I was lounging around in a cozy armchair the other day at a local bookseller, browsing through a copy of Tom Vanderbilt's "Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)," which is ostensibly an examination of driving personalities, and the implications of our good, bad, and ugly driving habits. I only read through the first chapter, before deciding to instead take home a copy of "Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity" (written by Michael Lewis, who is probably best known for either "Moneyball" or "The Blind Side," which was recently screen-adapted for the film of the same name), and while it didn't quite impress me enough that day to purchase it I did come away from my short time with the book thinking quite determinedly about what it is that most irks me about traffic -- and what my faults as a driver must say about me.
The book is good. The writing is sharp and the content is highly entertaining. Vanderbilt certainly knows the subject matter well, and has a keen understanding of the human psyche under duress. More importantly, his discussions, whatever the topic, seem to be well balanced, presumably because he knows that while most driving codes are pretty clear-cut there are gray areas of the law (areas that many people disagree over on a daily basis -- often at high speeds). Personally, just thinking about traffic -- which most of us can easily empathize with -- makes my blood boil. People on the road tend to be either careless or reckless, self-important drivers who feel it's their duty to police others, or just plain catatonic (those who act -- and appear to be -- comatose behind the wheel). And none of these personality types bodes well, in my opinion, for any of us.
Vanderbilt agrees, though he gives each of these different drivers the benefit of the doubt. The prologue opens the book with a comic yet enlightening explanation of the art of merging traffic, specifically the difference between those of us who merge rightward in a safe and timely fashion and those who refuse to do so -- barreling down the highway in the far left lane until the last possible minute (muscling their way into the line of cars beside them as the pavement they are on disappears into the shoulder). For the record, I tend to fall into the former category. I am generally a rather conservative (read: careful) driver, which is to say that I usually opt for the safer spot in traffic, as opposed to the one which may or may not get me somewhere quicker, but mostly when the arterial I'm traversing is at or near a congested state.
When the road is clear, however, I can be found cruising around, at speeds upward of nine-over the speed limit (which is commonly known as the "safe zone," in which cops usually leave you alone), passing those drivers who insist on maintaining the precise speed limit (wherever they may be on the road). But when it comes to intersections, I am a fervent abider of the law. Many of my traffic pet peeves have to do with infractions of intersection codes. For example, nothing infuriates me more than people who slam on the gas 15 feet from an amber light and gun it through the intersection. I don't know for absolute certainty, but am relatively sure that (collisions involving drunk drivers notwithstanding) a good majority of traffic accidents result when one or both parties involved (assuming there are only two) have run an amber (yellow, in lay terms) or red light.
The law is clear on the matter: "If the signal exhibits a steady yellow indication, vehicular traffic facing the signal shall stop before entering the crosswalk at the intersection or at a limit line when marked, but if the stop cannot be made in safety, a vehicle may be driven with caution through the intersection" (per Michigan state Legislature). Now, there are two operative words in this law, and, yes, I have highlighted them for you. They both, by definition, have to do with roughly the same concept -- which basically asks that we all move about in our daily travels carefully, taking into full consideration those around us. When a driver wantonly disregards those measures that have been designed to protect us from one another he or she is basically living on borrowed time (hence, forcing everyone else to do so too). And we all know the downside of borrowing: At some point, usually when we are least prepared, we are going to have to somehow repay those debts.
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