How Humans Process Navigating the Road
Over here, rainfall makes the news. It always gets mentioned, but for all the wrong reasons – car accidents.
News coverage of rainfall often irritates me. It focuses on the extremely shortsighted view that the problem is solely related to speed, and asserts that the solution is for drivers to slow down. That’s it?? This is a mantra we hear every time, but what about the other stuff? What about driving cautiously (not weaving in and out of closely cropped traffic)? How about leaving adequate space between cars? And how about using indicators to signal your intentions?
Everyone wants to talk about speed, as if this is the only issue that we need to address.
There is a pathologic vehicle mentality that sickens me, and encourages any non-believer to support Darwin’s Theory. This has managed to instill in me a total lack of compassion towards those who cause vehicle accidents (believe me, I am not alone).
There is another example of ‘Vehicular Darwinism’ – when I drop my kids at school we have to cross a slightly elevated pedestrian crosswalk, right in front of the school, and NOT on a main thoroughfare. There is a person on duty that forces cars to stop and let us pass (otherwise no one really cares). However time and time again while we are actually crossing, there will be a car that will try and overtake the waiting cars by driving on the opposite side of the road, and onto the crosswalk itself – while there are children still on the crosswalk!
Clearly, it’s not all about speed, but rather about a lack of human-to-human respect, and an element of outright selfishness.
When a person is finally injured in an accident, a simple “sorry” won’t be enough. Run someone over and see if the person, and the family affected, feels better after your heart-felt apology. Now, put yourself in the position of the victim – ‘Sorry’ just doesn’t cut it, right?
Ten hours of average rainfall a year does not require any special skill, but rather common sense and respect for humanity. Is that lacking? Or it is some sense of entitlement or self-importance that prevents people from seeing the obvious? And why is everyone in such a rush?
Here we try to be the best at everything- the biggest buildings, the biggest fireworks display etc, but having one the most unsafe roads is cause for concern. While the world’s biggest building may have a positive effect on my health (especially as I like to look and marvel at it), the dangerous driving practices definitely have a negative impact.
PS- today I was almost hit by a driver while on a crosswalk. Instead of apologizing, he screamed and gesticulated rudely at me. All I could do was laugh at him, which didn’t seem to calm his agitated mood.
What to do, yanni?
By Dr. DMS
