Gripe-Alert!

By Megan Cullingford
Truckers Connection

2/4/2008

Is it just me or has common courtesy fallen to the wayside? Not only do you find discourtesy more the norm—in shops, on the street, in restaurants, you name it—but people don’t seem to be the slightest bit embarrassed about the behavior. Have parents eliminated this teaching or do folks just not care about anyone outside their personal orbit?

Whatever happened to holding the door for someone walking into a building just behind you? What’s the appropriate distance that’s reasonably expected? Seven feet, eight feet? If you walk into a store and someone is within that range behind you, walking purposefully toward the same door you just opened, how do you simply walk in and let the door close right behind you without a scant look back? I find it hard not to utter a sarcastic “gee, thanks” as I narrowly catch the door before I slam face first into it. My nine-year old knows better.

And since when did merging become the ultimate game of whoever gets there first wins? Wins what? What’s the difference if you are one car back from where you’d otherwise be had you refused to allow the car beside you to merge in front? Competitiveness on the streets is foolish and can be deadly. What happens if you disallow someone to squeeze in front of you? Arriving at your destination a few nanoseconds sooner? Hope it was worth it.

I can remember years ago, sitting at the exit of a coffee shop, needing to turn right into stand-still traffic. Car after car crept by and not a one would allow me to squeeze in. Yes, it was clear I was trying to go right (turn signal on). I tried to look into the eyes of each oncoming driver with the silent signal of “please let me in.” No dice. At last I realized I’d have to be more aggressive or sit there all morning, so when one car (classy old beat up station wagon) allowed several car lengths between him and the car in front of him, I slipped into the space. This guy was beyond irritated by this. Why? There was room; he was only going five mph; and I got up to that pace quickly so he didn’t have to tap his brakes not even slightly. After a light, traffic sped up and I kept up with it. With a speed I wouldn’t have guessed the old beater had in it, this guy jumped on my bumper and proceeded to ride uncomfortably close, raising all kinds of cane from his driver’s seat. It was quite the visual entertainment in my rear view mirror. But when he didn’t let up and began weaving around to the right and left behind me, I got worried. I took a right hand turn, headed to my office and this joker took the turn with me, so close he was drafting. It was clear he was purposely following me now. I grabbed my cell and held it up, dialing it where he could see what I was doing.

It was then that he crazily veered off into a post office parking lot and turned around.

What is up with that? You aren’t on the road alone. Other cars do need to cruise around you, in front of, beside and behind you. How is having one extra car in front of you so horrible that you need to drive like a maniac and act as if you’re going to hunt down a stranger in another car? Wow, road rage, simmer down.

That was years ago but quite a vivid illustration of how personally folks take driving and how unwilling some are to courteously share the road. I guess we were all raised differently and act differently based on our particular set of circumstances and life experiences. But with so much is going on negatively in the world today, small niceties go a long way. It’s too bad we don’t see more of them.