The alliteration in that title is so pleasing to me. Say it out loud. It sounds melodic.
There are two types of people, those who curse at other drivers and those that don’t. This is an overly simplistic view, filled with generalities, but read on and see where you fit. I would like to think that I am nuanced and never generalize, but life is filled with hypocrisy, right?
I live in very small town. We don’t even have a traffic light. The only “traffic jams” happen if a fence gets trampled and some cows get in the street or if a large tractor has to utilize the road. Living so far from grocery stores, pharmacies or anything other than the fifty-bazillion Dollar Generals that populate small-town America, means that I know it will take time to get any where, at any time. Maybe it’s the attention deficit addled brain that I possess, but I allot big blocks of time for any appointment or meeting because of how many little windy roads I need to traverse to get there.
Oddly enough, when I lived in a big city, I felt like it should take me only fifteen minutes to get to places, despite the evidence, daily, that traffic would add time to the drive. Traffic jams were a daily, multi-daily occurrence, and delays were common, but still, I never left enough time to get anywhere. Going to get groceries could be daunting, but only because there were so many, so close together, and they were filled with so many people, close together. Most are angry about things, like stop lights, people running lights, honking horns or people cutting them off on the way to their destination.
This is not to say my area does not have angry people or drivers. In fact, when traffic circles became a thing, I witnessed thrown hands from frustrated drivers that couldn’t fathom navigating them. It is a circle. If you miss your turn, you can just go around again–thank me later for that pro tip.
I guess it is the lack of real traffic in my day to day that makes the sound of a horn blown or the vision of angry, cursing people, throwing up their hands in frustration, a jarring thing for me. A horn being blown makes me jump, because it has to be a very dangerous thing, not that someone thinks I took too long at a light. As a matter of fact, this is the epitome of “you go, no you go” at any four way stop. I can always tell someone is from out of town if they don’t pull into the flat side, the side without a ditch, when someone is coming from the opposite direction of my narrow, windy roads.
This lifestyle turned a hand-throwing, horn-blowing, cursing out every driver, into a “you go, no you go”, enjoying the view, looking for deer driver. I don’t get angry when someone takes a long time to pull onto the highways or drives super slowly during deer mating season, because I comprehend the damage that could happen with impatience. I wouldn’t blow my horn at the person at the stop sign, with their head down, not realizing I am behind them, because I know it’s just a matter of time before they see me.
I try to incorporate this when I go to bigger cities, and I am proud to say I am about 95% effective. The last time I was in Tampa, it took less than 72 hours for me to, in my daughter’s words,”have the Florida” in me. I think it was the combination of blocked intersections due to people afraid to wait a cycle of lights, which leads to the drivers that waited to also block the intersection afraid to wait a cycle of lights, the ziggy-zaggy zug drivers on the interstate, and the honking horns that momentarily caused a retrograde in attitude.
It doesn’t have to be a large metro area attitude versus small town, people. If you like the sound of your horn and don’t care if you are causing another’s trauma reflex, go on with your bad self. If you like a relaxed drive and can exercise patient restraint, go on with YOUR bad self. I am not judging your decision.
Unless you fall into blocking the intersection or aisles of grocery stores category. You people are the cause of the downfall of society….
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