"I stopped my car because the light was red, but there wasn't any other traffic, so I ran it." - A co-worker talking of his commute to work.
We're obsessed with speed. Driving fast is regarded as a right - as in the Pacific Coast Highway piece - and people are too impatient to slow down. Driving in traffic is only one example, however. We want 'instant' relief from headache pain, gas, athlete's foot, and a host of other irritations. People want to achieve their goals without effort. One popular bicycling magazine regularly puts pieces titled "Get (something) NOW!" on it's cover so frequently it's almost a self-parody. And don't let me get started on that abomination called instant coffee.
I started thinking about impatience while driving to Tulsa this morning. Another motorist tailgated behind me. I trailed the car ahead by five or six seconds, an adequate gap given the frequent skunk and deer sightings along that two lane road. But the guy behind me wanted to go faster. He didn't want to pass, apparently, but he wanted me to speed up. I suppose I could have tailgated the car ahead, and that one could have tailgated the one ahead of him, and so on and so on. We'd all stop at the 46th Street red light about ten seconds sooner. Big whoop.
Impatience is the focus of this bit of drollery:
Enough is enough. Self-propelled battery-powered grocery-shopping vehicles are interfering with the traffic flow at my supermarket...Yes, I’m one of those shoppers who’s always in a hurry. Sometimes I opt for a hand-held basket. It’s like being on a bicycle in a traffic jam. You can pretty well get through when everybody else is stuck....Shopping could be more fun than it already is.
So fun is directly proportional to fast. That isn't surprising. My hometown is currently developing a long-range plan for capital investment, and a large part of this involves street improvements. Owasso has a website to solicit citizen input. One comment recommended that speed limits should be increased "to make driving more fun." Fun for who? That makes crossing streets more difficult for pedestrians and higher speed equates to much greater energy in crashes.
It would be so wonderful if in the non-neighborhood areas we could increase the speed limit to 40 or 45...Why is there a traffic signal in front of the new bank? That's just going to slow things down...America is a car society- make Owasso more fun to drive and sales tax may very well see a positive turn...and low speed limits are not going to pull people from Tulsa....Is there not there some kind of engineer who can review our roads and set up a plan to get us modernized?
Take a deep breath, oh impatient one, and consider if your need for speed actually makes much difference. There aren't many of us whose time is so precious that another minute or two amounts to anything. It's a commute, after all, not a competition. There isn't a trophy for First In The Parking Lot, although perhaps there should be.
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