Meditations Upon Commuting
Oct. 7th, 2010 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
muck_a_luck1. I don't know what happened, because I squeezed my eyes shut in anticipation of the deer coming through the windshield. Maybe the deer did some crazy mid-air acrobatics. Maybe I actually did break soon enough and hard enough, evne though I was sure I was too late. But anyway. Did not hit the deer.
2. Also did not hit the squirrel that flung itself in front of the car a few mintues later.
3. I recently had a lesson in the importance of fitting into the local driving culture. I should preface this story by saying that it is a story about accelleration, not speed. At no time would I have exceeded the speedlimit in this story. Also, I think this is a story about assertive driving, but not aggressive driving. People who are driving aggressively are usually making bad, dangerous judgments that endanger themselves and others - swerving in and out of traffic, following too closely, speeding, changing lanes suddenly and when it is not safe to do so. Assertive drivers don't lollygag around, but they also drive carefully. In this area, with so much traffic, sometimes you have to move quickly and assertively to take advantage of breaks in traffic to make turns, for instance, that might not seem like the greatest idea, but if you don't take that opportunity, there will never be another one. That said, I was commuting home at 4pm. I came to a place where I merge off the highway and cross three lanes of traffic while approaching a large, busy intersection. Now, this day, there was NO traffic in these lanes, because of the time of day. It was like driving onto a huge, empty paved football field. No traffic but me AND ONE OTHER CAR. Now, as I merged, this car was ahead of me. Since we were approaching the light at the large intersection, which was green at the time, and there were NO OTEHR CARS TO BE SEEN, I figured this guy would, you know, accellerate. So I accellerated. Except - he didn't. He was kind of slowly wallowing, though he was taking the same path I was, accross the three lanes of traffic, because that's what you do there. And it was never the right moment to go around him. So I was kind of pushing and riding him a lot more than I normally would, because most people would be MOVING more, and I was anticipating him MOVING. THEN... the light turned yellow. We were very close to the intersection, and nobody else was there, so I, of course, stepped on it. Again, I would like to emphasize, that to cross the intersection at this point, I would not have needed to exceed the speed limit, nor would I have been in the intersection after the light turned red. We had plenty of time. But instead of going for it, as EVERYONE in this area would do... HE STOPPED. The only reason I didn't clobber this guy was because of reflexes. I was blasting up behind him, realized he wasn't going for it, SLAMMED on teh breaks, AND swerved to the side (luckily, there was nobody else on the road with us) and came to a stop in the crosswalk of the lane beside him. Talk about an adrenaline rush. And the thing is, this guy was totally within his rights and I would have totally been at fault, but he WASN'T DRIVING RIGHT. He wasn't moving. He wasn't going through the light. He was sauntering through the wide open lanes, and gently stopping for a yellow light. SO WRONG. I'm glad we didn't crash.
4. NPR was so irritating and depressing this morning - interviewing some Democrat guy about whether the Republicans would be taking over congress in November. Interviewing the Pakistani ambassador about the situation wiht the supply convoys and closed border crossings... Anyway, I switched over to the local shock jock guy. They mentioned a local story about how over 140 graduates of the police academy in Baltimore (? Some place in MD, I think Baltimore) spread over three classes since July 2009, were under investigation for cheating on their exams. And the radio guy was like, eh, who cares, if they are doing their jobs now. And the news person was, like, well, prosecutions are in jeopardy because the lawyers are going to say that these cops shouldn't even have graduated. And the guy was all, Oh, the legal system blah blah. Well. Here's the thing. Cops are supposed to be honest. Trustworthy. They are supposed to respect and uphold the law. What does it say if you start off your career in this profession of public service by LYING and choosing to obey or not obey whatever rules or regulations you see fit, if it is to your advantage, and screw your fellow students, future prosecutors, and your own integrity? It says that you are more than happy to do whatever you think you can get away with to benefit yourself, and you don't care about society, it's laws or other people. I don't think a person who does that, rather than put in the necessary hard work and study to honestly deserve their job - I don't think that is a person I want "protecting" me from criminals. It is said that prison guards are only a step above the prisoners, and not a very big step. But I'd like to have COPS that are MILES above the criminals. Not just a small step away from them.
And so ends my morning meditation upon my life as a commuter.
2. Also did not hit the squirrel that flung itself in front of the car a few mintues later.
3. I recently had a lesson in the importance of fitting into the local driving culture. I should preface this story by saying that it is a story about accelleration, not speed. At no time would I have exceeded the speedlimit in this story. Also, I think this is a story about assertive driving, but not aggressive driving. People who are driving aggressively are usually making bad, dangerous judgments that endanger themselves and others - swerving in and out of traffic, following too closely, speeding, changing lanes suddenly and when it is not safe to do so. Assertive drivers don't lollygag around, but they also drive carefully. In this area, with so much traffic, sometimes you have to move quickly and assertively to take advantage of breaks in traffic to make turns, for instance, that might not seem like the greatest idea, but if you don't take that opportunity, there will never be another one. That said, I was commuting home at 4pm. I came to a place where I merge off the highway and cross three lanes of traffic while approaching a large, busy intersection. Now, this day, there was NO traffic in these lanes, because of the time of day. It was like driving onto a huge, empty paved football field. No traffic but me AND ONE OTHER CAR. Now, as I merged, this car was ahead of me. Since we were approaching the light at the large intersection, which was green at the time, and there were NO OTEHR CARS TO BE SEEN, I figured this guy would, you know, accellerate. So I accellerated. Except - he didn't. He was kind of slowly wallowing, though he was taking the same path I was, accross the three lanes of traffic, because that's what you do there. And it was never the right moment to go around him. So I was kind of pushing and riding him a lot more than I normally would, because most people would be MOVING more, and I was anticipating him MOVING. THEN... the light turned yellow. We were very close to the intersection, and nobody else was there, so I, of course, stepped on it. Again, I would like to emphasize, that to cross the intersection at this point, I would not have needed to exceed the speed limit, nor would I have been in the intersection after the light turned red. We had plenty of time. But instead of going for it, as EVERYONE in this area would do... HE STOPPED. The only reason I didn't clobber this guy was because of reflexes. I was blasting up behind him, realized he wasn't going for it, SLAMMED on teh breaks, AND swerved to the side (luckily, there was nobody else on the road with us) and came to a stop in the crosswalk of the lane beside him. Talk about an adrenaline rush. And the thing is, this guy was totally within his rights and I would have totally been at fault, but he WASN'T DRIVING RIGHT. He wasn't moving. He wasn't going through the light. He was sauntering through the wide open lanes, and gently stopping for a yellow light. SO WRONG. I'm glad we didn't crash.
4. NPR was so irritating and depressing this morning - interviewing some Democrat guy about whether the Republicans would be taking over congress in November. Interviewing the Pakistani ambassador about the situation wiht the supply convoys and closed border crossings... Anyway, I switched over to the local shock jock guy. They mentioned a local story about how over 140 graduates of the police academy in Baltimore (? Some place in MD, I think Baltimore) spread over three classes since July 2009, were under investigation for cheating on their exams. And the radio guy was like, eh, who cares, if they are doing their jobs now. And the news person was, like, well, prosecutions are in jeopardy because the lawyers are going to say that these cops shouldn't even have graduated. And the guy was all, Oh, the legal system blah blah. Well. Here's the thing. Cops are supposed to be honest. Trustworthy. They are supposed to respect and uphold the law. What does it say if you start off your career in this profession of public service by LYING and choosing to obey or not obey whatever rules or regulations you see fit, if it is to your advantage, and screw your fellow students, future prosecutors, and your own integrity? It says that you are more than happy to do whatever you think you can get away with to benefit yourself, and you don't care about society, it's laws or other people. I don't think a person who does that, rather than put in the necessary hard work and study to honestly deserve their job - I don't think that is a person I want "protecting" me from criminals. It is said that prison guards are only a step above the prisoners, and not a very big step. But I'd like to have COPS that are MILES above the criminals. Not just a small step away from them.
And so ends my morning meditation upon my life as a commuter.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-07 04:21 pm (UTC)2. eeekx2
3. OMG I hate that! Out here in Colorado Springs, they like to get into the merge lane and then STOP before actually continuing down the 1/4mile or so of merge. Husband rear ended someone on our way to our closing for that reason. Of course I was also saying "lookoutlookoutlookoutlookout" and he ignored me...but that is another story!
4. Honesty is a vanishing commodity in our world
no subject
Date: 2010-10-09 06:37 pm (UTC)