibited handheld phone use while driving
and three have banned texting. North Carolina
currently has a half-baked law that bans cell phone use for anyone under 18
unless they are talking to their parents, spouses or emergency officials. These
exceptions make it virtually unenforceable.

We can do two things: conquer our personal addiction and
stop using our cars as mobile phone booths, and insist that our state
legislature muster up the courage to resist the telecommunications lobby and
ban all cell phone use while driving.

Obeying speed limits and putting down our phones while
driving may not have the utopian appeal of Lennon’s “imaginings,” but they are
two very practical actions that will save money, lives and resources. It is
easy to find barriers to these actions, but the power of imagination is that it
leads to creativity, and the power of creativity is that it allows us to find
ways to overcome barriers.

David Noer (dnoer@elon.edu) is the Frank S. Holt Jr.
Professor of Business Leadership at Elon
University and an honorary senior
fellow at Greensboro’s Center for
Creative Leadership. He writes a monthly column for the News & Record on
leadership, organizational behavior and community issues.