Don't Perpetuate the Problem

Anyone who knows me knows that I have long been a commuter who drives. From almost the time I got my license to today I have been driving fairly moderate distances to and from work. At the height, I was driving nearly forty miles (one way) and was sitting in traffic more often than not. Anyone who knows that knows that I have a very low opinion of Virginia roadways and what puzzles me is why those of us who live and drive in Virginia seem Hellbent on making the problem worse rather than better. What do I mean? Well this morning I was coming into work when suddenly everyone ahead of me came to nearly a screeching halt. I don't tailgate and most people around me don't either but in this case the braking was so sudden that everyone had to keep an eye on their rearview mirrors to brace for potential impacts.

For the next five minutes we crawled along and I figured something must have happened ahead to warrant a slowdown as sudden as this one. I could only imagine it to be a fairly significant accident or mishap that was leading to this unexpected delay. Imagine my surprise (peppered with some additional puzzlement) when I saw that the reason was that a cop car had pulled someone over. In the opposite lane of traffic. Partially hidden by the dividing barrier. Now I can understand the interest in wanting to stare and gawk at the misfortune of some other driver who decided to speed or otherwise drive madly and was now paying the price, but is it necessary for us to come to a near full stop to do so? There is something peversely voyeuristic in the way most of us have this penchant to stop and stare at everything going on around us like this. It's almost as if we derive pleasure from the misfortune of others.

When I see such things I will lift off from the accelerator and move a lane over so that I give the incident (accident or otherwise) a wide berth so that I don't get caught up in anything. What many people tend to think (and this is in no means limited to Virginia) is that if they don't slow down to twenty miles below the speed limit in the vicinity of the incident, the cop will suddenly decide that his current pull over victim mis not worth the same value as you would be given that you are speeding. If you are driving that recklessly then for sure you're going to be caught one way or another but rare is the time that a cop will abandon one ticketing to chase after another. Plus I wish we'd give cops some more credit for intelligence. Most of them drive above the speed limit themselves when off duty. You don't think they know that we all slow down excessively when we see a cop car on the side in the hope that we think they are dumb enough to believe we've been driving below the speed limit the entire time?

As it is, the roads in Virginia (more so up in Northern Virginia) are ill-equipped to handle the volume of traffic that is on the roads these days. Part of the problem is that the growth in the state has been reflected with similar growth in the infrastructure. There's been so much delay in the current planned extension of the Metro to Dulles that it seems politicians and lawmakers won't be convinced of the need for the Metro until there is unending gridlock in the state. But we don't have to perpetuate the problems even more do we? When we are slowing down to see an accident or whatever, slow down but don't slow to a crawl to see in excruciating detail what all has happened. That's macabre and you're likely to be involved in one too if you don't pay attention. Let people merge ahead of you. They aren't challenging your roadworthiness or being an ass. They are simply trying to get where they need to go. And don't promote road rage. Most people are a bundle of nerves as it is, there's no need to light the fuse.