I lived kinda far outside of the city that I worked. I drove a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP, with the 2800 supercharged engine. My commute home often had traffic, and I was tryna get home asap. I found myself behind a car in the left lane, going the speed limit, and I was like manically desperate to get around her.
Finally I have the opportunity to pass, and I roar past her, glancing over to see an older woman in a headscarf, I assume Muslim, with a flip phone wedged between her headscarf and her ear, having a lively conversation with someone. I increase my speed until she is just a dot in the background.
I come to my exit, at the bottom of which is a stoplight, and I wait: white knuckled, sweating bullets, heaving and seething behind the wheel. A car pulls up next to me at the light and look who it is: the same woman, phone to her ear, talking to whoever, oblivious to my existence.
I considered her, then considered myself, and realized I was a fucking maniac likely doing harm to myself and god knows who else, and I didn’t get anywhere any faster than someone going the speed limit.
Then and there I decided to chill the fuck out about driving.
I’m a chill guy, but put me in a car and I just want to get from A. to B. as fast as possible, and interfering with that will make me angry. I have thought a lot about this and have come to realize I just hate driving. I hate everything about it. I want to limit my time in a car to a minimum, and it can make me act in ways contradictory to my personality. I fully believe this is the same issue suffered by most people who have a road rage problem, even people who love their car or value their independence. Millions of otherwise chill people get out on the road and turn into lunatics because driving a car is an unnatural wholey overstimulating process.
I agree that driving is unnatural and overstimulating, and that’s definitely part of it. I think another part of it is that it’s really easy to see other drivers on the road as “other cars” more than “other people”. Driving is dehumanizing, in the sense that it makes it harder for people to see other drivers as fellow humans rather than adversarial machines, and people act accordingly.
Oh for sure. Car culture is a blight on the human spirit, its so ironic that being able to drive is associated with freedom, since it is a yoke around our necks.
The psychological effects are so toxically individualist, I’m driving down the road and someone is going below the speed limit, and I get frustrated, pass them, and see its some elderly person. My very first thought is “God who let’s them drive” but then I realize they have literally no choice but to drive, or be driven. What if they have a Dr appt to go to? If they have double seeing or hearing, well we will just ignore that.
I take the vision test to drive without my glasses and I straight up can not fucking see. But I pass the test no problem. Scary stuff
Oh this is one of my favorite stories
I lived kinda far outside of the city that I worked. I drove a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP, with the 2800 supercharged engine. My commute home often had traffic, and I was tryna get home asap. I found myself behind a car in the left lane, going the speed limit, and I was like manically desperate to get around her.
Finally I have the opportunity to pass, and I roar past her, glancing over to see an older woman in a headscarf, I assume Muslim, with a flip phone wedged between her headscarf and her ear, having a lively conversation with someone. I increase my speed until she is just a dot in the background.
I come to my exit, at the bottom of which is a stoplight, and I wait: white knuckled, sweating bullets, heaving and seething behind the wheel. A car pulls up next to me at the light and look who it is: the same woman, phone to her ear, talking to whoever, oblivious to my existence.
I considered her, then considered myself, and realized I was a fucking maniac likely doing harm to myself and god knows who else, and I didn’t get anywhere any faster than someone going the speed limit.
Then and there I decided to chill the fuck out about driving.
But I miss that car
I’m a chill guy, but put me in a car and I just want to get from A. to B. as fast as possible, and interfering with that will make me angry. I have thought a lot about this and have come to realize I just hate driving. I hate everything about it. I want to limit my time in a car to a minimum, and it can make me act in ways contradictory to my personality. I fully believe this is the same issue suffered by most people who have a road rage problem, even people who love their car or value their independence. Millions of otherwise chill people get out on the road and turn into lunatics because driving a car is an unnatural wholey overstimulating process.
I agree that driving is unnatural and overstimulating, and that’s definitely part of it. I think another part of it is that it’s really easy to see other drivers on the road as “other cars” more than “other people”. Driving is dehumanizing, in the sense that it makes it harder for people to see other drivers as fellow humans rather than adversarial machines, and people act accordingly.
Oh for sure. Car culture is a blight on the human spirit, its so ironic that being able to drive is associated with freedom, since it is a yoke around our necks.
The psychological effects are so toxically individualist, I’m driving down the road and someone is going below the speed limit, and I get frustrated, pass them, and see its some elderly person. My very first thought is “God who let’s them drive” but then I realize they have literally no choice but to drive, or be driven. What if they have a Dr appt to go to? If they have double seeing or hearing, well we will just ignore that.
I take the vision test to drive without my glasses and I straight up can not fucking see. But I pass the test no problem. Scary stuff