Lately I’ve thought a lot about traffic. First there’s the ever increasing volumes on northbound I5 through Marysville to Arlington My trips to Bellingham have stretched out from 60 minutes to an hour and a half…on good days. Then there’s taking this new position in Bellevue, which has thrown me into heavier traffic then I’ve dealt with for some time, if ever.
I’ve jokingly told myself many times “welcome to LA”.
I live in a place that’s attracting new people at an exponential rate. Can’t blame them. Jobs are cool.
With this, though, I’ve noticed an uptick in aggressive driving. Whether tailgating, cutting people off; there are myriad examples of destructive behaviors. I believe the challenge here is simple: A sense of entitlement for speed. Anything that slows us down challenges us a to our birthright. This explains why people get homicidal over the bicyclist, a pedestrian, or that car doing 50 in the fast lane. I should be able to go as fast as I want, statistics and public safety be damned!
This, combined with the aforementioned increase in the sheer volume of cars pushes us hard. No wonder people are snapping.
Our culture needs to calm down, to slow down. This rage kills, but not just on the road. Increased stress causes all kinds of horrible things to our bodies and minds. We need to walk more, get on our bikes and ride, getting out of our cars. And we need to remember that the other drivers out there are people. Doing the best that they can.
Just like us.
[Editted because I hit “post” too soon and, thus needed to clean up a bunch of grammar]