Thursday, April 10, 2008

Road Rage = Selfish

I take the same route to work every morning and the same route home every night.

I turn onto the road and the speed limit is 30 mph. I start out calm, I try hard to maintain this speed, there are many runners, walkers, bicyclists, and KIDS who walk along the sides of the road. The rage starts here. People do not want to go that slow as they are rushing to work in the morning. They are pissed at me for going slow and I am pissed at them for tailgating. BTW-if I am tailgating I like to call it drafting.

As we approach the traffic light you have to choose the appropriate lane because they branch off into different directions. This is another source of frustration. People never choose the lane they need to be in. Instead, they will gun it off the line and cut you off, just to be 4 seconds on front of you. This stretch also contains another frustration. You need to merge. People do not understand merging. Neither partner in this transaction understand merging. The cars needing to merge stop until there is a CLEAR opening (they have approx 1/2mile to merge). Instead of traveling at an appropriate speed and MERGING with traffic, they stop causing a pile up behind them and backing up traffic into the intersection. The oncoming traffic that needs to let the others merge do everything they can NOT to let them over. PLEASE. To let another car in front of you may add 10 seconds to your route.

The next source of contention is just ahead. By this time I am getting a little grumpy and my own road rage is starting to mount. 2 lanes merge into 1. Traffic lines up 10-15 cars deep. I hate it when someone gets into the lane that is ending and wants to be first in line, after all, you have waited through a few lights. I never let them in.

After a particular gentleman honked at me the other morning I contemplated my role in my daily commute that has become my road rage. I am no better than anyone else. I return client calls on my way to work, I eat breakfast, I drink coffee, put on make-up, fill out my bank deposit, write down notes and messages.

This is my own resolution. I will try to be as courteous of a driver as I can be for the next 14 days. After all it takes 14 days for an action to become a habit, right? Can I be this unselfish? The worst that can happen? It may take me 25 minutes to get to work instead of 20. The best? I could influence someone else, my son, to be a courteous and unselfish being.

1 comment:

Carol said...

Good luck with your 14-day challenge! I firmly believe that you can make your life less stressful by not stressing over stuff (like traffic) -- it's all mindset. Now, do I follow my own advice? Rarely! I'm curious to hear how it goes for you.