I must apologize for not writing much these past few weeks; we’ve had personal matters to attend to, and have had to travel back and forth between home (the far end of Cape Cod) and New York several times (300 miles of driving each way).
There’s a lot I want to write about when I can find enough quiet time to do so; in particular I want to discuss a couple of books that I’ve just read. I also owe Bill Vallicella a response on a political topic that came up some weeks ago. But all of that will have to wait a little longer. I’m hoping to have some quiet time this week.
Meanwhile, I will comment on something I’ve been noticing for a while, but which, on my recent trips along Route 95 this past couple of weeks, seems to have gotten sharply worse: the collapse of proper driving on the highways.
The principles of driving on multi-lane highways are few, and they are simple. One among them is paramount, namely that you keep as far to the right as you can, moving to the leftward lanes only a) to overtake a slower vehicle or vehicles; b) to let vehicles enter the right lane from on-ramps; and c) to give a wide berth to cars and people stopped in the breakdown lane. It’s a simple system, and done right, it keeps things moving along as well as possible.
If you drive in Europe, you’ll notice that everybody there seems to understand how this simple system works. It’s never been adhered to as well here in America, but over the last couple of years I’ve noticed that it seems to have broken down completely. On my last two round trips to New York I was really shocked (and more than a little irritated) to see how often I ended up having to go around slow drivers by passing them on the right — and even more annoyingly, how often people would sit in the left lane going exactly as fast as the vehicle next to them in the right lane, thereby creating a rolling blockade, with blithe indifference to being flashed at from behind. Even big-rig truck drivers, who generally used to drive more competently than the average civilian, seem to be doing this all the time now as well.
What the highway pattern looked like on these last couple of trips was a great sea of dozy, incompetent drivers drifting along like floating clumps of seaweed in whatever lane they happened to find themselves, while a smaller subgroup of agile and frustrated drivers (like me) did their best to flit and dart in and out of whatever little temporary gaps might appear in the slowly shifting pattern. There were also always a few who were obviously at the end of their patience — tailgating, weaving through tiny openings at top speed, and often taking really audacious risks.
I’ve been driving on American highways for fifty-two years now, and it’s never been like this. What’s going on? Is it just part of the overall collapse of competence in every aspect of life? Is it just another aspect of the Great Enstupidation? If so, it’s a particularly annoying one.
3 Comments
I drive a lot and notice this too. Perhaps the clueless drivers are vaping legal weed or on some drug that puts their mind in a fog.
Yes, I too notice this and just experienced it yesterday. I think it is due to all the things you mentioned. And an incredibly self-centered populace.
I’ve noticed this as well, as I drive from NYC, where I’ve lived since the late 80’s, to either Toronto or Montreal, on a regular basis.
I see it as the normalization of third world sensibilities and standards, due to the importation of large numbers of actual people from the third world, as well as legions of legacy Americans simply not caring anymore.
My children have dual citizenship with Canada, and just returned from Montreal after visiting relatives, and as much as they love NYC, both of them being born here, they immediately commented on how clean and safe Montreal was in comparison to New York, as NYC’s standards have gotten noticeably worse in just the last few years, and that’s really saying something for New York, which has gone through several cycles of decay and renewal since the 60’s.