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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Road Discourtesy: A Midweek Rumination
If you commute on Long Island -- you don't? Lucky you -- you're almost certainly aware of the phenomenon the esteemed Charles Hill has styled the "Anti-Destination League." Its members are of every race, creed, and age. Some are more easily identified than others:
- Old men in hats;
- Tiny women in gigantic SUVs;
- Cars with stuffed animals piled against the back windshield;
- Young-adult cell-phone addicts;
- Anyone in a Buick.
They drive in such a fashion as to impede and complicate traffic flow. In this cranky old Long Island software engineer's opinion, they're responsible for the great majority of the accidents on Long Island's roads -- to say nothing of the abrasions to the stomach lining suffered by the rest of us who must share the roads with them.
There are the ones who drive at 35 mph in the left lane of a superhighway. Why? Because it's their God-given right as retirees, or Cadillac owners, or Democrats. Because the left lane is where all the better folk are to be found. Wouldn't want to mix with the groundlings to the right; that's for scum from inferior families and blighted neighborhoods. The left lane it must be, and never mind how many cars are squaring out from behind them or whizzing past on the right.
There are the ones whose velocity vector is 90 degrees from their sight vector. Why? They're scanning the side of the road. Perhaps there's a sale in one of those stores. Or an all-you-can-eat buffet in one of those restaurants. Or an accident that simply must be gawked at. Or an attractive blonde struggling to change a tire. You can't let such opportunities slide by; someone else might spot them before you do!
There are the "brother acts:" cars stopped next to one another in adjacent lanes on a two-lane highway. Their occupants are having an animated inter-lane conversation about...what? Directions to somewhere? Road courtesy? Who might be available for a date this coming weekend? The rest of us never find out; we just get to sit behind them, watching the green light turn to yellow, and then to red, as time like an ever-rolling stream bears all our sins away.
There are the "high proper motion" types. These are among the very worst: in 100 feet of forward travel at highway speeds, they simply must move three or four lanes to the left or the right. My exit! My exit! A ten-car pileup for my exit! Signal a lane change? That would cost precious time, and besides, the Vito Corleone Principle applies: Never tell anyone outside the car what you're thinking. It could be used against you.
There are others.
What unites these...persons is the unwillingness to consider the safety and convenience of others. Indeed, it's beyond merely possible that some of them enjoy inflicting risk and inconvenience on other drivers. I've seen enough smirks, sneers, and "Hawaiian good luck signs" to be convinced of that.
The aggregate effect of such discourtesy is to leave all of us shorter-tempered and less disposed toward good will than we would otherwise be. By how much might be unclear, but nothing else.
Then there are the accidents. My 2007 rear-ending on the Long Island Expressway was the fault of a driver who'd stopped paying attention to the road, as he admitted at the time. In favor of what, he never said. But he hit me hard enough to total his nearly-new full-size Chevy pickup, cue-ball me into the two cars in front of me, and occupy Suffolk County police for an hour and a half straightening out the mess. No one was seriously injured, but the total damages were considerable. No doubt other inattentive drivers have precipitated far more serious events, including fatalities.
It's a longstanding bit of wisdom that every driver considers his driving skills above average. Given the conditions on our roads, I'd say we're all dead wrong. We'd save a few lives, and more than a few dollars, by summoning up enough humility to admit it.
You cannot treat those near to you, on the roads or anywhere else, with the courtesy due a neighbor if you reflexively dismiss their safety and convenience as irrelevant to you. Worse, discourteous road behavior begets more of the same, in reciprocity. Given the nature of Man, you can't reasonably expect anything else.
Those around you on the highways are your neighbors, at least for the time you and they spend there. As you twist the wheel and press the pedals, each of you has the others' lives in his hands.
It doesn't take many un-neighborly drivers to turn the roads into an abattoir.
Draw the moral.
Comments
I really deserve no credit for the ADL coinage: I’d seen it in Car and Driver many years before, and like the best of us scribbly types, I adopted it for my own nefarious purposes.
Posted by CGHill on 10/28/2009 at 12:38 PMI’ve been thinking about this topic a lot lately, but more in regards to in-town traffic than on the highway. Three incidences in two weeks brought me to an epiphany of sorts…
1) At a stoplight, or rather, a full block back from the light, I stopped short so as not to block the cross street. Not one, but two drivers pulled around me and into the space in front of me.
2) At a left turn that is used heavily (so traffic tends to back up), I watched one day while no fewer than 7 cars and a bus roared up the right lane and then pushed their way into the turn lane.
3) Later that same day, I watched a driver in a different (much less used) turn lane zoom past a long line of cars and then push her way back into the driving lane at the light.About the time my blood pressure hit ludicrous/unbelievable, I realized something… for every one of those selfish, narcissistic jerks, there was someone who had the courtesy to step aside and let them do it. Oh, not that all of them had much of a choice, but some did.
That’s when I realized that I can’t despise the entire human race. Not yet, anyway. Courtesy isn’t common anymore, but it isn’t extinct yet… there’s still a chance.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/28/2009 at 01:45 PMDriving 2 hours each day in northern Virginia, I thought I’d seen it all over the last 15 years—I was wrong. Just 3 days ago, rounding a narrow 2-lane blind curve on my motorcycle (not very fast, fortunately), I was shocked to see a car stopped in my lane. I had to resort to astonishment when I realized that it wasn’t just stopped—it was BACKING UP! He apparently missed the side road he wanted to turn on and thought nothing of stopping and backing up in the same lane. After nearly losing control of the bike (I thought I was going down for sure), I managed to squeeze by between the car and the ditch before slowing enough to slide (upright, fortunately) sideways into the ditch. After coming to a stop, I looked back to see the SOB continue backing up to make his turn and continue on his merry way—never stopping to see if I was alright or to offer to help get my bike out of the ditch. Needless to say, I was not at all pleased (it’s probably a good thing he didn’t stop). I guess it’s fortunate that I wasn’t in my truck—there would have been no avoiding a collision.
I’ve had many similar encounters, as I’m sure we all have. At this point, don’t know if it’s only a lack of courtesy, narcissism, or too much NASCAR. It seems like far too many people have no concept of risk/reward. How many times have we seen folks take huge risks with their own safety (as well as that of others) only to gain a few seconds or a car length or two? Or to shave a minute or two off a 1 hour commute? Even ignoring risk to others, these idiots can’t grasp the fact that there is a high probability of small gains, but a small (but finite) probability of HUGE losses. Whatever the reason, it’s getting worse.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/28/2009 at 03:31 PMI’d relent and accept all of the worst drivers if we could just end cell-phone usage, texting, and gps devices.
Now,Volvo drivers are a special case. Very special. . .
Posted by Joan of Argghh! on 10/28/2009 at 05:36 PMAfter 51 years behind the wheel I’ve seen just about everything. From the excitement and promise of Ike’s vision of the Interstate system to the practical collapse we see today.
Many mistakes were made along the way. In the area of road manners, I hold the failed “good idea” of the national 55 MPH speed limit responsible. Un-enforceable from the get-go, it informed most drivers that no rules need be followed too closely.
As it is today, the ignorant and fearful clocked down to 55 the same way they arrogantly hog the fast lane. The sensible and innovative took counter measures. The radar detector was born, and speed limits became a thing of the past. It got so bad the cops gave up, but the essence of lawlessness on the highways continues.
In reality, traffic, by itself, sets the proper speed. Generally in the Northeast, 65-70 in the slow lane; 70-85 in the fast lane.
Abolish speed limits and stop confusing the simple minded.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/28/2009 at 11:37 PMThree notes:
1) You do not have a constitutional right to go faster than everybody else.
2) Passing on the right is still illegal; despite the near-universal presence of right-side mirrors, cars still have blind spots. The only reason I don’t run you into the Jersey barrier when you try is I don’t want to chip a nail. Doesn’t stop you from being stupid.
3) The solid white line means, “Don’t change lanes! (Idiot!)
4 OK, so I lied) Most state laws permitting right turn on red were written and passed at the same time and they all say the same thing, so I’m pretty sure that right turn on red doesn’t mean IF YOU CAN BEAT ME INTO THE INTERSECTION. The law says, “IF THERE IS NO ONCOMING TRAFFIC.” If you can see me coming at you, I’m oncoming traffic. Feckwit.
M
Posted by Mark Alger on 10/29/2009 at 12:16 AMI feel your pain Mark the biker, that sort of thing makes you wish you had a rocket launcher on hand doesn’t it. What an SOB.
Yeah, there sure are some real morons out there. I used to get real pissed off at the idiots, tail-gaters in particular really piss me off. But these days i found what works for me, just get out of the idiots way and let em’ go, if they want to wrap themselves around a pole or rear-end someone, then go ahead, just leave me the heck out of it.
Posted by MK on 10/29/2009 at 07:04 AMDear Mark Alger:
Thank you for fleshing out the descriptive mindset that allows left-lane bandits to ignore the “Keep Right-Pass Left Only” law. If you’re passed on the right by a doctor on the way to save your child’s life, or anyone else, you are obstructing traffic, an unlawful act with penalties.
The mindset that runs people into jersey barriers must be too narrow to understand that it cannot see into the minds, motives or missions of other drivers. One of which may be a .45 slug in your eyeball. Judgemental attitudes can put you in front of a Judge.
How about the real-time reason you folks get pissed when passed on the right: EGO…“How dare that snot pass me…on the right, no less…I’m doing the limit…is he having more fun than me?...is that car nicer than mine?...who does he think he is???...arm the rocket launcher, Mother, I’m gonna put one right up his tail pipe!”
I’m sure I passed you somewhere Mr. Alger. I’m the guy with the beaver Stetson Skyline driving that black hot-rod Dodge pickup with the tweaked out Hemi, deep tinted windows and roaring dual exhust.
Horsepower…it’s so American.
Yours truly,
RotgutSaloon.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/29/2009 at 11:19 AMAssuming the statutory speed limit of 70 MPH; the tendency of the local constabulary to ignore violations up to 5 MPH over; A stream of traffic in the right-hand lane averaging 68-72 MPH; and a certain sense of scofflawry and haste on my part that may rise to the level of a ticket without tipping over into the “reckelss” category; exactly how fast must I be going before I must make way for a non-emergency vehicle intent upon hitching ride in my trunk?
Someone in the comments section on the linked blog said 20-over is acceptable. That’s 90-freakin’-MPH! Are you serious??!!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/29/2009 at 11:34 AM(Continuing my own post)
By which I mean to ask: we all know what the civil law is; I seek an opnion from those who are a law unto themselves, whose self-directed laws must for some reason apply to me in the place of the civil law or any self-directed laws I may have conjured out of the air.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/29/2009 at 12:08 PMAs a daily motorcyle rider, I’d give +1000 to your post, Fran, as it seems every day I have an “incident” with inattentive, discourteous, self-absorbed ninnies who all appear to have the attitude, “I’m in a car, so I win, you little motorcyle-riding, vulnerable little thing, you”...indeed, it’s is more than the better part of valor to let them win rather than have a ride to the hospital (or worse). Hang up and drive, you fools! I wish I had an 18-wheeler’s air horns sometimes, just to get their attention…
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/29/2009 at 08:30 PMHave a look here for some worse examples:
<a href=“http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/6440323/12-worst-parking-error-videos-on-YouTube.html#at”>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/6440323/12-worst-parking-error-videos-on-YouTube.html#at<a>
Posted by John Hudock on 10/30/2009 at 07:47 AMAmazing, John. Truly, horrifyingly amazing.
Posted by Francis W. Porretto on 10/30/2009 at 08:04 AM
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