Friday, August 1, 2008

New competition

We've always had somewhat of a competitive society. Everytime someone says something along the lines of "I had the worst day...", someone else has to top it with, "That's nothing, wait'll you hear this..." The same two people can then have a competition about the best thing that has happened to them. Whether it's "the best" or "the worst," our motto is always "I can always top that."

The same goes for driving. It's a competitive activity, but with strangers. This type of activity in many places can in fact lead to road rage and other unappealing phenomena. However, I had this vision of a new experience this morning. A new competition which may or may not catch on. It could, I will say in advance, be completely in my head. However, as anyone who knows me can attest, that has never stopped me before.

I was at a light this morning, on my way to work. The light turned green, and as I've been trying to not be psycho and both waste gas and hurt my car, I did not gun it (of course, let's face it, it's a Hyundai, a vehicle which, at best, sounds like a dying cat if you "gun it"), but eased out of the intersection. The truck next to me did the same. My very first thought was, "Oh yeah, you think you can get out of this intersection slower than me?!" and I didn't really accelerate much more. Neither did he.

Of course, this could be just a fun game in my head, but I wonder. You see all sorts of headlines about "how to conserve gas" and what-not. Maybe this will be the new thing. Instead of people racing out of intersections, they'll go slower and slower and slower, until it takes forever for people to get through a light.

Well, if that happens, I'll be the first one to honk when I am three cars from the front and these people are going too slowly.

by Topher at 10:15 AM |