My Theories on Road Rage
Why is road
rage so prevalent on our roads? Here are my ramblings:
No Brains
First of all,
there are people who make a habit of obeying traffic laws while driving. Then,
there are the people who possess sloppy driving habits, either because they
don't know roadway etiquette or they don't give a rat's ass about it. Over
time, the good drivers get razed by bad drivers sloppy habits; examples
include: speeding, tailgating, failing to signal, not coming to a complete stop
to determine who gets to go first at a 4-way stop, and even stuff like changing
lanes in an intersection, or not letting someone into a lane of traffic when
their turn signals indicate that they are desperately trying to do so.
These aren't
deadly crimes unto themselves and won't lead to a collision every time, but the
good drivers eventually snap because while they go out of their way to
drive safely and be courteous to others, there are the others who can't be
bothered to return the favor. I'd say that I fall under the courteous driver
category, even though I've never gone to the point of sideswiping, beating up,
or shooting anybody.
Give, Don't Take
There are the
people who take, without waiting for others to give first.
Most people
would agree that if you've been invited to someone's house for a dinner party,
you shouldn't help yourself to their personal possessions without your their
knowledge and take them home with you (a.k.a. stealing!). Obviously, if you
want something from someone, you either ask for it or wait for it to be offered
to you. Then you thank the other person for getting what you got.
However, some
people think that as soon as you step into a car, civility is left at the
dinner party. They think that it's alright to budge into traffic (the
equivalent of stealing) without using turn signals (the equivalent of asking)
or waiting for someone to wave you in (the equivalent of the offer), and some
people are offended when you don't wave a thank-you hand gesture for getting
what you wanted (just as you would say "thanks" at the dinner party).
Next, one
person flips "the bird", and before you even know it, bullets start
flying as well!
No Patience
Part of the
reason why people drive aggressively (i.e. speeding, tailgating) is that they
can't properly estimate the amount of time to get from Point A to Point B.
Let's say that you want to drive from one city to another city that is 100 km
(60 miles) away for a wedding at 2:00. And how long will the trip take if you
drive at 100 km/h (60 mph)? An hour, of course. So what time should you leave?
Most people would say 1:00.
Wrong! What
many people don't take into consideration is the amount of time it takes to put
on your shoes and jacket, find the car keys, get the gifts in the car, pull out
of the driveway, navigate the city streets, remember that you gave to buy gas,
and even stop at red lights—all before you get on the highway! And you have to
go through all this again when you get to your destination city. With about ten
minutes of "overhead" in each city, that's a whole twenty
minutes added to your trip that's supposed to take only an hour.
And what does
the person who's chronologically challenged do? They speed. They tailgate. They
accuse the person ahead of them of blocking the fast lane. The
speeder/tailgater says that the person in front is a bad and uncourteous driver
even though they don't realize that tailgating 5 meters (15 feet) behind
another car at highway speeds isn't exactly good driving, either. They blame everyone
but themselves. Oh, how convenient.
And when the
guy in front taps his brakes to give the tailgater a hint, the tailgater thinks
"how dare he do that to me!", and turns into a flaming ball of rage!
Let's leave our imaginations to what happens next.
Driving, Flying, and Dying
Many people
treat driving as a competitive sport, not a co-operative venture. They wait for
every opportunity to get ahead of others because they believe that they're more
important than everyone. It would be insane if commercial air pilots carrying
hundreds of people would take on this same attitude in the skies—so they obviously
don't. But how about when there's a major plane crash every few months and a
couple hundred people are killed each time? Well, the public demands that air
flight becomes safer.
However, the
same people who demand safer air travel are the ones who pilot their vehicles
aggressively in traffic and lead to the statistics of over 100 people who are
killed every day in U.S. car crashes (versus a few hundred every few months
around the world in a plane). Some people are even so hypocritical as to
complain when they found out that some of their late model GM cars have black
box-type recorders to help investigators determine what was going on with the
car before it was involved in a so-called "accident". Okay, let me
get this straight: so black boxes are okay in commercial aircraft, but when
it's put in a car for the same reasons, giant corporations are viewed at being
pure evil. Why do people think that it's their right to involve their car in a
crash and be able to lie about what happened so they don't get in trouble?
Gimme a break. Maybe the right to lie should be yet another amendment to the
U.S. Constitution.
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