OK people, I've got an idea: how about instead of treating driving like a competition with everybody struggling to get ahead of everybody else and denying them passage, why don't we acknowledge just how dangerous and stressful it really is, and help each other out like we're on the same team? I do it all the time, opening holes for people to enter, changing lanes to get out of someone's way or slowing down when fools cut in way too close to me, instead of riding their ass like I sometimes feel like they deserve. It's actually quite painless and I always get to where I'm going (knock on wood). What do you think, any takers?
I swear it's getting worse. People seem ruder than ever (oh, courtesy, what a quaint old fashioned notion), more self centered and less aware. And it's not just the four wheelers, the “professionals” are just as bad, which equals worse because they should know better.
I remember once back in the nineties when I noticed a similar qualitative change in the way people drove. It was as if they had blinders on, as if their peripheral awareness was blocked. It occurred to me that perhaps it was true, that the scope of their awareness had shrunk from the size of a television screen, seen across the room to the size of a computer monitor, seen up close. Could it be that people are now functioning on a field of awareness the size of a smart phone?
I was working downtown at the time that I'd noticed that shift, at the art store. I was on my way to lunch while I was having those thoughts. It was a rainy day and as I emerged onto Kirkwood from the alley a woman said, “Did you see that? That guy acted like I wasn't even here. He drove through that puddle like a mad man and got me all wet! People just aren't aware of their surroundings anymore!” Having said that she swung around in such a way that I literally had to jump back to avoid getting hit in the face by her umbrella. She stalked off, blissfully unaware.
