What’s to be done? Many things could and someday no doubt will be done. But for now, here are just a few suggestions: First, cars should be forced to go certain speeds on certain roads. When entering a stretch of road, cars should pass through some electronic force field that switches you to a preprogrammed speed. People who cut in front of you going ninety without having signaled could be photographically “tagged” and fined. As for those who ride your tail and give you the finger when they finally pass you — the computer built into your car will snap a photo of him in the act, then send it off to their designated insurance agencies. One step for each offense.
This is where my husband would step in and object that I would make an excellent fascist, and maybe he’s right. But I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the American Dream, in achievement at any price, in ownership that impinges on solitude or reverie, in personal success unmitigated by at least a passing nod to morality and community.
Were Thomas Jefferson or John Adams to step into an American city today, I’m certain that they would believe they created not a free democracy but a Sodom and Gomorrah. They would pray to God for another flood.
Which brings me to the penultimate worst problem with automobiles: how successfully they create an illusion of anonymity. One never knows anything about the person inside the automobile. Not his sex, his age, his history, his capacity for kindness, or goodness — unless, of course, one is stupid enough to get out of the car. But by then, one has morphed into The Incredible Hulk, anyway.
Once, in a blinding snowstorm, I backed up right into a new BMW sports car. The man stepped out, ready to confront me when, to our mutual horror, we discovered that he was the father of my son’s best friend. I watched as he tried to shove the green monster back into the body of the mild-mannered suburbanite. And I’ll always wonder what he would have said to me, had I not been me.
That’s my point: in the face of anonymity, we spit our venom onto that shiny dashboard, give it the finger, shout obscenities at it. But who is “it”? A ninety-year-old man who has just lost his spouse of fifty years? A woman struggling to survive her cancer treatments? A single mom who lost her husband in the Twin Towers?
Article comments
1 - Scott
Drivers really need to stay out of the left lane unless they are passing other vehicles. Often somebody is on their way to an emergency, this is why you need to keep the left lane for passing only. A single parent working 35 mi from home who is running late due to "idiot" accidents, is someone who needs the left lane more than yourself, to pick up their child from daycare and avoid being looked at like he was out late at a bar and charged late fees. Or the woman who is rushing to the hospital because she received a call 5 mins earlier that their child is in the emergency room.
But in support of your essay, we need a system in this country where good drivers are rewarded and bad drivers are punished. We do not have this. The entire system is "fixed": insurance companies are regulated. We need the control to be given back to the people. We need an ebay-like system where you can call a 1800# to report someone to a centralized database. When a high # of complains racks up against the person, don't take their license away... take the car away. We need color-coded bumpers. Green colors should be allowed use of the left lane on our highways. Other colors should be prohibited (from other driving acts as well) since they would have violations racked up. Changing colors illegaly should result in loss of vehicle regardless of who the owner is. This country has a serious problem with road rage because we allow it.
Often I believe the government wants us all to be in accidents and get injured - it helps the economy. Supposedly.
2 - Jodi
I agree about the left lane. But you know what I mean about people riding your tail and being dangerously impatient. I like the bumper sticker idea!
3 - bliffle
Take your ego out of your driving. You can't afford to die over pride. Drive defensively, not slowly. Move out of the left lane when cars are close behind you. When driving on a two-lane road and 3-4 cars are behind you, pull over and let them pass. Some states have a law to that effect. It is NOT your job to punish other drivers. Give all your attention to job 1: driving safely. Pull over to handle a cellphone, and tell your caller: maybe the delay will cause him to call you at a more opportune time.
4 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
There is a reason that I don't drive in Israel. Drivers here are almost as aggressive as drivers in New York, and being the native New Yorker that I am, I would probably drive like someone interested in running everybody off the road. While I lived in Minnesota, I drove like a teddy bear (most of the time) but here, teddy bears get run off the road. So it's either drive like a killer New Yorker, or not at all.
My decision not to get a driver's license here is prssibly one reason you are reading this comment at all, if you get my drift...
A person needs to know his limits, and not knowing them can be fatal.
5 - Paotie
Good article.
You must not have lived in New Mexico. Road rage there happens if you look the wrong way. Road rage is a serious problem in New Mexico.
In Arizona, road rage is mostly confined to fist-pumping people who do nothing more than honk lots. Phoenix has a major problem with people running red lights.
But, both don't compare to Juarez, Mexico. There are no such thing as lanes; it's first-come-first-serve at every intersection - sometimes you can get through without a problem, and at other times, you'd better hope la policia doesn't catch you and require you to shell out $400 for some fictional driving transgression.
But, yah - we seem to be obsessed with cars as an American society. Thanks for a good article.
:o)
Paotie
6 - Gottesacker
The only thing I will support in your article is the idea that the left lane should be used primarily for passing. In effect, the road rage you experience against yourself is not really the fault of the people, but yourself. From this article it is clear you are a poor driver, and therefore people are going to get a little angry when someone is driving like an idiot.
As stated above, drive defensively, keep your mind on what you are doing, and where people are around you. Ignore the rest of what is happening if it does not pertain to your well-being.
Also, well if you think automobiles, cell phones, computers, and the like are so bad... become Amish?
Anger is going to happen irregardless of the source. It doesn't matter whether people own the vehicle or not, anger will result in situations like your driving. Take a look at many of the communist nations (essentially that's what you're trying to do) they never survive! They are faulty.
Also the idea of electric forcefields setting you to a certain speed is... rediculous. Shoot, we might as well make ourselves individual pods that drive for us. It's about as far fetched.
7 - Turd Ferguson
I really hope you wrote that simply to get a rise out of people.
Predetermining that drivers are being rude because they happen to be driving aggressively is dangerous. The left lane is for passing, so that's why they're tailgating you. I guarantee you that the people that have flipped you off a bunch of times who you think have nowhere to go are in fact, trying to get somewhere! Volunteers, coaches, a young parent working two jobs, a parent driving a sick or injured child to the hospital, an independent business owner who messed up and has to meet face to face with a client who he is in danger of losing. The last thing these people are feeling is a sense of entitlement. Yes, these people are on the road with you all the time. The best thing for you to do is to not be so self important, put your arrogance aside, and show some courtesy yourself. You'll see a lot less obscene gestures aimed at you.
8 - Joey
I’m guessing by your story that you are in fact the problem. I have never almost hit anyone, backed into another car, nor sat in the PASSING lane while not passing.
If your 90 and just lost your wife MAYBE you shouldn't be driving. If you are nauseous from chemo, then maybe you shouldn't be driving.
If you do not have the ability or brainpower to drive according to the laws of the road, then maybe you shouldn't be driving
9 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Not every problem on the road is road rage. Read this article at Desicritics and find some of the other problems...
10 - Jodi
Author’s comment: Dear Road (or should I say, “Internet”) Rage guys:
I'd like to remind commentors that personal attacks are strictly against this website’s policy. So while I had wanted to keep the comments option open on my column, I will have to close it down if the angry people out there can’t find a way to restrict their remarks to the ideas presented on the page.
It's depressing, if not surprising, that the same phenomenon I describe in my article about demonizing strangers is happening right here. Personal attacks on me manage to both miss my point and prove it at the same time. I may well be stupid, insane, arrogant, and a bad driver, but no one reading my essay can possibly judge these things with any certainty. Some people seem to have missed the humorous, ironic tone of the piece, which has me exaggerating and poking fun at myself. In fact I don't, in general, hang out in the passing lane or drive too slowly.
But what if I did? What's the plan? Ram right through such people? Give 'em the finger? Shout, or maybe get out of your car with a harpoon? That's precisely the rage and the failure of empathy I am talking about.
On an intellectual level, any defense of aggressive driving is weak as well. It's not okay to drive agressively under ANY circumstances. And that's not just me talking. That's the law in many states now, and such laws are taking hold in many other states as we speak. In some states, an aggressive driver could wind up in jail if caught. Which is probably where dangerously enraged people belong.