It warms my heart to confess, I was part of something larger today. I'm not talking about the calls for Change in our political system. No, this was something smaller, yet somehow more profound, encompassing civility, fairness, and the basic premise that we're all in this together--we succeed together or not at all.
It happened like this. I was in a long, slow line of cars in the turn lane approaching the highway on-ramp. Lights turned red, then green, then red again. We idled. We creeped. At long last, two cars decided that this state of affairs was intolerable and roared into the left lane, passed the line of traffic, and attempted to merge into the front of the line.
We've all seen it before, and it is practiced as high art on highways across the greater Chicago area. But today, we rule-followers stood firm to a one and with military precision closed ranks, following bumper to bumper and allowing no daylight between us for car after car.
Finally, the first car got disgusted and performed a kamikaze left-lane turn into the single lane of traffic onto the ramp, touching off a wave of hostile gestures and angry horn blasts. I didn't see what happened to car number two, but I like to imagine him, harrassed by a growing line of hostile through-traffic and obstinate turn-lane folk, having to finally give up and circle back around.
Fellow commuters, I salute you.
3 comments:
But, you see, they were too important to wait in line.
The common French admonishment, Faire la queue, comme tout le monde (wait in line, like everyone else) holds a special place in my heart. You always hear it, because in France, as elsewhere, someone is always trying to cut the line. So, it's what always pops in my head when someone tries to prove that their time is more valuable than those in line.
Glad you and your compatriots were somewhat successful at thwarting those two.
oh, i could tell you story after story about that sort of behavior in LA. but my favorite was watching some jackass in a hummer, who apparently felt that he/she was too important to wait in the left turn queue with everybody else, drive into oncoming traffic up to the front of the queue (about 50 yards), then drive down the shoulder of an on ramp past another line of cars onto a very crowded freeway.
Gahhh! That's horrifying. If you have a hummer, the presumption appears to be that you're powering an actual assault vehicle. There really is a correlation between SUVs and oversized vehicles and people's tendency to drive them like assholes.
But the line jumping always makes me crazy. As do jackasses who pass you at 4-way stop signs.
LA driving scares me as a concept.
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