As someone who spends atleast 2 hours a day on the road, I have always wondered why
we drive the way we do. We drive rashly, do not show courtesy to other road-users or pedestrians, do not follow any rules or in case of many on the road, are not aware of rules
in the first place, etc. The list is long.
To know/understand why we drive the way we do, all you need to do is observe how we
behave when off the road, and the parallels will emerge clearly.
1) You are standing in a queue to buy a movie/railway-platform ticket, patiently waiting
your turn. Suddenly one smart-aleck rushes over to the front of the queue and thrusts his
hand into the counter. As far as he is concerned, all the people standing in the line are just
not there. Sounds familiar ?
Translate this to road-behaviour and you would be able to explain the behaviour of those
punks who ignore all those waiting patiently at a signal and drive around them to plonk their car/bike in front of them. Or worse, drives on the wrong side of the road to bypass all those waiting at the signal.
2) You are still in the queue to get your ticket. You and others in the line have managed to
drill some sense into the guy who was trying to bypass the queue and embarassed, he moves
to the end of the queue. The line is moving as fast as the guy at the counter can handle it, but
the guy behind you is impatient. He is almost shoving your back, making sounds of impatience and acting as if you are not moving, while the fact is that there is a guy already at the counter transacting business, which needs to complete, before you can move forward.
These are the guys who are ready to wait 110 seconds on the timer-enabled traffic signal,
but become impatient at the last 10 seconds as if their life depends on speeding away from
the signal as fast as possible. And on the road, they indulge in honking or revving the engine
or gesturing you to move on. It does not bother them that the signal is still red with a few
more seconds to go, which means that it is green for someone else and your moving forward
now could lead to disaster.
3) You are walking along the pavement in your city. Yeah, I know, how many roads in our
cities have pavements ? Anyway, the pavement is good enough for 2 people to easily walk abreast. But our hero is bent on having all of it to himself (must be the one with the "Yes, it
is my Grandpa's road" sticker on his car) and is walking bang in the centre of the pavement.
And that too very leisurely. He is strategically positioned himself such that you cannot pass
him from either side.
This would be the guy who would straddle both the lanes on a 2-lane road and be driving
slowly, maybe even talking on the phone and basically creating a big traffic jam behind him
for no valid reason.
4) You are again continuing your walk on the pavement and in front of you are two guys
walking at a normal pace. You walk behind them maintaining your own steady pace and
then when you least expect it, one or both of the guys just come to a sudden abrupt stop,
for no apparent reason, resulting in you almost banging into them.
These are the ones who when driving on road, stop all of a sudden for no obvious reason
or for dropping someone at a curve or in such a way that traffic gets blocked. No amount
of honking, swearing or shouting would have any effect, because they are just oblivious to
all that.
5) You are again back at the railway station for a ticket. There are just a few of you in the
line, with enough space for all to stand comfortably, but the guy behind you just needs to
stand in contact with your rear. Also add the occasional poking with the book or bag that
he has in hand. He has no idea at all of what personal space means.
This would be the one who would park his car/bus whatever really close to the rear of
your car, inspite of the two of you being the only ones at the signal and there being space
for him on either side of your vehicle.
I am sure there is scope for many more such instances where our behaviour on-road
mirrors what we do off it. Is it any wonder that we drive the way we do ?
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