ALT-2 Whatever Happened to Driving Etiquette
In general, etiquette is something most people in society choose willingly to observe. We exercise it as a sign of mutual respect for our fellow human beings wherever and however we encounter them, and we do so habitually and with intent. Some people however, decide variously when, where, and if they will even use etiquette. It is confusing to know today, like baggy pants that hang low enough to expose a person's underwear, whether lack of etiquette is becoming fashionable, or simply neglect. It would appear that individuals practice etiquette only when and if the situation suits them, and other times not at all. Sometimes it depends on the circumstances involved.
For example, there is a vast difference in the way people interact with other drivers on a busy road, and the way people interact while walking together in a bustling city.
Walking on a busy, crowded sidewalk in a city can be close and personal and obliges people to be more respectful to their fellows. If you bump into someone while trying to move around them because you are in a hurry, you politely say, "Excuse me," and continue on. Generally there is no further confrontation.
While driving, people can act in a manner of gross disrespect towards others, a manner that they would never engage in if they were walking with them side by side. In cars people are separated from the social requirements imposed by other interpersonal interactions. They don't have to be as nice to others as they do when they are face-to-face. This can cause problems.
At times, one person's lack of etiquette on the highway can trigger another person to acts of outrage, anger, and even revenge. And while we all experience the occasional outright rude driver who seems to have never read a "Rules of the Road" manual, we need to identify why there is a lack of driver etiquette, what can result from that lack, and if anything can possibly be done to prevent it.
Driving is less interpersonal, vis-a-vis cars and the room needed for them; consequently motorists are freer to disregard courtesy because of them. The space created between people because of their vehicles somehow creates a wholly different dynamic from how people interact in person. Drivers find it acceptable to react to each other with shouts, degrading gestures, leers of disgust, and worst of all, rude, adolescent, reckless, and aggressive behavior. Bad encounters often result in two drivers pulling over to the side of the road to exchange words, or fight. Or they pursue each other for miles, trying to run each other off the road, or follow one or the other to his destination with intent to do bodily harm, or damage to the offending vehicle.
But the indifference provided by isolation in a car, or the anonymity of the driving environment isn't the only reason people don't use good etiquette on the highway. Another problem is how people perceive the whole concept of driving. And it isn't always about abandoning the civic responsibility we all agree to assume when we take driver education courses, or the learner's permit and driver's license tests.
Maybe rude or negative driving behavior is learned from parents while growing up. Seeing them bend the driving rules, and be rude to another driver, is rationalized as acceptable and necessary behavior when it means getting to soccer practice on time. We justify that it is all right to be wrong when haste is the reason.
Maturity is also a factor in driver etiquette. Despite what is learned in driver education classes, many youths throw it all out the passenger side window in an attempt to impress the world, their friends, a girl, or themselves with the power they come to wield. They don't fully understand that when driving, they are in control of a 5000-pound bomb, which is capable of delivering death or permanent injury to other drivers or pedestrians in an accident they might cause. Their recklessness can also result in hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of damage to their property or others'.
Many organizations have lobbied to have the minimum age requirement for getting a driver's license, or at least a learner's permit, elevated to an age that society deems appropriate for the accompanying responsibility. It is an age when a citizen should be wise enough to understand, accept, and agree to the civic obligation that safe driving demands.
But rude and careless driving, or lack of maturity, isn't lost upon youth alone. It is a problem that can be found in any age group.
A mom driving a van full of kids just retrieved from school, is capable of suddenly zooming out in front of an oncoming car because she lost her patience while waiting in a queue of other cars for her opportunity to enter onto a highway. A hard working father, who drives a dump truck for a living and gets paid by the number of loads he hauls, installs menacing looking gigantic teeth to the front of his dump truck's radiator to intimidate any driver who is unfortunate enough to look in the rear-view mirror and see the truck directly behind him, impolitely urging him to move to another lane.
Another possible cause of decreasing driver civility is the fact that there are just more cars on roads today than at any other time in history, and more drivers to drive them. According to the Federal Highway Administration, "there were an estimated 196 million licensed drivers in the United States in the year 2003. Considering the slightly lower number of motor vehicles for 2003, there were an estimated 1.17 motor vehicles per licensed driver, meaning that there are more vehicles than drivers in the US, with vehicles outnumbering drivers 1.2 to one."1 And these statistics are from 2003. There are surely even more drivers and cars today. If only a fraction of these people are driving at the same time, tempers are bound to flare due to the casual indifference people have for their fellow drivers, traffic congestion, or the need people have to get where they want to go as quickly as possible.
So what is the solution? The amount of drivers and cars upon the road probably won't become reduced any time soon despite the desires of organizations to do so, even as a means of reducing greenhouse emissions. Roads and highways won't be increased in size so that everybody has more than enough room to get where they are going as fast as they would like. Lastly, people are definitely not all going to decide to observe etiquette on the road because a manual said they should, they were taught to, or it is just the right thing to do. Let's face it, lack of etiquette is not likely to suddenly slam on the brakes and come to a screeching halt. If anything, the situation is probably going to get a lot worse.
The best thing we can do is try to keep the whole concept of driving in perspective. Besides the civic duty we all have for driving responsibly, we know it is right to remain calm and be safe on the highway, and to respect our fellow motorists, despite how many of them are on the road with us, or how they act. We can remember that the thing operating the other vehicle is in fact another human being, not merely an extension of the vehicle. And we can remember that in a different situation, such as when walking on a crowded sidewalk or in a busy mall, a passing offense between people would rarely result in a heated exchange of words, and would probably never cause an exchange of blows. People excuse themselves politely and continue on their way. Why should the highway be any different? Finally, no matter where you encounter someone who is blatantly rude or indifferent, well, there are just those kind of people in the world, and there probably always will be. Let them pass.
All things considered, despite the lack of etiquette evident on American roads, and all of the other headaches associated with vehicles and other drivers, cars were invented as a means of helping humans travel more quickly from one place to another.
It still beats walking.
Sources:1 Wikipedia"Passenger Vehicles in the United States,""Statistics,""Total number of vehicles,"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_vehicles_in_the_United_StatesRetrieved on 2007-12-18
