Musings: Highway hogs drive me crazy
Many drivers don’t try to communicate their intentions and if they do something inappropriate, they hope no one looks at them, a reader writes. Credit: Danielle Finkelstein
We would not tolerate people suddenly walking in front of us in public. It’s rude.
But when a driver gets into a car with closed windows, isolated, things change. Many drivers don’t try to communicate their intentions. If they do something inappropriate, they hope no one looks at them. They act like kids in a lunch line in middle school, trying to push into a lane at the last minute. Forget courtesy.
Having driven in many states and foreign countries, I saw that the way people drive reflects the local society’s standards. Out West, they don’t cut in at the last minute at a construction merge or, in Europe, drive in the wrong lane. In Germany, I witnessed a traffic jam caused by a crash. Every single driver moved their car to the shoulder so emergency vehicles could easily get through. It looked like the parting of the seas.
Has our modern society gone from community cooperation and care to competition and conflict, and does it show as we interact on the road?
— Ken Archer, Shoreham
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