Driving in Baltimore will make the nicest person a misanthrope. I am convinced of that. One week into work at my new office, and I was seriously having fantasies of doing violent things to some of the other drivers on the road. I've since stopped using the highways to the greatest extent possible to go to and from work, and I am much happier.
I had been spoiled, doing short commutes when I lived in Ellicott City and now living in the boonies where people, like, let you merge into traffic and don't tailgate if you're going a mere five mph over the speed limit. I'd forgotten how it was to drive on the Beltway with all the corporate tools with their constant "I'm in a hurry!" attitude and its attendant entitlement complex.
Rubbernecking is the worst. Everyone complains about it, yet most everyone does it! When I still worked in Jessup, I was driving to work past the Patuxent Institution, and there was a helicopter landed in the field, probably as part of a training exercise (since they do a lot of police training in Jessup, not surprisingly). But the woman in front of me hit the brakes, and I watched her turn her head and lower her sunglasses for a better look before stepping on the gas again.
Or when traffic backs up because someone has a flat tire beside the road, or because MSP has a speeder pulled over and is writing a ticket.
I'd seen an article once (and I don't remember where to give a linky :( ) about local governments investing in screens to put up in front of accident scenes because the rubbernecking--and ensuing traffic--had gotten so bad. I wish they would do that here. Seriously. I wonder how much emissions would be cut back if governments took a few simple steps to cut back on traffic (much of which, around here, seems to be caused by rubbernecking) rather than pointing fingers at the Evol Citizens who aren't forking over booku bucks for hybrid cars and don't seem to have cut down on driving that much. (Uhhh ... maybe because we're driving to work? So why not legislate making it mandatory that government and private sector companies log a certain percentage of hours via telecommuting? Oh yeah. Because that might solve the problem and piss off the oil companies that are financing their campaigns!)
Anyway.
On those asshats that go to the end of the lane: yes, these were primarily the people I was having bad fantasies of pummeling into a gory pulp. (Yes, I am a pacifist. :^/) 83S backs up every morning in part because of these annoying opportunists who save themselves five minutes and doom the rest of us to sit for a half-hour by flying to the end of a lane that they know is going to end.
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rosecarmine
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-09 04:39 pm (UTC)I had been spoiled, doing short commutes when I lived in Ellicott City and now living in the boonies where people, like, let you merge into traffic and don't tailgate if you're going a mere five mph over the speed limit. I'd forgotten how it was to drive on the Beltway with all the corporate tools with their constant "I'm in a hurry!" attitude and its attendant entitlement complex.
Rubbernecking is the worst. Everyone complains about it, yet most everyone does it! When I still worked in Jessup, I was driving to work past the Patuxent Institution, and there was a helicopter landed in the field, probably as part of a training exercise (since they do a lot of police training in Jessup, not surprisingly). But the woman in front of me hit the brakes, and I watched her turn her head and lower her sunglasses for a better look before stepping on the gas again.
Or when traffic backs up because someone has a flat tire beside the road, or because MSP has a speeder pulled over and is writing a ticket.
I'd seen an article once (and I don't remember where to give a linky :( ) about local governments investing in screens to put up in front of accident scenes because the rubbernecking--and ensuing traffic--had gotten so bad. I wish they would do that here. Seriously. I wonder how much emissions would be cut back if governments took a few simple steps to cut back on traffic (much of which, around here, seems to be caused by rubbernecking) rather than pointing fingers at the Evol Citizens who aren't forking over booku bucks for hybrid cars and don't seem to have cut down on driving that much. (Uhhh ... maybe because we're driving to work? So why not legislate making it mandatory that government and private sector companies log a certain percentage of hours via telecommuting? Oh yeah. Because that might solve the problem and piss off the oil companies that are financing their campaigns!)
Anyway.
On those asshats that go to the end of the lane: yes, these were primarily the people I was having bad fantasies of pummeling into a gory pulp. (Yes, I am a pacifist. :^/) 83S backs up every morning in part because of these annoying opportunists who save themselves five minutes and doom the rest of us to sit for a half-hour by flying to the end of a lane that they know is going to end.