Artwork by Michael DiMilo
I’m an excellent driver. After all, I have been doing it for almost fifty years. I’ve owned a variety of vehicles, including everything from a 1964 Volkswagen Microbus (fondly nicknamed the Microdot bus) to a 1962 pink Cadillac, to SUVs, convertibles, sticks, automatics, and even a vintage 1967 VW Karmann Ghia. When he was in high school, my little brother owned a true muscle car: a 1968 Chevy Malibu with a 350 truck block, Hearst competition shifter, mags, and an immaculate gold-flake finish. He let me drive it once; after I took it through its paces down Main Street in Menomonee Falls one Saturday afternoon—going zero to sixty pretty damned quick—he started hiding the car keys.
Of course, today I’m much more of a responsible and mature—although grumpier—driver. I get frustrated when other drivers go slower than the speed limit, turn without signaling, or cut me off in traffic. I might vent my feelings and end up feeding the swear jar when I get home, but I try to be civil and not engage the other drivers in my own frustrations.
Sometimes, as you get older, it gets harder to differentiate between real change and our subjective perceptions of it. I find myself wondering if life really used to be as uncomplicated as we sometimes remember it, or if we just bury the more hellish parts of our memories deep in our subconscious. Are kids today with their PlayStations and smart phones and social media really that much different from what we were like back then? I suspect not. They’re probably up to the same things we were, but they’re only doing them much more quickly and efficiently.
So, observing today’s driving behaviors in and around the city, I have to ask myself, are drivers actually getting worse or is that only the skewed perception of a middle-aged citizen? Are my memories of driving during my younger days coloring the view of today’s road warriors through a rose-tinted windshield? I don’t think so. I believe drivers are not as attentive, considerate, or as well-trained as they used to be. And I think I can prove it.
I believe that the art of driving is declining, getting sucked into an ever-widening downward spiral. Commuters seem less civilized. Road rage is now an established social phenomenon; drivers even shoot at each other nowadays. Distracted driving is more the norm than the exception. Some of the finer points of driving, such as parallel parking and backing up, are done by computer, an automatic pilot if you will. The skills once necessary for piloting a two-ton machine now seem vestigial. Self-driving automobiles are on the horizon; some are already on the road. All we have to do is sit our butts down and dial in a destination. The car will do the rest. The art of riding is thriving; the art of driving is dying.
What brought us to this pass? First of all is the disappearance of a coherent drivers’ education program in our public schools. Students used to take a mandatory drivers ed course, including classroom work, simulators, and on-the-road training (and the obligatory gory traffic accident film). Now driver’s education courses are offered through a hodge-podge of private companies. Some contract with public schools; others are just out there for prospective students—and their parents—to hire.
Secondly, (partly because of the lack of a coherent drivers ed program) I don’t think the rules of the road are very clear anymore. One aspect of driving that was emphasized in the public school driver education was knowing the rules. Who has right of way? When and how do you yield? How do you merge onto a freeway? How do you let others merge? These lines, I think, have become blurred.
I was out running with my daughter the other day when we came to the corner of a busy street, a main artery. The speed limit where we wanted to cross is thirty-five miles an hour. There is no stop sign at the corner, and it is not a marked pedestrian crossing. As we waited for traffic to clear, one driver in the middle lane slowed down and gestured us to cross. Cars behind him hit their brakes and honked, while cars in the lanes next to this guy kept zooming on by. I know he was trying to be nice and let us cross, but all he was doing was endangering himself and the drivers around him. And us. He didn’t know the rules of the road. He didn’t know better.
And, finally, distracted driving has always been around, but it’s never been quite as tempting to take your eyes off the road as it is presently. I mean back in the day we had to change our radio stations, plug in our eight-tracks, or light up our cigarettes, but nothing like smart phones was out there demanding our attention. And you see the more mundane distractions: drivers doing crossword puzzles or reading magazines on the steering wheel, eating, putting on make-up, or yelling at their kids, all while absent-mindedly navigating a two-ton piece of machinery.
So what’s my point? Part of what I want to say is that driving is probably easier than it’s ever been, at least from an operatjonal point-of-view, but that it’s also probably more dangerous than it’s ever been. Drivers are more distracted, less skilled, and less considerate than they’ve ever been. Incidents of road rage and traffic fatalities have been on the rise, let alone the incidents of high-speed crashes.
The reason for this, I think, or at least a factor that should bear some of the fault, is the lack of driver responsibility, and the lack of respect we have for our vehicles and for each other.
What we see on the roads is not the problem, not really. It’s merely symptomatic of the erosion of social norms and conventions. We don’t treat others very well anymore. We’re aggressive. We’re rude. We don’t like to follow rules. We’re in a hurry. We’re stressed. I’ve seen drivers pull up to red lights, slow down, and then go ahead and run right through the light. And for what? You shouldn’t be driving crazy like this unless you’re trying to get somebody to the hospital. But people do it all the time, mostly—I suspect—because they can.
I am a good driver, and I do see reckless and thoughtless drivers around me every day. I do think people’s driving habits have deteriorated over the past few years. It is frustrating, but all I can do is control my own actions. I’ve had moments behind the wheel I’m not very proud of, but I’m working on being a better driver and a better citizen. I don’t need to be first to get there. I can slow down and let the guy in front of me merge. I’m not losing anything. It’s not that hard to be courteous. And it might just save a life.