“They still have some nice people,” she said. I had just stopped to let a car back out from the driveway onto the main road and as he passed, he tooted his horn in thanks. Such a small thing but it made my day. Small acts and a small gesture of appreciation bind us together and make community living easier and stronger.
Five minutes later, I was shaking my head in dismay. I wanted to turn left onto the main road. The guy in front stopped a car length away from the first car in the line and blocked me. I waited, hoping he would do the civil thing and move his car up a couple of feet. When he did not, I tooted gently; he looked up from the deliberation of his dumbphone, dismissed me with a wave of his hand and returned to perusing what was probably the latest police scandal. So many drive around in a cocoon of their own making, seemingly oblivious to anything outside their car. Even people who would not pass you on the pavement without a murmured, “sorry,” become beasts as they enter their car.
I was once cut off savagely on the Cocorite stretch by what appeared to be a madman or someone high on drugs who sped off into St James, only to bounce him up waiting outside my office for me to look at his child. He had caused me to slow down while my blood pressure and heart rate returned to normal and I arrived late. He was usually a very pleasant, quiet guy. What was wrong with the child? A “cold.” Treatment? Ginger tea, a bit of time, and patience for the body to heal itself.
Back to the two separate incidents, unfortunately, the second far more common. I was taught to drive in an era where people took pride in their driving and traffic manners were part and parcel of getting your driver’s licence. People actually looked out for each other and, of course, there are still drivers like that, in my observation, mostly middle-aged men. Women are the worst. I fear it is because they are afraid to show kindness on the road; there are too many who would take advantage of them.
But I grew up in a time when drivers on the old two-lane Churchill Roosevelt Highway would flicker their lights to oncoming traffic to warn them that police were checking speeds in front of them. That may not seem proper, but it did make drivers slow down and created a sense of “all ah we is one,” which is sadly lacking on the streets today. And it was considered obligatory to stop to allow a woman with a child or an elderly person cross the street slowly and safely.
I now put on psychological armour when I get into the car in the morning and prepare for the short 15-minute drive to the office. It’s become a sort of daily ritual, “How many bad drives did you get this morning, doc?” But I have learned to wait at corners for someone to give way and let me in and there are many who graciously do so.
The medical consequences of traffic are serious. Driving more than 10 miles raises your blood pressure, your blood sugar and your cholesterol. The sugar and cholesterol spike is temporary but no one knows what happens after years of intermittent sugar and cholesterol spikes. The blood pressure rise is more permanent. The longer the commute, the higher the blood pressure.
People who commute more than half an hour to work each way report higher levels of stress, anxiety, depression and social isolation than people with shorter commutes. Happiness and satisfaction with life declines. Cardiovascular fitness drops. Sleep suffers. Next day you are tired. Children too. And those back aches and pains everyone complains about? It’s not old age. It’s spending hours a week slouched over in a car seat, either as a driver or a passenger.
There’s an interesting correlation between traffic behaviour and corruption. Tom Vanderbilt, in his book,“Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)” claims “traffic behaviour is more or less directly related to levels of government corruption.”
“The way we behave on the road is really an indicator of our attitude to many things, rules, other people’s rights, the value we place on human lives.” These are attitudinal issues that influence behaviour in other situations.
And where are the traffic police?
