I'm no fan of NASCAR but feel I've been forced to participate in it by driving the Garden State Parkway lately. If you drive the far-left express lane, be prepared to floor it to 90 mph or expect the car behind you to virtually rubber neck you until you move over. And that's not the only dangerous driving you'll find on what used to be the more pleasant road traversing the entire state.

For decades, I have driven the Parkway at least once a week back and forth from Hudson to Monmouth counties. I chose the Parkway because it is more bucolic, has no trucks on most of it and I thought was safer. No more. My some-40-mile trek after entering from Route 22 in Union, where the speed limit is supposed to be 55 mph, becomes 65 mph once passing the Woodbridge tolls. But hardly any one drives within those speed limits. The average speed limit has to be in the mid-70s.

With such speed, any accident can be more dangerous and life threatening so you would think there would be more State Police along the roadway. No. Fewer. One recent rainy Saturday when the mid-afternoon traffic was heavy, I spotted one police car along my route home along both the north and south directions. And I often wonder with almost everyone driving far above the speed limit, how does a police officer justify ticketing any one! Is that true justice? But where are the police? Is there a shortage? Or have they just given up ticketing speeders?

It's a fact of physics that the faster you drive, the more distance you need between cars in case of a sudden stop. But most drivers routinely rubber neck in any lane to get you to speed or move over. I'd happily oblige but it's not always safe to switch lanes. And when drivers think the road belong to them, they speed in and out of lanes cutting off cars without putting on a directional signal either way. Drivers use shoulders to get ahead of traffic. But the worst Parkway engineered death trap is trying to exit north at the 140 marker. The one lane exit is often backed up for several hundred yards because speeders on the left -- in what is a through lane -- try to cut the line and push ahead of idling cars literally stopped. Fear of getting hit from behind or a chain reaction crash on the left is real and could be deadly.

Evidently, I am not the only one who has noticed how dangerous the GSP has become lately. Jim Syms of Barnegat has started a change.org petition.

"During each daily commute, I would see several vehicles doing various maneuvers such as speeding at 85+ mph while weaving in and out of lanes, riding the right-hand shoulder to get ahead of traffic, lane sweeping, tailgating and then cutting people off to get in front of them," said Syms in a recent media interview.

In addition to a crackdown on speeding and aggressive drivers, the petition seeks better driver education, safety messaging and using drones to catch and ticket dangerous drivers. New Jersey had 452 traffic fatalities as of September, a 15% increase over the same time period in 2023 -- worse than the rest of the country.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which now runs the Parkway, reported that State Police from Troop D issued 66,496 summons for the first seven months of 2024, down from 88,813 for the same period in 2023.

Clearly, change is needed more than on a petition. As of this week, the petition amassed more than 1,600 signatures not large enough considering the Wild West driving along the Parkway. But a petition shouldn't be driving these needed changes. The State Legislature needs to hold hearings and come up with a plan for safer driving along the Parkway. I mean, the Speedway.

NASCAR is for entertainment. Safe Parkway driving can save lives. This is one time when speeding is needed by the state -- to make the Parkway safe again and true to its original creation.