Re: Scary Road Rage Incident


"Peter Cole" <peter_cole@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:ORZnk.604$mP.14@xxxxxxxxxxx
brink wrote:
Tom Keats wrote:

So maybe how people behave on the streets & roads isn't
totally about how people behave on the streets & roads.
It's about how people behave. All too often: badly.

I think you nailed it, Tom. Scarcity of resources, whether money, gas,
or room on roads, fosters competitive behavior. I don't think this is
unique to Western society, but it's certainly much more prevalent in our
mindset in that we tend not to share as well as other, less competitive
societies.

While we're playing psychologist/cultural anthropologist, I'd have to
say that I believe cars are a special case, even in the decadent West.
People behave more badly in cars than just about anywhere else,
including closing time at bars. Cars always have been sold as personal
freedom/power accessories. There is an implicit promise in that, but it
is a delusion. Cars are sold by pandering to infantile emotions, so it
should come as no surprise that drivers are prone to tantrums.

The thing that distinguishes Americans is the extent to which they've
been sold the fantasy and accepted the notion that a car is part of
one's image. American cars in particular are over-sized, over-powered
and wildly impractical. These carefully inculcated attitudes have led to
societal engineering that presumes the eternal dominance of the private
car as primary transportation. The solution has become the problem.

I can't speak for every region, but around here (MA) we've seen more
sprawl in the last decade than the prior century. People are frustrated
that their commutes are becoming onerous. Having moved into the sticks,
they are now impatient with the charming bucolic roads that attracted
them to the area in the first place. In many cases these roads have been
popular for cycling for decades. In the city, parking and auto commuting
is being discouraged, leading to less accommodation of the auto. A
sensible thing would be to go with the flow and ride a bike, or at least
have a "one less car" epiphany, but motorists it seems would rather
scapegoat and take out their frustrations on a more vulnerable group
(*** rolls downhill). I have little tolerance or sympathy, and cyclists
don't need apologists for road rage tantrums.

I think (going on my own observations) that the UK is rapidly catching up with most of that Peter (I blame Margaret Thatcher ... mostly)


--
Colin N.

Lincolnshire is mostly flat ... But the wind is mostly in your face
.

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