Rules of the Road

A report was released earlier this week that ranked the cities with the most road rage and not surprisingly, DC was listed as number 5. It's a dubious honor to be listed among the top cities with incidents of road rage but it shouldn't come as much of a shock to anyone who has been out on the roads in this area. The survey was conducted and the rankings based on the number of cases that were reported. While our ranking here in DC isn't surprising, the apparent lack of change these revelations are bringing about are what's surprising. Knowing that there are far too many incidents of road rage in the region, we aren't doing much as a community to defuse the situation; rather we tend to help make it worse. It seems that as we get more and more technologically advanced, our common sense is going out the door. What do I mean by that? Well, think about it. Cell phones have been around for a while and the fact that you can be distracted while talking on the phone means you have a higher chance of getting into an accident.

The result? There were increased calls for banning cell phone use without a headset or something to allow hands-free talking. Okay, that made sense; but what do we do instead? We use our cell phones to send text messages and then when we run into someone, we use the excuse that we weren't using the phone, we were texting. Now I don't know of many people who can text without looking at the phone except for perhaps Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Departed" but still, even then, your mind is somewhat fixated on punching the right key to get the right letter rather than focusing on the fact that the light is turning yellow and that you can't make it through before it goes red. People shouldn't have to be told that it's a dangerous practice but then again, if it isn't expressly written, anything goes I suppose.

Part of the problem is likely the fact that we as a society are becoming busier and that's both a good and a bad thing. With added chores and duties outside of the house, we're always on the go and when we hit the roads, it doesn't help that we're running into traffic. I used to leave for my first job at 5:00 in the morning so that I could be at my desk by 6:00 or 6:30 so that I could leave for home by 3:00 in the afternoon. If I didn't do that, then I would end up sitting in traffic until late evening. I found that the earlier I left, the more traffic would be there. It seemed that I wasn't the only one with that bright idea and rather than avoiding traffic I ended up sitting in it anyways but at a much earlier time. It used to be frustrating but I found ample solace in music and other forms of entertainment in the car. It didn't make the trip faster but it was less frustrating.

Still, there are some drivers out there whose attitudes towards the rules of the road or lack thereof that seem to promote frustration rather than diffuse it. For example, I understand that not everyone wants to speed or exceed the speed limit so in that case, stay in the right most lane. Yet there are those who feel it incumbant upon us to drive the speed limit in the left most lane and then act as if we are at fault, not them. Do I mean to say that I promote speeding and dangerous driving? No, but everyone has places to go and things to do but when you end up looking like an island in a stream of cars, it's time to switch lanes. The general rule, which I think has been in place for quite some time, is that when you are being passed on both the right and left, move one lane to the right until you are no longer being passed on the right as well as the left.

Speaking of switching lanes, there's another point where you see so many bouts of road rage come springing forth. When you know you want to switch lanes, the rules I was taught were to give my indicator, check your mirrors, check your blind spot, check the mirrors again and make the switch. These days the rule seems to be give the indicator (if you want) and make an immediate switch of lanes. The other day I was driving into work and a woman gave her indicator and pulled into my lane with no warning and then began to flip me off thinking that I was attempting to deny her entry into the lane. I shrugged it off and attempted to continue my drive into work but when you have people driving like selfish folks, it's difficult to maintain composure at times.

It sometimes seems like the people here in the DC metro area act more territorial than some animals. Another example is when merging into traffic onto the highway. There are certain areas around here where people attempting to merge onto the highway and those attempting to get off must occupy the same lane for a brief moment while they make the switch. What generally tends to happen is that the folks who are attempting to get off see people entering their lanes and rather than allowing them entry into the lane (and allowing the traffic flow to keep flowing) they will cut off the person, closing any gap in traffic. This 'me first' attitude that seems to dominate the personalities of so many drivers out there is what is adding to traffic. If people began showing a little more deference and drove with a little less selfishness then perhaps traffic would continue to move and the incidents of road rage would drop at least a little bit. One can hope.