I'm really grateful for this thoughtful piece. I'm reading it from Queens, NYC where as a shared-space advocate (bike person) we lobby hard for more bike lanes and infrastructure for busses, bikes and pedestrians. On the policy side though, New York City has proven over and over, it is perfectly legal to kill someone with a car. There are many instances where killer drivers are not charged with any crimes and it has led to a sense of entitlement and lack of compassion that has made it quite common for people to disobey all traffic regulations as a matter of practice. For years, I've been studying how to measure impact as it relates to safe streets advocacy. We've changed a boulevard that killed over 200 in a 20 year span to one that hasn't had a fatality in three years. But, the backlash is severe, especially when folks don't recognize that the cheapest, fastest and most influential way to make our roads safer is to change the behavior that contributes to crashes. I'm reminded of a funny recent cartoon: "Why wants change?" everybody raises their hand..."Who wants to change?" nobody. Thanks for this wonderful piece. Can't wait to see how it plays out in community conversations on our former "Boulevard of Death".
34
People are fickle. Look no further than each and one of us BEGGING for that police car to appear outta nowhere to nab the speeding motorist audacious enough to pass us yet eagerly blowing the cover of that very SAME begged-for cop w/ blinked headlights to oncoming speeding motorists who are NOW, all of a sudden, our best friends.
7
Clearly, David brooks has never been to Hyderabad, India or Bangalore or Kanpur. eeks
8
Traffic is our lives. Finding parking, getting from point A to point B and then finding parking, Internet traffic, texting, social media, lines at the supermarket, waiting for deliveries, waiting for the traffic of conversation to pause long enough to get a word in, (edgewise?), immigrant traffic, drug trafficking, and of course, school, which is a captive audience standstill that keeps lowering standards to the least common denominator. How would Jesus drive? He'd quietly reaffirm the value of the interior life and wait to be last of all, after all other souls have passed, into the pearly gates.
15
I WILL think twice. Thanks, Mr. Brooks!
10
Driving/Driving courtesy are an extension and reflection of the person you are - The type that cuts you off is no doubt a jerk when not behind the wheel. As for your question - Jesus wouldn't "drive" anything - He would ride a motorcycle. Probably a 60's Triumph - Rebel that he was ...
18
Road Grace
I find that the pleasures of driving in California—the fine weather, the beautiful scenery, the exquisite classical music on my car’s CD system—often put me in a very cheerful mood. In such a frame of mind I muse, “How good the world has been to me—I’m keen to pass on these blessings to other people!”
I have discovered that I don’t need to wait until I arrive at my destination to act upon these philanthropic impulses. I can actually do so as I drive. There are drivers wanting to pull into my lane; there are other drivers hoping to make a left turn; there are pedestrians wanting to cross safely; and if I’m very lucky, there’ll be someone with a disabled car who needs help. Yes, there are as many as 50 occasions in an hour’s driving where my desire to show kindness and courtesy can be satisfied.
Of course, I’m not the only one like this—there are millions of drivers on the road in California every day, looking for opportunities to do as I’m doing. We need a name for this mass phenomenon. I suggest that we call it “Road Grace.”
from
Road Grace, Essays for a New Renaissance
© 2003 by John Newmeyer, Ph.D., Bright Moon Press, San Francisco, CA
24
Department of Transpotation wants drivers to fill all lanes.
6
"How Would Jesus Drive?"
Obviously Jesus would sell his car, give the money to the poor, and walk. But when he needed to make a grand entrance into town, he would order his friends to steal somebody's Ford Taurus for him.
13
Great, thoughtful article about something that involves lots of us, but is rarely discussed in such a way! But no mention of those sleazoids who black out their windshields, and side glass, etc.
7
Indeed, Mister Brooks, how would Jesus drive since He doesn't have a license. Of course if you're Jesus you can do almost anything you want so I could imagine one of two scenarios. One is where Jesus is driven. He would face a fate worse than Crucifixion were He to spend any time on the highways and byways of this crazy world His Father created. He might be so upset with what we had wrought here in God's green Earth He would e-mail or text Dad and tell Him the time for Armageddon in long overdue. The other scenario is that Jesus foregoes all material wealth and lives the life of a vagabond, hitching His way across the U.S.A. from some guy in a Chevrolet. That would be the guy who drove his Chevy down to levee the day the music died. Jesus would inform this poor soul not to worry, Buddy, Richie and the Big Bopper are still playing the Upstairs/Downstairs at the Stardust Lounge along with many other greats who left this Earth. They're playing the Lounge because this week in the Big Room the headliner is Elvis.
So there you have it. Riding in the back of a limo, or thumbing it around the world. I vote for Hitchhiker. Jesus would never be so pretentious, so full of Himself, to require a driver to be at his beckon call. Those are for people who already have one foot in Hades. People like Trump. Plus, there are many folklore parables about people picking up Jesus the Hitchhiker. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
DD
Manhattan
9
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He was racing down the highway in a pink and yellow Ford
He had one hand on the throttle and the other on a bottle
of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer.
14
California has its share of rude, aggressive drivers. But we don't honk that much. I was in Washington, D.C., recently. I was struck by the amount of horn-honking. Not only did it make for an unpleasant pedestrian experience, but it was futile. No one got anywhere any faster.
The other phenomenon of note was how many more cigarette-smokers there are compared to here. Probably unrelated, but interesting.
7
I recall a story about drivers from England, who had moved to California and were learning to drive like Californians. They were considered overly courteous, for example, taking time to merge and yielding to other drivers. They were being taught to be more aggressive. (I am British-born and a former Londoner and learned to drive in the US. Actually, I find drivers in England, especially London, to be very aggressive and rude.)
1
Jesus would probably have driven a Hyundai Genesis, car pooled with 12 other drivers and help his neighbours by changing water into regular grade gasoline.
9
I received my driver’s license at age 17 after takinng driver’s ed in public school in western NY. WE were taught to always use turn signals, and to always beep the horn when backing up or when passing. To day, that gets you the middle finger. We were also taught to stay a car length behind the car in fron for every 10 mph. When I make a right turn on red, I always stop first, and check for cars and people. We have too many drivers who ignore the rules, and that fail to stop for red lights. With our expanding population, lt can only get worse. I am an atheist that admires Pope Francis, but why doesn’t he end the very stupid ban on using birth control. I don’t understand the motivation. To the Church, apparently it’s all right to have sex for pleasure as long as you employ a faulty prevention measure like the rythym message. The church is far from perfect. They were and are wrong on Galileo, and wrong on pedofile priests, wrong on divorce, wrong on virgin birth. But then, as a retired engineer/physicist, I don’t buy into unverified assertions or anything supernatural. The Bible is mostly metaphor and fiction. But I am open to demonstration and can accept that I might be wrong. I try to follow the teachings of Jesus in my relations with others, but I reject hocus-Pocus. My God is Mother Nature, so to speak, not some genocidal monster.
7
New Englander here. My sense is that yes, driving is a competitive sport, esp in Massachusetts, but that’s because these old cities were not built for cars and if you’re too nice you’ll be eaten alive. The saying goes using you blinker is for suckers. Why give information to the enemy?
9
I live in Brazil, which has the highest percentage of aggressive, thoughtless, rude and dangerous drivers of any of the 40 or so countries in which I’ve set foot (or driven). This is evidenced by horrendous annual road death tolls in the country. Yet Brazil is a highly religious nation, primarily Catholic with a fair dose of Christian evangelism thrown in. Religious stickers are common on cars, and many trucks display a large “Jesus” or religious saying somewhere (“God is in control of this vehicle” being one of my favourites). This column should be food for thought for Brasilian drivers. Unfortunately, few will read it, unless it happens to become one of the handful of NYT articles that appears (in Portuguese) in Brazilian daily newspapers from time to time.
5
Gee, David, do you think that living in a culture which idolizes unfettered, cutthroat capitalism above all else (a la the GOP) has anything to do with this sort of aggressive, me-first driving behavior?
How would Ayn Rand drive? Let's ask Paul Ryan.
23
I live in a suburb of Seattle. I have lived in several states and have driven in dozens. I find drivers in my Puget Sound area on the whole quit polite. We sort of have an attitude, I think, of "We are all in this, together" so no point in making other drivers miserable. Some years ago, I was driving around Boston. A silver haired, nicely dressed woman in a decent car apparently didn't like something I did (don't know what it was) because she gave me the middle finger as she pulled in front of me. I was rather shocked to see someone her age behaving that way! I love Boston as a beautiful city, but am sorry to learn it has such aggressive drivers. At least in the Puget Sound we have gorgeous mountains to look at as we plod along on congested freeways.
7
Never thought of driving as an exercise in the moral field, but it is so true. I have started driving just for one year now, and I know what you mean by saying you could get pretty "revengeful" in the streets when in my normal life it isn´t like that. I live in Mexico city and driving here is SAVAGE, believe me, SAVAGE (combination of a really crowded city with a poor city planning and poor traffic law), but you get used to it, and after some time you realize it's not that bad.
The common denominator I have found that make drives as well as myself constantly more aggressive, irresponsible or nervous behind the wheel is being late. I personally experiment all these.
So, personally, when I achieve to get out in time I perceive how I develop a more conscious and moral sense when driving.
7
my guess is that a man who knows he's prophesied to die nailed to a cross is not going to be too concerned with speeding tickets. He wouldn't wear a seat belt. still, even living in a rural area, He'd probably eschew a pick-up with gigantic wheels... as a turn-the-other-cheek kind of guy, He most likely be in a 1993 toyota corolla with a mismatched trunk lid. but all this begs the question: who would He have mounted to His dashboard?
10
Thanks David for a nice break from politics. Kindness on the road makes you feel good and is appreciated by your fellow drivers, a win-win for all.
7
How will they ever get driverless cars to work safely?
5
In my Northern NJ town, if you are stopped at a red light intending to go straight through and the car opposite from you intends to make a left, there is an extremely high likelihood that the driver will steal the right of way and cut across your path. The likelihood is even higher if its an expensive car (BMW/Mercedes/Porsche). Sense of entitlement trumps (no pun intended) traffic laws and common sense.
9
I'm sure he/she would drive very well. A better question is - what kind of vehicle would he/she drive?
1
Yes, and kudos to the cop who stops at the stop sign, even if no one is around.
7
Come to Australia if you want to see truly selfish driving.
A pedestrian can't cross the street if the walk sign is flashing red (while the traffic light is still green) or they'll get crushed.
Cyclists take their lives into their own hands when they hit the road.
I routinely, like daily, see people do 3-point turns at a moment's notice in the middle of a busy road instead of going around the block.
I've seen people almost stop dead on the highway because they want to merge into another lane two lanes over that very minute and it doesn't even cross their minds that if they waited to long to get where they need to be to exit, they should just take the next exit to turn around.
There's a lot of 'paper wealth' down here and commensurate entitled, sanctimonious behavior from people driving nice cars they can barely make the payments on.
it's a super young country that is wildly selfish, navel-gazing and aggressive, even by my native American standards. I'm just thankful they don't have a gun culture too.
7
What have you done with the real David Brooks?
I am gobsmacked by the idea that I agree with virtually every word in this essay.
How would Jesus drive? Well, not with his middle finger prominently displayed. I have always suggested that more courtesy in traffic would go a long way towards healing some of our wounds. Although, better and more consistent mass transit would also help.
A friend from Portland while visiting and taking a walk through our neighborhood mentioned that people who stop for pedestrians who are not in designated crosswalks and the said stopping for them backs up traffic and causes problems are called: nice holes.
What would Jesus do? He would see everyone and treat everyone as if they are God. Which they are.
5
There's a case to be made for situational ethics in driving. When in an area or on a road where almost all the drivers are aggressively trying to make the best possible time to their destination at the expense of others, I feel the need to turn up the wick on my own driving aggressiveness, if simply to avoid being cut off by every other driver I encounter. When in Rome.
The best religious model I've seen promoted for driving is Zen: be present and mindful, and do not allow the jerks around you to shake your calm.
4
The moral decision that Jesus would make would be to not drive unless he had to. Driving involves complicity in environmental destruction, war and exploitation of humans. Jesus would be a walker, bike rider and mass transit user. He would want us to follow his example.
11
Jesus would take Uber or ride the bus. He wouldn’t drive. My friend Betty never drove because she was a poet who could not pay attention to the process of getting a car from point A to point B. Pretty sure Jesus would have the same problem.
3
It would be nice if people did not go through a four-way stop out of turn. Are they rude and entitled or just not paying attention? Also, please don't lean on your horn if you are behind me and the light turns green. I can't move forward until the driver in the car ahead of me finishes texting.
7
The best part of moving back to the city a year-plus ago was getting rid of our cars. Rude and aggressive drivers are terrifying. We are done.
5
As usual, Mr. Brooks has great insight. What I see, here in Denver, with a significant influx of people from all over the country, driving on ever-increasingly crowded roads, is: flying around other cars to get to the red light quicker, texting while driving, gunning it through "pink" lights and stop signs, turning left at intersections against the light in long strings. Observation indicates these are mostly younger people whom I imagine to be stressed out from work and driving. Jesus would not text and drive (or maybe not text at all) and his stress levels would be at "chill". "Chill" for most of us drivers would truly be miraculous.
1
I wonder what the driving etiquette will be like when and if we
succumb to driverless cars? I don't see "happy waves" going on.
2
I really like this, but wouldn't put the spotlight on how Jesus would drive. One doesn't have to want to turn the other cheek to be motivated by the type of snowball effect that Brooks describes. The point is that simply remembering that one is part of a larger group of individuals, both shaping and acted on by its norms, will help the average human being improve his or her outlook and behavior.
2
"Kindness breeds kindness. Aggression breeds aggression."
And guess what Mr. Brooks, American society is not kind, compassionate, caring, or any number of other positive things. It's reflected throughout our dealings with each other. Your columns are an excellent example of that. You shilled for a party that has consistently been without compassion and uninterested in showing an iota of kindness to anyone who wasn't rich, white, male, and willing to buy into their politics and lies.
23
I am unsure as to the reason(s) why there are other cities such as Boston wherein which there are more accident prone drivers but those in Boston may be allowed some excuse as the city's streets and those of its suburbs are often unwell marked, lanes disappear at a second's notice or no notice at all and many streets share the surface with electric trolley cars the rights of way are such that they are hard to predict as well. Has there been any consideration given in analyses such as Allstate's as to the road conditions and grids in those cities being part of the equation?
6
I have driven in Italy. I can see why the Pope said this. Totally.
But the situation we face here on the desert highways of the Southwest is that the posted speed limit is often 10mph or 15mph below the actual speed of traffic. Sometimes you're forced to choose between being a good citizen in the broader sense of obeying the law and being a good citizen in the narrower sense of not building up a trail of very annoyed drivers behind you.
Sometimes to be an artisan of the common good, you have to bend or break the laws made by the clowns at the top.
Which leads us to the subject of marijuana legalization, but I won't get into that here.
9
Its perfectly fine to drive as slowly as you feel safe going, as long as you stay to the right and let people pass.
2
Once I was at a church retreat here in Vermont. The speaker, from Boston, was talking about patience and used what he thought a common experience: honking to 'get back" at rude drivers. But everyone in the audience failed to relate. It seems Vermonters do not honk very much, Maybe it's because we have a small population but ti does make it harder when we go to Boston or NYC and have to learn a new style of aggressive driving just to get anywhere.
3
I don't know what kind of vehicle Jesus would drive, but he probably would be driven to the point of madness by the current state of the world. "2,000 years and they still can't get it right. Please read the directions."
11
Jesus wouldn't be driving at all. He'd be riding in the back of a police car.
Middle Eastern guy? Preaching socialism on street corners? No papers? He'd be lucky not to spend the rest of his life in Guantanamo.
70
"Artisans of the common good"... Brother Francesco, you continue to amaze me. Such a timely phrase.
Thanks David Brooks for this piece on driving as spiritual practice. As always, there's discernment between ego and essence. The mindful driver can become transparent to others' ego needs. They pass through us without response in kind. Then we can offer love, understanding and compassion.
America likes to glorify ego while the future of humanity may hang on the development of our spiritual nature.
12
We know from the Gospel how Jesus would drive. Jesus said to "turn the other cheek". How would most Evangelical Christians drive? Those who think they know more than they do and condemn those who don't agree with their understanding of the Bible, how do they drive? Surely not as Jesus would want.
6
I am a Tibetan Buddhist. From my experience with Tibetans, about 40 years, who fled Tibet after the Communist Chinese invaded Tibet, whether they were adults or as children, they as drivers in the US are the WORST drivers ever. Why?
They drive happy, and they drive their religious beliefs which is a terrible combination of characteristics while behind the wheel.
A Tibetan Buddhist Lama, of note, has a mountain of driving violations. Finally, he had to retire his driver's license due to his driving record. Of course, he provided excellent community service to pay off the many violations. Another Lama, again of note, has crashed his car several times.
When I see young Tibetans behind the wheel, I cringe. I recognize them because they are almost sitting in a meditation position looking out from behind their car windshield. They are driving happy and not looking left or right or behind them.
We think Jesus had it made on so many levels of wisdom but driving, if he was so thoroughly compassionate as legend has it, toward all humans, he might not drive very far at all. He would be driving happy, compassionately, and dangerously within his soul and barely on the road.
5
"According to The Economist, half the world’s traffic circles are in France, where they work well. In Nairobi, they are a complete disaster." Here in the Boston area, the law that gives right-of-way to a car already in the traffic circle was widely ignored, leading to constant jams as every entrance into the circle was bumper to bumper and no one could move. Then about 20 years ago, police stationed themselves at every major traffic circle and when someone tried to push in, the cop would just point at the offender and glare. It only took 2 weeks for everyone to know that you have to wait to enter the circle, and ever since then it has been self-enforcing. Once pushy Boston drivers got the idea, their pushiness was refocused, and anyone already in the circle would honk and glare at folks who didn't respect their right-of-way.
8
Automotive anarchy began with the "California Stop." The majority of drivers today treat stop signs as yields. FWIW this selfish practice scares the bejesus out of oncoming motorcyclists who brake hard since "rolling" indicates they haven't (yet) been seen. From there AA progressed to drivers continuing to make left turns long after the green arrow disappears - sometimes as many as a half dozen - quite common in most urban areas today. The logical "next" phase is drivers blasting away from red lights early when the oncoming left-turn lane is empty. I mean, why not? The only selfish driving practice Americans have yet to fully embrace is making their own lanes, although bike lanes are frequently ignored, as cyclists are commonly viewed as interlopers on public roads. The final phase will, of course, be totally ignoring traffic control devices "Because I didn't see anyone coming," a defense that should carry a minimum $2000 fine. Automotive Anarchy, here we come!
2
Went to know someone, just put them behind the wheel. It's a great piece by David, some generalizations aside, and a bit preaching to the choir, who else would get it?
6
Great commentary, should be used in all Driving classes!
5
Another WWJD. What would Jesus do? We all need someone else to figure out kindness,etc. I don't buy it.
2
Ira Flatow thinks the reason we are developing driverless cars is so people can stay on Google longer. Can't Google and drive, so... technology to the rescue.
What happens to the culture of civility when you aren't the driver?
3
Actually Brooks has a point. My town has a 2500 car parking lot at a major commuter train station. On he evening rush hour trains arrive discharging
many passengers. Cars exiting from several points in one lot have to enter a long line of traffic exiting the station . If one car stops to let a car into the line, all the cars behind will follow suit. Curtesy is contagious.
6
I agree on that driving should be an act of caution, civility, observation, and kindness. That's because it's such a deadly thing to do.
Jesus, however, the character in the book "The New Testament", based on my reading of Matthew 19, would have a huge problem with our current transportation system which relies on the ownership of property (he, remember, didn't believe in owning anything). But his advice to those who drove the busses would be, of course, kindness and tolerance.
4
Drivers in Boston will not let you cut into a queue for a highway exit lane, but it's not out of hostility towards you. Rather, it's because of cooperativeness and civility towards the people who have queued up behind them. We in the queue are all in this together. If you want to be part of a civil society, take your place in line.
Should a driver successfully cut into a queue, the trailing drivers are not mad at that driver; they are mad at the driver who permitted the cut. If anything, there is admiration for the driver who successfully exploited the weakness of the driver who permitted the cut.
Down here in CT, there is a limitless supply of polite drivers who permit the queue cut, and large number of people willing to take them up on their polite offers because they can. As a result, those in the queue sit, victims of the friendly folks ahead who have no thought for their queued-up fellows.
I prefer the Boston method.
3
Another question: does the pope drive his own vehicle? If not, how is he qualified to give advice on driving? Might add that to the list of questions on which the clergy has no experience, but also no reluctance about addressing, like marriage and sexual relations.
2
He can observe other drivers ,can't he?
4
I have always desired buying a Brinks truck but I can't seem to find a used dealer. I would think it would be a wonderful, safe way to travel given the aggressiveness of most people. I don't really agree with the comment that drivers from Seattle or Oregon are the least aggressive...we often comment when someone flies past us on the freeway...well...see...they have an Oregon license plate!
1
I'd argue that it's the inherent culture of driving, rather than the culture of place, that leads to aggression and hostility. Of course it will vary, but there is a lot of research about how car culture--where everyone is literally in their own bubble and is not forced to interact with people face-to-face--makes it easier to be selfish and competitive than, say, walking down a street where you have to actually look at someone and might be more likely to step aside to let them pass by because only a narrow stretch of sidewalk has been plowed (as happened to me last night).
That's why the solution is prioritizing pedestrian access, biking, and public transportation!
5
The late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the international Transcendental Meditation movement, said "If only 1% of the world meditated, there would be peace for a thousand years."
His wisdom is an articulation of the truth that kindness is contagious, compassion is a teacher and that peace can be possible everywhere.
When you give, the whole world gets.
10
The streets of Boston, you must remember, were once cow paths. Cows meander. They have no sense of direction, are not particularly motivated to get anywhere, and only move together if herded. This makes Boston the perfect place for Jesus to drive, walk, shepherd, and save souls.
4
I drive frequently in both the United States and Northern Europe. I drive completely differently here at home. On the highway I sit in the slow lane, barely above the limit and try to keep a 100 feet between me and vehicle in front. The fruitcakes in the faster lanes race by at 100+ feet per second with maybe a couple of car-lengths between them and the vehicle in front. Given the physics of an accident, this is suicidal behavior. I stay away from it as much as I can. In Northern Europe drivers are more skillful, more courteous, more disciplined and far more likely to extend a courtesy and acknowledge one their receive. It’s like chalk and cheese and I prefer the cheese.
9
I think perhaps the Pope drifted out of the lane a bit here. Instead of the driving part, perhaps he should have spoken about how we act when we're stuck in a traffic jam or some other queue - where the virtue of patience is infinitely tested.
As an aside: American's in particular seem to be born with the virtual certainty of three things: We are all great drivers. We are all expert marksmen. And we are all incredible in the sack. Is there a Pope-ly way to say, "You're kidding me. Right?" Um - and for what its worth - I suspect that Jesus' transportation choices would more closely align with those of the Amish or a hitchhiker.
I live in Washington DC, so I feel extra, visceral pain inflicted on our nation and the world by the nefarious, unprincipled, and selfish government officials from Trump, his minions, the obsequious GOP Congress (yes, McConnell and Ryan being the most odious and self-serving), and the various crooked, servile and sycophantic Department heads.
As for driving around the DC metro and Beltway area, it seems by and large that general driving courtesy has been improving.
There are still entitled and rude drivers that cause grief and anxiety (it must be written standard driving MO in the BMW divers manual). Prayers should be offered for their demise.
However, I think the most exasperating drivers are the ones who seem to have there critical thinking and problem solving organ stuck in a biologically impossible part of their anatomy. They drive considerably below the sped limit, change lanes abruptly without using their turn signals, seem to be perplexed where they are in the space-time continuum or how they need to get to their destination. They are generally clueless about the rules of the road. I think Pope Francis needs to issue an Encyclical on Educated and Efficient Driving.
Of course, drivers with out-of-state license plates (beyond the tristate DC region) need to be allowed special dispensation and patience for not knowing how to navigate the somewhat confusing roads in this area.
2
Great article David and, sadly, all too true. Every day I am baffled and scared by the way so many people drive. They obviously feel immortal, and far more important than anyone else. They are also poor time managers or why would they have to be in such a hurry, and they are being a poor example to children and teens. Jesus would say, if you must drive, obey all laws and follow the golden rule, or don't drive at all.
8
When driving, turning one’s “cheek” too often only gets you 2 “Hit ‘n Run” crumbled fenders.
1
I think you could write a very similar column regarding blogging behavior and other social media expression. How would Jesus blog?
1
In the old days Jesus would have hitch-hiked or maybe driven a converted school bus with lots of seats so he could pick up passengers for free. Further.
Today he's probably uber and tip in cash. He bicycle whenever possible.
2
Bravo, Mr Brooks! Escaping reality by parroting driving lessons from the (however likeable) figurehead of a sinister order that exploits gullibility, mandates socially repugnant ideas and protects criminal behavior, all under the strength of childish religious dogmas.
Frankly, you missed the opportunity of saying nothing.
1
And you,too, A.P.P., missed a splendid chance to keep silent.
As did I !
3
It’s interesting because I’ve seen a change in drivers behaviors as shared car services have invaded San Francisco - it’s awful. So many drivers for Uber and Lyft are not from here and don’t know the driving culture of SF or really city driving. You don’t just stop in the middle of a fast moving one way street to drop off or pick up a passenger. Their driving is so selfish and frankly dangerous.
I actually miss the taxi drivers, they were far safer than the majority of the shared car drivers. As a result I’m walking, biking and taking public transportation more because I don’t want to drive with these idiots on the road and neither do I want to sit in their cars. I wish they would learn to drive like the residents or go back to wherever they came from or self-driving cars are implemented, because they most certainly do not drive like Jesus would.
2
In these parts, Jesus wouldn’t last a week. First, he’d be walking or riding a bike, and Oklahoma has few dedicated bike lanes and often no sidewalks. If he were driving anything, it would be a Nissan Leaf, hardly a match for the preferred vehicle of the macho set, a Ford F-250 pickup or (for the little lady) a 6000-pound Cadillac Escalade. And because he’d drive respectfully, he would certainly upset many of his road companions, many of whom sport long guns in the rear windows of their pickups. And turning the other cheek? That just gives them time to reload!
7
This is a very good thoughtful article and I am usually no fan of Mr. Brooks. We recently spent a weekend in Kansas City, MO. We stayed across Ward Parkway overlooking Country Club Plaza when the Christmas lights were on. I realized immediately that people were not as courteous as they are in some of the other cities we visit, for instance, Taos, NM. Drivers in Taos go out of their way to let you in if you are in an awkward situation in traffic. However, the beauty, culture, and great restaurants in Kansas City make up for the inconvenience of some of the people we run into there. And, in all fairness, it may be they are not the natives. Thank you, David Brooks, I will be more attentive to your future articles.
3
I am a lifetime Roman Catholic who has often asked himself "what would Jesus do?". As a pre-boomer, I am now learning how to be a loving grandfather and, again, asking "what would Jesus do?". Fortunately, He responded quickly at Mass one Sunday morning. The congregation had just concluded the Lord's Prayer with the priest's exhortation: "Peace be with you". At that moment in the Mass, the worshippers turn to one another with a handshake to share "peace be with you". As I turned around that Sunday, I confronted a shy young boy uncertain of the moment. I instinctively reached out with a "high-five" and his face illuminated with a look and smile of sudden joy...alleluia. And his parents did the same.
The regulars in that section of church on Sundays now wink and smile as I enter a pew before Mass. I often repeat my high-fives with nearby younger worshippers after the Lord's Prayer. A few adults occasionally turn to me at that moment with their own high-fives, a quick smile and "peace be with you". I have also taken these moments to casual public places. When a young couple approaches with a toddler in tow, I reach out --"high-five". The glowing look and smile flashes instantly, and the parents say "you've made our day". I think Jesus drives with holy "high-fives". Peace and love.
17
Many years ago, when I worked for a large international bank, I would take weeklong trips visiting the bank's offices in five cities in five days. Usually my itinerary would have me in Toronto the day after being in New York City. What q contrast. New Yorkers used their horns all the time. Toronto, on the other hand, exhibited a deafening silence of horns. Those two days on my trips were good lessons on the difference between aggressive and relaxed.
4
I really liked this article and Pope Francis's coining of the phrase"artisans for the common good" . Driving here in Mexico is quite something, needless to say. But since I returned to live here a four years ago, I have also found more civility among drivers in the heavily trafficked streets. I also am always grateful as well as letting them get into my lane. It's the simple actions of human beings that eventually will make this world a bit better.
7
"Driving means making a thousand small moral decisions: whether to tailgate to push the slowpoke faster, or to give space; whether to honk only as a warning or constantly as your all-purpose show of contempt for humanity.
I like that. It applies to me and all Seattle drivers you say "dawdle". I can imagine an app that measures how cars race through traffic would find Seattle drivers not doing that. We're STUCK in traffic much of the time and inch along as we can.
Seattle's polite culture is breaking down on the roads. At one 4-way intersection I traverse often, it's not unusual for 2 cars going one direction to barrel through before yielding the intersection to people traveling perpendicular to them. When I'm in the intersection signalling a left turn and the light turns yellow, 2 more cars often barrel through before I can complete my turn, through a red light. Drivers dash in front of me from side streets and businesses, daring me to get hit or get out of the way. Some drivers tailgate me when I'm driving 10 miles over the speed limit in the far left lane. I opt to move to the right, but when the next tailgater comes along and there is some risk to moving to the right, I slow down - and get the finger before the driver whips around me.
Seattle uses what little federal and state money it gets, and we tax ourselves for more mass transit. We are struggling to hold on to our culture of predictable generosity and some peace of mind as we get where we need to go.
7
Your comment kathy b shows why the blue states are such suckers and maybe it's time to play tough with the USA as a whole. They would be zero without the money that OUR economies generate. The red states would be in complete devastation without our donor taxes. And yet we get nothing in federal dollars to fund the infrastructure which if it were improved would provide sanity to we who drive the national economy. Sigh.
1
There's a lot of good psychology here. I was pleased to get objective evidence for a long held opinion: drivers in Memphis where I grew up are aggressive. Even more interesting was the standing of Massachusetts drivers, though I would like to speak in their defense. Years ago, my wife and I lived in the Boston area for two years. We were amazed at the way people drove, but when we had to get drivers' licenses, we discovered that much of what people did on the roads was legal. The important rules seemed to be "don't hit" and have insurance. Much driving behavior was a reasonable response to roads that still followed cow paths and which had few right angle turns. A few years ago we were visiting our daughter, and drove into Cambridge just after all the power had gone out. No traffic lights. We could not tell it made much difference to traffic flow, and our old habits let us manage very well. After concerts in Little Rock, and I think without driving aggressively, we are usually among the first cars out of the parking garage. Boston skills transfer and convey advantages.
4
Some time ago I decided that one small thing I could do to help the reputation of my city (Louisville KY) was to let people in line while driving when they signaled a need for it. Result: I get let into lines all the time myself. Lovely payback for a good deed.
6
It's been noted in the Roman Press that Pope Francis I, who keeps an apartment in town, can be seen scooting around in a compact Ford or Fiat. So, Mister Brooks, what does that say about The Pontiff? Small is good. Flashy ostentatious show-offing Ferrari's are not needed when you're the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Conspicuous consumption is the bailiwick of the insecure, the small-fingered vulgarian obsessed with constantly remaining in the spotlight. Whom could that be?
A lesson in humility : Pope Francis I personified.
Its antithesis: Trump.
Trump and people like him will never get it. They think the more possessions they accumulate, the richer they become, the more they are admired. Please, someone tell them, that is not admiration they're seeing. Only those addicted to the same sense of greed are attracted to such gluttons.
All of them could learn a lesson from the Holy Father, a man whose values carry the greatest import, caring for others, doing onto them as you would have them do unto you. That is what brings about a richness in life which has no price.
Pope Francis has something Trump and people of his ilk will never have. And that is: enough.
DD
Manhattan
26
One can learn a national character by watching how people drive. Thanks to youtube and recent Russian law, one can spend hours watching dash cam videos of Russian drivers and can make valid observations about their cultural values and habits that extend beyond driving. One can easily see the difference between Russian and American drivers. You can see how they think.
1
Good column, but this line is priceless.
those of us from the New York/New Jersey area treat driving as if it were foreplay to genocide.
11
How would Jesus want enforcement officers to deal with traffic law violators?
2
I agree with other comments. Jesus would not drive. He would care enough about humanity to take the bus, subway, walk and bike. Our cars are killing us and the future.
2
And for Trump, his presidential motorcade explains it all - it's a showy, look at me display that pisses everyone off and, not only halts any communal forward progress, but actively pushed everyone behind...
2
Great article, David! I'll try to remember this as I compete to get thru the light before it changes to red.
2
This nice piece hits the nail on the head with the turn the other cheek theme. But like many Brooksian pieces, it lacks a certain historicity in explaining why, for instance, Massachusetts drivers are so bad. It's not so much the drivers as the former meandering cow paths that have been turned into roads for machines that can go from 0 to 60 in a few seconds. In Worcester one can find bumper stickers that say "This car survived Kelley Square," and believe me, if you've ever tried to navigate that intersection, you know what it means.
1
I think Jesus would drive focused, not feverishly tweeting while he drives or talking on his cell. He would obey traffic rules as a safety measure and stop for pedestrians and to let another driver into the stream of traffic even if it meant he would be late for an appointment. In other words he wouldn't drive like most of us.
2
not feverishly tweeting - but wouldnt he want to be sharing wisdom and revelations with his disciples all the time? I think if he came back we would expect a constant barrage of tweets from him.
He would obey traffic rules - I dont know, he was a rebel who sure didnt follow the rules, and even defied the laws of nature. Plus I think he might have a problem with drunk driving, what with those bottles of water turning into wine so easily.
1
I firmly believe you can tell more about someone's personality by being a passenger in their car for ten minutes than any other way.
Talk is cheap; I judge a person by their actions and, for me, there is no better personality test than the road test.
6
Having lived in many cities in various parts of the world, I have found - during the last four years or so, as a resident of San Diego - that Californians use/abuse their horns far less than drivers in, e.g. Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, Arkansas, Tennessee and Maine. I associate this phenomenon with California's having so soundly rejected Trump in the 2016 election.
1
"Driving means making a thousand small moral decisions"
The first decision is whether to drive at all. Piloting two tons of metal on a public right of way demands great skill and focused attention. Far too many people choose to drive when impaired, distracted, depressed, or angry.
What Would Jesus Drive? I think Jesus would mostly walk or bike.
11
I have experienced the so-called "Pittsburgh left" courtesy.
An enjoyable diversion from depressing events in Washington and Hollywood, and as you put it, the sleaze. Here in the burbs of NYC, the BMW drivers are indeed the most aggressive and most entitled of any badge on the road. They are followed by any brand with the all over darkened windows (our state law limiting the degree of darkening and the specific windows involved notwithstanding).
There is another factor cancelling out civility. As is oft mentioned, we have an out of control opioid addiction crisis. It is manifesting itself on our roads, David. After driving for decades, I can say without fear of contradiction, that we now see a wild aggressiveness, bordering on demolition derby rules with all too many drivers. My conclusion is that this behavior goes beyond 20 year olds texting. It is beyond mere distraction. It is the product of minds clouded by desperation and addiction. Then add in our well documented individualism and lack of empathy or simple kindness and you have your explanation.
4
Thank you. Once again, your column provides much food for thought. It will help me remember to be a more considerate driver.
4
It was back during Reagan that I observed that a nation incapable of using a turn signal is likely incapable of maintaining a democracy.
I cannot tell you what sadness I feel that the Orange Ordure is the period at the end of our democracy.
7
Such a strange column. Why this topic?
Mr. Brooks is a Conservative. As a progressive, I have always thought that "Me First" was Rule #1 for Conservatives, as defined by their legislation. (As opposed to the progressive "We all do better when we all do better").
So, all of a sudden has Mr Brooks noticed something about other drivers, or himself? Is he one of those "Me First" drivers who has had an epiphany?
(Why bring Jesus' name into this? With His vows of poverty, wouldn't he hitchhike? How did He pay for His driving license?)
2
After living in Boston, my wife and I moved to Greenfield Ma. I thought the driving would be easier. Boy, was I wrong. Pick up trucks flying up and down the roads in the rural setting. These drivers are not only 20 somethings they are 70 plus . I know it is a dream but every week we buy lottery tickets hoping to escape to Manhattan.
b
7
The primary reason for the problem is everyone, including me, thinks they are doing right and the other drivers are the problem. You can see this reflected in the comments to this article. Jesus would probably say something like, "Don't point out the poor tread on someone else's tire when you have a gaping hole in your tire."
4
Let he who is without sin honk the first horn.
2
God bless Pope Francis. And David Brooks, for that matter. The artisan of the common good doesn't apply just to driving. It's a standard for the way we all act in the public space.
3
MR. BROOKS:
I REALLY, REALLY LIKED THIS OP-ED!
P.S. Sorry if my praise sounds like a Trump tweet, but Ithis op-ed was immensely delightful and right on the mark.
9
I have heard that David does not read his comments. I hope he will. This column showed me a new side of him that I quite enjoyed. It is dark and gloomy in CA today, and I know that most of the USA is struggling with cold and snow and ice. I am glum as I see the antics of the DOJ (under force from trump I am sure) and the congressional GOP (in their faux investigations.) But this column made me laugh and nod my head. Pretty good for an end of a short week!
2
I'm so glad to read something that doesn't include the name "Trump" that I might be willing to think more about how I drive.
3
Im not buying this argument for a second. Massachusetts may have bad drivers, but it is one of the most tolerant, communitarian and compassionate places in the nation. Meanwhile in conservative Kansas City and Alabama people drive politely, in spite of living in arguably much more selfish socities. America is a far more self-centered, capitalist society than Morocco, and yet driving is pretty safe in America and virtual suicide in Morocco. I will never forget how polite the car rental agent was in Marrakech, shaking our hands and serving us tea, before we headed out into the massive unsignaled intersections, where every encounter with another vehicle was a game of chicken with the rudest drivers Ive ever seen. There is simply no correlation between driving habits and the general friendliness of a society.
3
Speaking for myself, a lifetime native of Massachusetts, I know that I was a much more aggressive and rude driver when I was younger. I leaned on the horn, cut anyone off first who was trying to do the same to me, and yelled "idiot", "moron", and worse at transgressors.
With age comes wisdom or better survival driving skills. I hold my own on the road, but am not aggressive, I can't tell you the last time I used the horn or yelled at anyone, and I always let someone in the lane in front of me, especially if they are trying to get over to an exit. In short, I am now a courteous driver who drives defensively because I value my life, and because there are crazy people out there driving on the roads.
5
On the East coast savvy pedestrians adhere to the dictum that when you enter a crosswalk the result is that you will be either “the quick or the dead.”
1
One of my most amusing vacation experiences was in Naples Italy where my driver ranted about the lawlessness of the city and the need for a strong mayor like Giuliani who would crack down on scofflaws the way he had in New York. As he ranted about crime he made several illegal left turns and drove the wrong way on a short one way street.
1
If Jesus drove on water, would he hydroplane or, since he's the son of God, would he glide like a hydrofoil?
The article also provides a clear and easily defensible position that 100% of Altanta is made up of idiots. Why are you all stopping in the middle of the highway in order to use the exit?
Silly David. Jesus, like Pope Francis, would be driven in a bulletproof vehicle in a police-escorted motorcade that would show disregard for everyone else. Such are the trappings of power and celebrity. No one else matters.
How would Jesus drive? Given that he was a poor man who lived among poor people, the answer is obvious. He wouldn’t; he’d take the bus.
3
Jesus would, of course, be taking public transit.
3
He would be a bicyclist, David.
3
I do not know whether the Pope once knew how to drive. But his call for "prudent driving" does not take into account the frustrating conditions of bumper-to-bumper traffick and the impunity of timid and operations driivers on the roads neglected by local authorities. It is in people's blood to wish to travel with a velocity approaching at least that of the speed of sound in air.
1
This piece reminds me of Jon Stewart's brilliant monologue during the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear". On jumbotrons scattered throughout the mall in Washington DC he played video of cars merging into the entrance of the Holland Tunnel using the scene as a metaphor for society in general. Most cars seamlessly fell in line as the road went from 4 lanes to 2 with drivers either gently accelerating to slide in front or taking their foot off the gas to let another slide by: "I go, you go". At one point we saw the inevitable car trundling along the berm and trying to jump the line at the last minute (no one would let it in) Stewart said "everyone hates that guy" and we all laughed - so true!
12
What happens in the traffic is a reflection of other aspects of our lives.
If you are, say, a mechanic of expensive models, you have to show humility when the driver of a Ferrari Testarossa asks why his car was not able to pass a humble Ford Mustang GT, built 5 years ago. "Well, I told you that we had to change the air filter, but you did not accept my recommendation. Sir."
"Nevertheless I love you, and your car, because you have provided me with a stable job to sustain my family throughout the years. Sir."
"No I am not neither angry, nor disappointed. I always say that if I made a good analysis of the situation I am in a win-win situation, because if the owner of the Ferrari Testarossa accepts my recommendation I win, and if he does not accept my recommendation I also win, when the owner realizes that the car is not working as expected".
Odds are that a humble mechanic of a Ferrari Testarossa has to deal with a powerful guy all the time. The Pope is absolutely right. "We have to move in the traffic with good sense and prudence" Long live Francis and David Brooks.
5
Have you ever driven on the Mass Turnpike? Those people are nuts!!! Driving in Massachusetts is terrifying. Those statistics don't surprise me at all. I have only once been in a situation where I thought "wow, that near miss almost killed me" and it was on the Mass Turnpike.
But way to deflect the world's ills on bad driving!
One quibble. Do not equate "cutting in at the last moment" instead of lining up miles in advance with a lack of fairness and equality.
Roads are designed by highly qualified engineers, and they are designed to be used to their full capacity. If there are two or three lanes, cars should use all equally up until the point of merger.
Cars lining up for miles in the right lane, while the left lane(s) sit empty causes congestion, delays, pollution, time loss, frustration, and more.
Using the full capacity of the road - all lanes - and then merging in a "zipper" fashion - left, right, left, right - is the correct, fair, safe, and efficient way to use the road.
When people line up too far in advance, and don't follow the correct procedure, it's not fair to blame the people who do drive correctly for being "unfair".
13
That's absolutely true, as explained in Tom Vanderbilt's fascinating book, "Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)."
3
I would go as far as to say that the intelligence level of a community can be measured by how efficiently people drive, in terms of saving highway space and everyones precious time. That puts New York and Boston at the top of the list for being smart. The left lane is a good example. In Boston, if youre not going 75, you stay the hell out of the left lane, and it works great to keep traffic moving. Go to the South, and there may be 5 lanes of traffic, each with an oblivious polite moron toodling along at 45, with no respect for the left lane, ruining your day. Of course drivers are more polite in places where there is no traffic and tons of road capacity. But people in more congested areas require more skill and more intelligence to get around.
Wrong...it is those people who cut at the last second that impede the flow of traffic fro their own lane - stopping to cut in in a lane that is meat to be moving causes WAY more harm than people lining up in an exit.
1
I live in a community of senior citizens. If you don’t mind risking your life, drive within the speed limit or walk across the street. Why the hurry? I’m reminded of Toscanini’s reply when asked why he conducted music so fast: “I don’t want to sound like an old man.”
Why the hurry?? Time is precious. We all have better things to do than sit in traffic.
When you're young you'll understand.
1
"Aggression breeds aggression..."
"...or are we in a place where it’s dog eat dog?"
"Are my needs more important than everybody else’s, or are we all equal?"
These are very interesting questions, coming from a conservative that has supported / supports Aynd Rand lover Paul Ryan. How do you reconcile a society that is "kind" while the best way to survive is to behave according to the norms for "survival of the fittest"?
I guess what it gets me is the hypocrisy...
1
If you drive while texting, doing email or talking on the phone you're saying to everyone else on the road that your communication is more important to you than my family's safety.
If you drive drunk of high you're saying to everyone else on the road that your desires or addiction are more important to you than my family's safety.
7
Three point turns are obstructive. The People Pope should have called for the Rockford 180.
1
Studies show that when there is a lot of traffic waiting to exit, staying in your lane and moving over at the last second--called "the zipper method"--may be perceived as cutting but is in fact the safest and most efficient approach and can decrease congestion by as much as 40%. Early mergers create long, slow lines of traffic. Merging at the last moment is also safer because everyone is moving at the same speed. Colorado, Minnesota and other states have been trying to educate drivers to do this.
5
It would be cruel to ride a donkey through modern traffic so Jesus would be riding a humble bicycle.
2
I do 15,000 miles per year of driving in the NY metro area during some of the most busy and road-congested times. I have concluded that 30% of drivers are sociopathic morons. Speeding, tailgating and a most recent phenomenon of not stopping for Stop Signs has made driving the most commonly dangerous thing after opioid abuse. Computer driven cars, which will remove the human potential for mayhem, cannot come soon enough, and, hopefully in time for my two toddler grandsons not to have to worry about life and limb while driving or walking as they get older.
3
This column strongly resonates with me, in my years of observing the general lack of courtesy, empathy and spatial logic practiced by a majority of drivers. Extrapolating to other manifestations of behavior, I have often wondered how anyone who has experienced the American roadway can argue that an armed society is a safe society! A major issue regarding driver competency is that driving is regarded as a natural right. Competency and judgment are optional. Significant proportions of the driving public have on idea how to manage an unposted four-way intersection; what to do if a lane is blocked on a narrow street, or even the restrictions of use of a left lane on a highway. Many approach these issues as a game of chicken, or of personal entitlement. This is another example of our particular American rampant individualism trumping the sense of community!
4
How we treat pedestrians is also an indicator of a community's well-being. In most New England towns cars will yield to pedestrians, especially when they are in a crosswalk. In other parts of the country and in urban areas, one might get a ticket for jaywalking for the same behavior. In this case, I think New England has it right...
3
David,
One of the best columns you've done in ages.
The basic challenge facing democratic societies is the tension between mine and ours. Driving is the same.
Thanks for your perception on this.
2
This piece is Brooks, perhaps at his best. Who else would have such insight about every day occurences? It is a beautiful essay.
2
I'm sorry, but you're no longer relevant Mr. Brooks. Now that DJT and repub controlled congress are ruining this country (and the planet), you seem to have veered away from socio-political conversations to ... nothing important really. A guy like you should be at the forefront of a movement to re-establish a GOP image that is as distant to the current GOP as you see fit. Instead, you write metaphorically about cars, lol.
2
Is this the same pope that heads an institution that traditionally fostered the abuse of “normal folks” through sexual predation, and continues, through its doctrine, to subjugate the “normal folk” women? I think Jesus would push the pedal to the floor, and drive away as fast as he could from such a place. This is the authority reference with which Brooks underpins the credibility of his point?
And David, do you not see any irony in the fact that the most aggressive drivers are in blood red states like Tennessee and Arizona, and the least aggressive are in solid blue states like Washington and Oregon? Now that would be a subject worthy of a column, instead of using that glaring statistic to support yet another installment of warm and fuzzy, fanciful Brooksian kumbaya.
1
The Pope really needs to talk about himself and not "ride the back" of JE Sus so The Pope can stand on an alter and nominate himself God for a day, King for a day, smartest person of the class. (you have to earn smartest person via standardized testing). Actually, people who follow The Pope don't actually follow JE Sus, because Jesus is not on stage talking about his own opinions, telling everyone what he thinks, who he politically endorses, what he drives, what he is about. The follow The Pope, who has allowed horrible crimes to happen in his church, horrible inequality to happen. The Pope's interpretation of JeSus is his alone, and it is a very unintelligent, not very well respected opinion among the highly educated. How well did The Pope do in School? Is he even literate? What is his IQ Score. Or, like Trump, The Pope is there via voting, as opposed to earning. If you are going to follow God, God must be the one talking, for how would anyone know what God would actually say, do. Do not put words in Jesus's mouth, do not put words in God's mouth, do not put words in The Messiah's mouth..... Hey Pope, ride your own back, and take responsibility for all of the horrors that have happened in your church.
Jesus would ride the bus...
2
If he was in Arizona, with his likely complexion and a name like Jesus, he would have to drive pretty carefully to avoid being profiled and pulled over for "Driving While Hspanic"
17
David I liked your emphasis on "artisan of the common good". The nature of modern society and technology requires that we share the risks of travel on congested thoroughfares with all types of vehicles: 18 wheel highway freight haulers, tourist busses, delivery vans, and speeding police, ambulance and fire trucks.
I commute, a 10 mile run, that averages about 1 hour of congested hell. I have lots of time to think about roadway safety: highway fatalities and injuries, health harming tailpipe emissions in the high density polluting commuting corridors, the huge healthcare cost of driving and the public cost or maintaining, repairing, and improving our transportation infrastructure. It is not a trivial number. The number is probably the single largest component of our gross national product.
Our societal performance is not good especially in reducing CONGESTION. A factor often missed by our planners and designers, even the ambitious designers of robotic vehicles.
The best passive safety system that I have ever heard to reduce the bad outcomes of congestion, was the idea of the late Senator Pat Moynihan of NY to use the rights-of-way of our Interstate Highway System to construct a national Maglev network to transport trucks and passenger vehicles at 300 mph between metropolitan areas. See www.magneticglide.com for concept. This system was invented in the US and demonstrated by Japan, US development was stopped by competing interests but, clearly, its time has come.
1
I've told my three adult children that before they become involved romantically with someone, they should follow that person when he/she is driving. Watching someone's driving behavior is a surefire way to discover selfishness, aggression, and sense of superiority.
283
Good advice. I have told my adult daughter three rules for whether or not she dates someone: 1) the person has a job. 2) the person has a car ( we're in a rural area). 3) the person drives that car with curtesy.
2
> Way to go, Massachusetts!
We're defensive drivers. And everyone knows that the best defense is a good offense.
3
Yes!!! I've been inarticulately thinking these same thoughts as I moved from WY to Bay Area to CO in the last year--he's covered just about everything that outright prayer that I may not be dangerously revengeful as I drive, and deliberate mindfulness practice, have brought home to me. Except maybe my wondering whether Beamer and Tesla drivers get a certificate with their cars that exempts them from the rules for everyone else, so it's really not their fault after all? Now I'm trying not 'react' as a victim turning other cheek, but to act as a responsible capable driver committed to the public good, wishing well to all...
I don't know about Jesus, but if God were driving here in Boston, He would simply part the traffic as He did the Red Sea.
5
When I drove an ambulance I occasionally did exactly that. I would drive down the middle of two lanes of traffic, moving in the same direction, and they would part like the Red Sea. It was fun.
1
David, You will find my response silly as in the grand scheme of things it is...
How timely this article. In 4 or so years we will be fully retired. We are a little nuts in that we only drive classic cars. As a graduate of a major university's environmental collage...driving 70 year old cars is something of an oxymoron.
We live in the middle of San Francisco and have for 30 years averaged about 3000 miles a year combined driving. That coupled with the fact that we did not have children means that our carbon footprint for three decades is so low that what we drive is almost irrelevant.
When we retire in a few years, we want to travel the USA in our 1940's Desoto. Just parking it at a restaurant almost guarantees that we will get to know some locals on the way in or out. We like that.
The problem is that a 4500 pound car with a 100HP engine does nothing fast. We have driven this car for 15 years in Northern California. Over the last few years it is becoming apparent that people have declining levels of grace. When on the freeway people cut in front of us do to the long stopping distance we maintain. The cut us off and stomp on their anti-lock breaks without a thought. Hello! Drum brakes on old cars!
The behavior of driving that is getting more aggressive. So, we am looking to tear this car apart and place a new chassis and engine in it just to survive out there on the roads.
That would be shame, as graceful transportation is a now a thing of the past.
4
A wonderful custom project: the body of your Desoto with a modern chassis, suspension, and drive train. Unique and gorgeous. Otherwise, you endanger yourselves and others on limited-access highways. Be safe and have fun!
1
AMEN! And besides revoking the individual mandate, did Congress also revoke the requirement that cars have working turn-signals? I seem to have missed that one!
3
I agree that driving is an excellent example of public morality and a worthy barometer of civic culture. David makes no reference to what I believe is a growing epidemic of distracted driving, fueled by addictions to smartphones. As a personal injury attorney, I have dealt with the aftermath of numerous tragic vehicle accidents caused by drivers who were talking or texting. As a citizen, I am disturbed by how frequently I see drivers looking down in their laps when they should be looking up. Such behavior tells other drivers, "my need to communicate is more important than your safety." Laws barring such behavior are difficult to enforce. There should be public campaigns similar to those waged against drunk driving to shame drivers into changing their behavior.
4
I recall the incident where Trump drove his golf cart on the putting greens, which is frowned upon/forbidden. That should give some indication of how he would follow the rules of the road.
2
a number of years ago, after spending most of my life being a selfish, aggressive driver, I almost got in what would surely have been a fatal accident when i stubbornly refused to let someone merge from an on ramp. My wife screamed at me why didn't you just let him in? It was then I realized that the 2 seconds I would have gained would add nothing meaningful to my life. After that I began letting others in and getting the friendly wave. Learning to be nice changed my life, I recommend it to all.
24
To me, the decision between these two actions you describe, “…if you get over to the right and wait your turn in a crowded highway exit lane, rather than cutting in at the last moment”, defines who plays by the rules and who cheats. But we have laws in place to prevent cheating and there is no reason today’s technologies cannot prevent cheating in these cases. Install EZPass-like cameras at all problematic exits and photograph the license plates of anyone who cheats. Algorithms and big data crunching can then be used to thwart cheaters: “Do it once and you get a pass” (assumption that you are from out of town and don’t know better); “Do it again, $100 fine mailed to your house; Do it yet again, $300 fine and get a moving violation; etc”
3
So Boston, Worcester and frankly the rest of Massachusetts, we have a problem don't we?
1
I would like to be at a town hall forum when people passionately say they are not racist about immigration, they just want the laws enforced. Then ask them how many of them obeyed the laws driving there. Somewhere around 0%. Speeders, tailgaters, etc kill more people every minute than M-13 ever will.
4
I grew up in New Jersey and spent a fair amount of my post graduate school life in New York/New Jersey. For graduate school, I spent 6 years in Massachusetts, so I have what I think is a pretty good sample size to work from.
I describe the difference between Massachusetts drivers (especially in Boston) and NYC drivers are they are both crazy, but New Yorkers are predictably crazy -- you know what to expect, they will block intersections trying to turn, force their way in trying to merge etc. Boston drivers, not so much -- I've seen some make left turns on red.
Having lived in DC -- home to our civil servants, a city that cares with a capital "C" -- for 10 years, I have to agree with you. Here's what I would tell my friends about driving there: never put your blinker on because the cars behind you will speed up to prevent you from entering "their lane". Walk in a cross-walk at a red light or stop sign, and more than 50% of cars will release their breaks and move forward to protect "their space" that you as a walker were violating. Drivers were constantly protecting their "entitlements". Seattle, on the other hand, is also a city that cares with a small "c". It has more non-profits and more online philanthropy than any other city in the country. There are intersections with no stop signs, because drivers know who came first and we let them have the right away. No matter how intense the rush hour traffic, drivers patiently wait at the 4 corner stops as each lane takes its turn. Driving habits are a remarkable rorschach test on a culture and its people.
2
Readers of David Brooks' thoughtful essay, "How Would Jesus Drive?" may want to read or re-read "The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Every major character in it--Tom Buchanan, his wife Daisy, her friend the golf player Jordan, and Gatsby himself, breaks traffic laws. Fitzgerald deepens the reader's understanding of the moral flaws of these characters by the way they drive. The only person in the novel who observes all rules of traffic is Nick Carraway, the narrator. It's as if Nick earns the right to judge others by his self-restraint while driving, among other qualities as a human being. Pope Francis would call Nick Carraway, an "artisan of the common good."
2
"BMW drivers are much less likely to brake for pedestrians at crosswalks. Prius drivers in San Francisco commit more traffic violations. People who think they are richer or better than others are ruder behind the wheel." This study was by one of my colleagues at Berkeley. And these are the people, many GOP donors, but not only, who just got a huge (yuge) tax cut. Not only was it non-deserving fiscally, but morally. I will say, however, as a native Californian recently moved to New Mexico from the Bay Area, that Bay Area drivers are the most aggressive I've ever witnessed, including Baltimore. One Bay Area lawyer in his new BMW purposely ran down a (brown) man on a bike and was caught when the speed was so high parts of his bumper were broke off when he hit the guy. Police just went to BMW dealerships in the East Bay Area with the pieces and found him. He denied it and then was indignant that the cyclist was in "his road". This is the best piece of social psychology that Brooks has written. Good work.
4
I concur with the observation that those in the most expensive cars are the rudest and most entitled and often most dangerous. I live in an older neighborhood with narrow streets-very narrow. The neighborhood was built 90 years ago and not for Range Rovers or Chevy Tahoes at all and not even for Volvos and Lexus' if they drive 20 miles over the 25mph limit. And there is the fact that the older houses have one car driveways and 3 cars-2 parked on the street. Huge new houses are being shoehorned onto the old lots often with 3 car garages and 3 huge cars. People can live where they want to and drive where they want to. I am not objecting. But what I do object to is that they give no quarter to grandmothers and toddlers, grandmothers and dogs, young parents out for a walk with small children, older couples, young runners... It is almost never the work truck, the Honda minivan, the student in the old car who forces me to jump off the road and fear for my life 2 blocks from my house on a leafy quiet street. When I have the toddler in a stroller I walk facing traffic so I can see them coming. But they roar up behind you going down the middle at 40 to avoid the cars parked in " their " lane. One is on high alert at all times and it is almost always a person is an extremely expensive, very large car , and quite often a woman. I have actually followed a few to their driveways and conversed with them. ' Excuse me, did you see this little child?"
Abashed they are not.
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Rich people are definitely not the worst drivers in my neighborhood. The most dangerous drivers are in the cars with the tinted windows and the deafening bass booming. Those people respect absolutely nothing.
And what will the arrival of AI and driverless cars mean for our society?
Self-driving cars will be a big improvement, and they will negate this entire discussion. Driving by the rules will no longer be a moral issue because all vehicles will do it. I wrote a message here about this, yesterday.
I was brought up in New York, lived for 7 years in central Illinois and 5 years in the Boston area.
I found Boston drivers to be viciously mendacious. As Brooks column indicates the mid-west drivers are much more courteous. New York drivers are simply crazy.
1
my own motto to driving for the tailgaters, weaving in and out of lanes and cutting people off is pretty simple, just leave ten minutes earlier.
1
That will stick with me, and I will try to do more to live it.
I drove once from Madrid to the Mediterranean coast and received a lesson in civility. If I signaled a lane change in order to pass another driver everyone, in both directions, would made the necessary shifts to accommodate me. Even in the Pyrenees, during an ill-advised rush to get to the next town, trailer trucks politely let me by as long as that little arrow was blinking. But if I forgot to signal, the equivalent of trying to get to the head of the line without even an "Excuse me," I was treated like a bank robber fleeing the police where every other vehicle on the road was a designated law officer charged with impeding my progress. I've never changed lanes without signaling since.
Mr Brooks, as I follow your theme through December about our changing culture and its reactions to enemies and individualism, it is striking that the Pope is by far the least "democratic" in contrast to the list of disappointing figures you mention above. Even the celebrities are "elected" in a fashion. Can you imagine any politician or celebrity ever approaching the ideal of artisan of the common good? And I can believe Jesus would drive a FIAT Lux as a hand-me-down from dad.
This is a momentous day. I don't think I've ever read a column by David Brooks that I wholeheartedly agreed with (and I have been known to occasionally drive like a jerk). However, while we're on the subject of driving, I'd like to point out a few things:
- Pedestrians who passive-aggressively dawdle while crossing the street to show their superiority to drivers are not only rude but aren't doing the planet any favors by making cars wait unnecessarily.
- Motorcyclists (and bicyclists) can help their cause by not driving recklessly.
- Drivers rolling up to a red light in the right lane when they have no plans to turn right can often help traffic flow (and again be kinder to the planet) by getting in the left lane instead.
- Drivers turning left can assist other drivers turning left in the opposite direction by moving as far left as possible to open up sightlines.
I'm sure Jesus would approve of all of these suggestions.
5
Really, youre going to blame pedestrians who walk too slowly? Consider that that person may be tired, old, or disabled, that they may be walking all day long, getting rained and snowed on, waiting endlessly for walk lights, crossing dangerous streets, literally risking their life while all you are risking as a driver is a fender bender, and that for them to go faster requires tiring muscular effort, while all you have to do is push your foot down and instantly go as fast as you want to any place you want.
1
Great piece! Just got back from a short stay in Madison WI. Never feel as safe using a crosswalk as I do there.
.
Makes sense that Seattle and Portland are the least aggressive. Here in the northwestern corner of the country, it seems as if most drivers get into their cars intent upon proving how nice they are.
3
Courteous, safe and respectful drivers only confuse the rest of us.
2
Driving as microcosm for society. As a commuter for too many years I've seen an erosion of civility which mirrors our individualistic obsessed, social media driven populace. Don't move out of the fast lane because its inconvenient to me. Run the red light because failing to make it through is a commentary on my latest failure. And certainly don't acknowledge a person letting me into traffic since they were supposed to do that anyway. Disgusting.
1
Maybe it’s the stress of driving in United States that causes so many of our drivers to ‘drink and drive’. Could be.
1
As a Seattle item I'd agree with the characterization of dawdling. Having been to Madison, I'd say, no, they aren't safe drivers. If you're a pedestrian in Madison, they will run you down. Not from ill will mind you! They just don't know you exist.
What if the slow driver is in the left lane on the interstate? I can still be the morally superior individual while honking in that instance, right?
1
Norms...what a quaint idea!
1
Driving habits seem to be a measure of how you act when people are less likely to see you as a person. You're not completely anonymous, any more than that idiot in the Tesla, but people will do things on the road that they'd never do to one another on a sidewalk. The idea of an artisan of the common good is a great one, so long as people put value in the common good.
I wonder if driving habits indicate on-line habits.
Nice column, David. I can't resist pointing out that Trump shill Jeanine Pirro was recently stopped for speeding at 119 mph. See https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/nyregion/fox-news-host-jeanine-pirro-...
2
Everyone but me is a horrible driver.
2
Why driving has changed:
1. Cars are faster and more reliable.
2. There are too many cars.
3. Rules of the road are for passing the test.
4. People play at being in a race or driving an airplane or rocket ship.
5. People never think they will die.
6. Other cars are cars and not people.
7. People like to ignore each other. (Goes for pedestrians too.)
8. People are way too busy and turned on.
9. Etc.
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10. People are usually all abut "me". Once hardened into this mindset, it becomes contagious.
1
You confirmed what I always thought, that drivers in the Washington DC metropolitan area are aggressive and accident prone but when I moved from Northern Virginia to south Louisiana, outside of New Orleans, my auto insurance rates doubled. I called the insurance company and asked about this. They said the state's insurance commissioner set the rates (really?). In other words the insurance companies charge what they can get away with, no matter how people drive.
I live in San Miguel de Allende Mexico, a city of bout 80,000 folks. There are no traffic lights or stop signs in the city. Almost everyone knows to alternate at intersections. People wave their thanks when you wait for them on narrow streets. As David Brooks says it sets the tone. The people of this city are polite friendly and helpful. I might add, the only exception are visitors driving large SUVs who live in Mexico City, not nearly as friendly a city.
2
David, thanks for once more giving a thoughtful piece. In the past year or so I’ve noticed a thread of kindness that weaves through your columns and it never fails to provoke thought and puts a spring in my step.
3
As somebody who rather enjoys driving and makes it a point to
go with the flow, I resent the increasing use of speed bumps and
photo speed enforcement. Bad driving behavior is actually rare;
that's why it stands out. I suspect that we Americans are the
best drivers in the world when it comes to internalizing the rule
of law.
Item: In Shanghai, my wife and I were passengers with a native --
a successful and generous businesswoman who we had hooked up with
through a friend-of-friend. At a red light at a lightly-traveled
intersection, after waiting a few seconds, she suddenly
accelerated through it. We gasped. Well why not, she said, there
was no cross traffic.
Good points, all. It reminds me of the famous Kenyon College commencement speech by David Foster Wallace, "This is Water." In that speech, driving is one example of a larger lesson--brilliantly tied by DFW to the benefits of higher education, but not exclusive to that realm. While many things are beyond our control, we have the freedom to choose how we experience the world. We can exist in a sort of mindless, default mode: seeing it entirely terms of ourselves, with others (in the supermarket line, in traffic) existing only inasmuch as they hinder or help our goals. But we can also be aware that those "others" have goals, needs, joys and pains, the specifics of which we may not know, but the reality of which we can acknowledge and honor.
3
Yow! Brooks is in one heck of a snit today.
Nice work if you can get it.
1
George Carlin said it best: "No matter how fast you're going, everybody going faster is a maniac, and everybody going slower is a moron."
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How would Jesus Drive? Like anyone else, on the left side of the road in some parts of the world and right side as in this side of the world.
Great opening 2 lines - then the whole column wanders off into an irrelevant wax lyrical that has now become so typical of David Brooks columns.
Not long ago he was cheerleader for all things GOP. Now those chickens have come home to roost, we get articles about the Pope's elegant prose and good driving habits. What next - nostalgia for the flared trousers we all wore when Reagan was in charge?
Seriously Mr Brookes, lets see some opinion pieces about your GOP buddies and their Kow Tow behavior. Let's see what you recommend is done about the idiot in the White House discussed in the next door column.
Driving is not the sort of everyday activity which mold society. Autocratic governments, gerrymandered "democracy" and racial bias is far, far more influential.
The deck chairs on the Titanic look fine to me - go check the lifeboats please.
7
This is an incredibly unfortunate metaphor: "those of us from the New York/New Jersey area treat driving as if it were foreplay to genocide." Really?
3
Mr. Brooks,
I can think of no other column of yours that resonated with me quite so much. I learned to drive in Southeast Florida and, 47 years later, remain here.
Because everyone, apparently, makes it to South Florida eventually, I have the opportunity to observe drivers from every state, territory and foreign nation. I make no claim to a formal study of the matter, but I can state that the two worst groups of drivers that I have observed on a consistent basis are French Canadians (Oui,je me souviens. I will never forget your arrogant, rude behavior behind the wheel) and, of course, the millions of New Yorkers who grace our highways.
For many years I would rail against the "Damn Yankees" who impeded my travels. However, over the last few years, I repented of this attitude and realized that driving, like getting a recalcitrant computer to work, is actually an opportunity to turn the other cheek, to show grace where none may be deserved, and to be patient and forebearing. Driving remains a physical and moral hazard, but it has taken on a new spiritual dimension as I have endeavored to bless those who I formerly wished to drive into a ditch!
I am not proud of my earlier behavior and, on a bad day, it's return. I thank God, however, for the many opportunities He has given me while driving to show kindness to those about me.
Thanks again for a wonderful, and challenging, article.
1
South Floridians are actually the worst drivers I've ever seen in the US. People there assume that they can turn right on red without even slowing down. Theres a reason why Florida has the highest rate of pedestrian fatalities in the nation. Drivers are completely oblivious. They camp out in the left lane going 40 mph. The only way to get anywhere is to weave around all of the slow incompetent people taking up every lane, to which they feel no shame and take no notice. Driving in Miami was the most aggravating experience of my life.
Mr. Russell,
I cannot disagree; however, I would note that the number of native Floridians (such as myself) is incredibly small in South Florida. The vast majority of drivers are from other places, such as New York and South America.
In every other respect I'm a member of the privileged class (white, male, upper middle class, educated, etc. etc.), but in one I'm in a distinct minority. I ride my bike to work, which means that to most drivers I am invisible at best and an intolerable annoyance at worst, to be abused with honking horns, raised middle fingers, angry demands that I get off the road, and the occasional half-empty beer can or bag of trash thrown at me. And yes, this is in Madison, WI, a Bicycle Federation gold-star award winner and a place where drivers apparently get good marks for safety-consciousness. And yes, the worst offenders are driving big ostentatious road-hogging luxury SUVs. (These are the same people who roar up behind me in the left lane on the Interstate while I'm passing a truck at 75 MPH and flash their headlights because I'm not going 85.) Thing is, I'm sure most of these drivers would be perfectly nice, polite people in other situations. Which leads me to conclude that if everyone were to bike to work even one day a week, the Pope's message would resonate with enough people to make a difference.
3
How would Jesus react to Left Lane Bandits, those drivers who insist on doing 55mph in the left lane on 95, thus holding up traffic for miles? Or the driver who you let in on the entrance to 95 who s-l-o-w-l-y accelerates to 60, thus nearly killing you and everyone in back of you as you slam on your brakes to avoid hitting him? Or, and again I'll pick on 95 here, but it could be some other interstate, the driver who cuts across three lanes of traffic because she suddenly realized she's passing her exit? Or the guy guy who stops at a light leaving three car lengths in front of him and is then oblivious to the light changing because he's too busy texting? I could go on here, but I think we can all see where this is heading...
3
I recommend the book Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt for anyone interested in the sociology of driving.
https://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307277194/ref=s...
Excellent short sociological essay
1
Religious fanatics, like the pope, scare me.
2
But I’m going to try to remember one lesson when I hit the road: Though I may be surrounded by idiots, I’m potentially an artisan of the common good.
----------------------
Meh. Your ending is just words, considering your column took an unnecessary swipe in your opening line at our President of the United States, when his driving has nothing to do with the column. (I suspect you are one of those "It's all about ME! drivers, Mr. Brooks, who overestimates his own skills, but that's another comment for another day...)
In Minnesota, which just came out as the city with the second worst drivers in some recent study or the other, people can be TOO Nice with their driving skills. They don't know how to zipper merge. (You really can get over too soon, not utilizing the open lane before closure, which backs up traffic even further, all in an attempt to prove how courteous you are...) Think about it: the best drivers have skilled instincts, and understand how to operate in a given situation. You can go too slow, you can endanger others weaving in and out, and the best drivers of all are those who respect the pockets.
Think on these things? (But now while you are driving! The key rule nowadays is to concentrate on what you are doing, and don't multitask when you are behind the wheel. Ask a trucker to write your next column on how to be a good driver, too. Respect. aka Know Your Role.)
2
In Minnesota, which just came out as the city with the second worst drivers in some recent study or the other, people can be TOO Nice with their driving skills.
----------------------
Correction: STATE rather, before some pedantic wiseacre comments...
(This particular study was done by the insurance company QuoteWizard.)
Midway: Minnesota is not a city.
Jesus would be fine with the zipper merge, Mr. Brooks.
1
I believe it was George Carlin who said if people drive faster than you, they're maniacs. If slower, they're idiots.
2
How about a litter indicator? If I'm willing to bend over and pick up a piece of trash from my neighbor's yard, chances are I live in a community where we're all in it together. If, on the other hand, I ignore that piece of trash (or even worse, add to it with my cigarette butt or empty container), chances are I live in a ghetto where everyone is too busy/self-important/self-absorbed to care about others. And make no mistake, a low-income neighborhood can fall in the first category and a gated sub-development of McMansions can fall in the second. One more example from daily life of a chance to be "an artisan for the common good".
1
What we do know is that, late in His life, Jesus drove a fuel efficient speed regulated ass. His a/c was external, from folks waving palm fronds at him. Of course there was not much traffic in those days, so He had no turn signals. Probably not even a license.
1
Thanks for the very enjoyable essay, Mr Brooks; I wasn't aware the Pope talked about this recently. Have to chase that down and read it. The driving topic is a big one though, and my very dismissive ex-husband used to say I was "reading too much into it" when I commented about driving. Well maybe not. After having driven in nearly every state in the lower 48 and having lived in 5, AND having a CDL in the State of New York for a year I welcome this commentary (and BTW I think 'Socrates' is an a... - okay I can't say it here but he needs to go back to his therapist and up those B vitamins again).
We truly take our lives into our own hands when we drive, and are putting our lives in the hands of others when we're passengers. Not casual stuff. Have to say I'm excited about driverless cars at this point. Which reminds me of the biggest thing I've noticed since moving to New York a year and a half ago: New York drivers are bad, yes (not all though) but at least are ***skilled***. Not so, Massachusetts. Did I mention where my (ex!!) husband was raised??!!!
Oh Jesus! He wouldn’t drive. He certainly wouldn’t drive alone in a gas-guzzling SUV into town simply because he could afford it because the value of his shares in fossil fuels drilling/fracking companies are growing and their corporate tax rate was lowered to 21% before Jesus’ birthday so he could buyback a shitload of those shares and spend a few extra millions to fund the re-election of politicians who guarantee the overriding necessity to sabotage funding to Obamacare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, as well as cuts to Social Security and Medicare to offset $1 trillion added to the federal debt during the next decade.
Jesus will likely walk, ride on the dilapidated subway, a bike, or an ass.
1
Jesus rode an ass into Jerusalem. According to Matthew 21:1-11, He chose a donkey over a colt. In Biblical times, donkeys were associated with peace, horses with war. What's more, riding in on a donkey hints that He connected with the common people. That said, if Jesus drove in the United States today he would probably drive a used car, something commonplace along the lines of a Toyota Camry or a Ford F-150. And I suspect He would be a careful and respectful driver--although, as a Middle Eastern man, that wouldn't preclude Him from getting pulled over in certain parts of the country anyway.
164
and He would ALWAYS carpool and pick up hitchhikers!
1
Jesus would "drive unto others as he would have them drive onto him" and do it in his vehicle of choice: a "cross"-over.
3
" ... potentially an artisan of the common good."
Something is hampering your potential; for your opining reveals few indications. Your tacit acknowledgment of Jesus, as a go to guy for answers, your only suggestion herein.
As for being "surrounded by idiots", try another employer.
1
This column should be distributed at every intersection in Louisville, Kentucky.
America's most obnoxious drivers are the ones late for church. Everything in Nairobi is a complete disaster and that includes all types of traffic intersections and open roads where blind passing is common and lethal.
A local congregation "simulated" a broken down car on a Sunday morning alongside "Florida" road in Durango, Colorado. 3rd Avenue, which turns into Florida is literally lined with churches. They wanted to see how many Sunday morning drivers would stop. Hood up, toy toolkit out, female "owner" standing nearby, safely on a shoulder, 35mph zone. I was told that in 90 minutes only myself and the Sheriff had stopped. Deuteronomy 22:4, eh?
1
"... and those of us from the New York/New Jersey area treat driving as if it were foreplay to genocide."
This reminds me why my subscription to the NYTimes is worth every penny.
2
I think Jesus would drive a Tesla over a cliff in California
Jesus would take the bus.
2
Sorry, but I don't think so. I have lived, for extended periods, in places with pretty varied driving cultures, and it just doesn't correlate with overall courtesy much less civilized behavior in general. I personally know some lovely, courteous, thoughtful people who just happen to have learned to drive in a culture of traffic maniacs, as well as excellent, courteous drivers who are no-holds-barred dog-eat-dog types at work. NY-ers of course are in a class of their own -- I won't drive in Manhattan and couldn't afford to live there ... Maybe those two realities are connected?
1
I drive in Mexico City and in San Antonio Texas.
Illegal, dangerous, selfish driving in Mexico City is commonplace.
"I don't how other people drive; they won't let me in and if I let someone in then I am stupid because the next driver won't let me in."
However, when these same drivers go to San Antonio they will be scrupulous in obeying all traffic rules.
If you see someone driving recklessly in San Antonio, be assured it's a Mexican from Mexico City on vacation.
Do unto to others......
Even if you're a well-read genius, it's tough to come up with a really good column twice a week.
1
Socrates has it just right. David Brookes needs to stop spewing apparently cohesive and interesting pablum, He should finally take a crack at reality like the deviation of the tax bill and the monster oligarchs at our throats.
2
The article is entitled "How Would Jesus Drive?" and I am struck by how many of the commenters seem to think that Jesus had a mild and retiring personality. The Gospels are clear that Jesus was generous and kind, but also that he had a good bit of a temper. The Jesus of the Gospels would probably be a mostly polite driver, and he'd certainly pull over to help somebody with a broken down car, but he might very well flip the divine middle finger at some jerk tailgating him in a luxury car. Part of building healthy norms is doing the right thing oneself, but another part of building healthy norms is condemning wrongdoing, especially wrongdoing by the powerful against the weak.
1
Jesus would drive like the English, on the left side of the road.
1
This might be amusingly of interest, if it were not for the dire stream of current events encircling the White House and the legions of self-interested, entitled cads, morons, and opportunists, scrutinizing the scene like vultures awaiting pieces of prey to snag and fly away with. Our democracy is being slashed and hacked apart, and D. Brooks would have us analogizing to bad driving norms. Instead, how about entreating the majority who do follow laws/norms to figure out ways to rise up to rid ourselves of the current political cancers?
Would Jesus use his turn signal? If not, he would fit right in...in Texas.
I traveled a major highway to work for about twenty years. I sped, passed people and got mad at people on my butt. Then one morning I realized how I was starting my day. It wasn't even 6AM and speeding wasn't really giving me an extra 5 minutes to work. I also remembered years ago speed limits had been lowered to save gas. So I slowed down followed the speed limits (which I still do even though I no longer commute). It was a much more relaxing start to my day.
1
"We" had nothing to do with enabling those you characterize as sleazoids. "You" enabled a few of them.
I wish everyone in Philadelphia would read this!
I note that in England traffic cameras monitor traffic, automatically sending fines to violators of speed limits. When compared to England and European countries, U.S. fatalities per billion kilometers driven are significantly higher. In Japan, cultural values of social benefit seem to be deeply internalized; in the west- and especially in the U.S.- external controls on anti-social behavior are needed to check a more selfish culture.
Beautiful. David Brooks has a gift.
2
Leave it to this Pope to hit the sweet spot in a sermon. Most sermons you can listen to, nod and look at the person next to you. *You're* not the problem.
But the Pope hits - and Brooks elaborates - on the problem we have to sit back and look at ourselves. Are we a civil society? Are we civil?
I am not a patient person, and the combination of traffic lights spaced precisely to bunch up traffic, and two idiots who will Simply. Not. Pass. creating the rolling roadblock is infuriating. Can't they use their brains? Not being a jerk driver, for me, is both hard and an act of actual thought-out will. The Pope got me.
But I do try to cage the rage, and I do know when i am wrong. I make a concerted effort to think of the other drivers as people, not "That Toyota" or "That Moron." And that is the difference between me and my Congress. I know that my actions are selfish, and dangerous and wrong, and can hurt others, so I try to improve. I don't double down and see if I can escalate selfish aggressiveness into vehicular homicide.
Congress goes from their own type of vehicular homicide, to orchestrating mass collisions with multiple fatalities. Then they hone the action to kill more. So if we keep electing them, even if we are the safest drivers from Kansas City - are we still civil? Are we a kind society?
I am heading off to work. I pledge not to cut someone off. Paul Ryan - want to pledge to save a life today too?
Any columnists that puts President Trump in the same sentence as the alleged rapist Bill Cosby has a very dark soul, indeed an askew moral compass.
You should read more and concentrate on your inner self. The yield sign will take career of itself.
1
Why would one assume Jesus was a gashole? I'm pretty sure he would be on a bicycle...
1
Driving is passé.
WWJD? Walk. Bicycle. Segway, maybe?
Aren't we all surrounded by idiots? The thing is, so are they, so what dies that make us?
In my years of driving experience the drivers from whom I try to distance myself the most are thise whose cars sport bumper stickers that read "Jesus is my co-pilot." In drivers' heaven, He would be the one driving.
1
David Brooks continues to write himself into irrelevance. To suggest that the actions of the common people have more impact on the world than the village idiot who is currently President of the United States is sheer folly at best, and a topic that shows nothing more than David Brooks's privilege at a time when millions of Americans, to say nothing of the billions more in the world, who are being hurt in real ways by the "slezoids."
2
Jesus would ride a bike.
Not long ago, the only ones in the media to use words like "sleazoids" and chi
such name calling were people like Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage. Now, Brooks of the New York Times has followed suit - to signal his own moral superiority and prime the pump of outrage and hate - just like Limbaugh and Savage!
1
"foreplay to genocide" - made me laugh out loud
1
An article on the role of social norms in regulating civilized society. Metaphor?
David you are lumping us all together again into the branded tribes of your own imagination. Your radically subjective take on other drivers might be due to a series of coincidences you have found yourself part off. Is everyone's experience the same as yours - I doubt it.
BMW drivers and Prius drivers? Hmmm! I have come across many polite and helpful drivers in NYC - including BMW owners.
You describe an America that is peopled with humans who fit simple and recognized templates as if programmed by a machine at USA Central. We are a nation of of immigrants and descendants of immigrants from a world with many driving cultures.
Have you driven in India or Turkey? They have a different history of driving. I was surprised in Goa to find out that those entering a major road have the right of way. It kept the general speed down to about 35mph. In parts of Turkey driving down the center of the road until another vehicle appeared was the usual practice.
Jesus would have to pass a test if he wanted to drive a car.
Just imagine how Trump would drive.
All I know for sure is he drives me crazy.
1
Terrific ! so true .
1
People's driving should have forewarned us of the nightmare that social media would bring down on us. To so many, civility is only important if the other guy has a chance to slug you in the face. If that threat is removed, no consideration at all to basic human decency need apply... For some reason its a lot easier to harbor on the jerks than the courteous people who didn't ruin your day.
1
New protest sign:
"How would Trump drive?"
Includes a picture of 45 behind the wheel, obliviously racing down the street, with a horrified pope desperately trying to pry open the passenger-side door; don't forget Mitt in a dog crate strapped to the roof
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Mr. Brooks,
I would think twice about holding up as an example the chief executive of an organization that routinely rapes children, covers it up, lies about their actions, moves priests and cardinals to avoid prosecution, and lies in court documents about their finances to avoid paying restitution. Such a person is only an exemplar for perversion and evil, not someone who can serve as a model for anything good.
All these years later I still remember crossing an empty street in the Bronx only to hear a car's engine revving up 3 blocks away and the driver determined to prevent me from crossing safely. Living in Maryland I have always noticed that cars with New Jersey tags are the most aggressive. Working in a stressful job for a couple of years I had to finally confront my inner demons that took charge when driving to and from work. I did two things: concocted stories about the little old lady driving 10 miles under the speed limit was on her way to a funeral home to make arrangements for her husband of 60 years or the guy weaving in and out of lanes was desperately trying to get to the hospital where his daughter was just taken. For the outright aggressive NJ driver, I tapped a few imaginary buttons on my steering wheel and a huge helicopter with a magnetic disk soon lifted his car up and would eventually set him down in any remote cornfield of my choice.
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While there is a lot of truth in this perceptive column, Brooks fails to consider how our self-image colors the world we live in. When 90% of drivers think they are better than average, and everyone who drives faster than me is reckless, and everyone who drives slower than me is incompetent, we might have a problem with being able to objectively judge our own behavior.
"But if you get over to the right and wait your turn in a crowded highway exit lane, rather than cutting in at the last moment, that teaches me that there’s a sense of fairness and equality, and that people feel embedded in the group."
Hear! Hear! At last, Mr. Brooks and I agree....here's to bipartisanship in 2018. It must be an election year!
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Maybe a few other questions ought to be asked:
How would Jesus pay taxes? How would Jesus conduct his business so he isn't polluting the environment? How would Jesus pay his employees?
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Jesus himself answered the question of how he would pay taxes - 'render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's'. And how he'd pay his employees, in the parable of the talents. However, I'm not sure Jesus would care about polluting the environment, since he was an apocalyptic preacher who thought the world would end any minute now - that there were those among his listeners who'd see it end in his lifetime. (Not unlike Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, James Watt.) It's always risky asking 'what would Jesus do?' and those who ask it always, mirabile dictu!, conclude that what Jesus would have done is exactly what they themselves would be inclined to do.
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Doesn’t the 10% of your income still apply? That’s a pretty fair deal these days.
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Great column, David! Now why can’t we fill Congress with artisans of the common good?
This column belongs in a theological publication.
I'm disturbed by the headline, because I don't care how Jesus would drive. Nor do I think it's a clever way to cover the Pope.
I mean no disrespect to the Pope, or to Catholics.
But invoking Jesus in a secular nation filled with people who are not Christian, is becoming all too prevalent in our discourse.
It's offensive.
It's especially unnerving on a NYT op ed page.
What-would-Jesus-say-do-think doesn't belong on secular publication opinion pages.
As for the Pope, forgive me, but he may be the spiritual leader of a large population of Catholics, but he's not the head of state of any country, and I wonder why he receives so much news coverage?
What drives the assumption that he's so newsworthy?
He's not to me, and millions of others.
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"As for the Pope, forgive me, but he may be the spiritual leader of a large population of Catholics, but he's not the head of state of any country,"
You are mistaken, he is the head of state of Vatican City, the smallest independent country in the world. In fact, he is the only absolute monarch in Europe.
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I was in a very bad two-car collision when I was 18 (and I wasn't even the driver of the car I was in). Took me a year to recover. There has been nothing -- absolutely nothing and no one -- in the past 51 years of my life that makes me get angry in my car. I'm not a stupid driver -- if everyone on the freeway is going around 80, I'm going around 80. But I will do nothing deliberately that puts anyone else -- or myself -- in danger. Especially not another driver who cuts me off. Life is too precious.
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Jesus myths are a creation of man's natural consciousness of and inclination towards good. Man created Jesus myths to reinforce good in man and deter violations of humanity by a few, but extremely aggressive, self-centered parasites that are always among us.
Government is another creation of man to reinforce good and to deter bad behavior. Jesus myths are APPEALS to good, backed up by threats of a future punishment in the unknowable post-life. Government passes laws to REGULATE and punish bad behavior in our lifetimes. Neither agent, to prevent or moderate bad behavior and encourage good, is perfect.
Christians violate the Jesus myths all the time. They excuse their violations by telling themselves that others are the real sinners or they will later ask Jesus for forgiveness. Save embryos but execute criminals. Hypocrisy.
Citizens violate driving (other) laws and disrespect/abuse others when government fails to enforce its laws. Government fails when it is intentionally underfunded and also when parasites run government.
The driver who speeds up to prevent you from changing lanes would not do so if he were confident that driving too close to the car in front of him (AKA, tailgating) had a high rate of actually being punished with a significant fine. He won't be deterred by Jesus threatening him with a frown.
Humans are imperfect. We can behave with malice. But, except for a very small number, we know right from wrong, good from evil. We need encouragement. With teeth.
Add south Florida to your list of places where driving even to the nearest Publix can be hazardous.But do not comprehend why Pope Francis is repeatedly held up as a moral role model. When he was a parish priest, a "cura" in Argentina in 1960's and 1970's under his real name of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, he was considered pro military while armed forces were exterminating thousands of often ordinary citizens for"delinquencia subversiva" during the period known as the "guerra sucia," what Bergoglio himself called "guerra contra la subversion!" Bergoglio gave names of 2 fellow "curas"to authorities who were then arrested, held for 6 months and released, also held a special mass while head of Sociedad Jesuista for heads of first Junta, Gens.Videla, Agosti and Adm. Massera. Interviewed 2 women, 1 of whom was colleague of Leonie Duquet, French nun sequestered and killed by authorities, and another woman whose sister was picked up at 5 A,M 1 morning by ESMA marines and never seen again. Appeals to Bergoglio to intervene, ,since he got along so well with Videla, went unanswered. Videotaped interviews are available at Hoover Institution. Given his poor human rights record,it is astonishing to so many Argentinians that Jorge Mario Bergoglio became il Papa.This is another case in which Mr. Brooks has not done his research. Re driving, I avoid it as much as possible.
"
Mr. Brooks, you're so good to keep us reminded about the importance of goodness. Thanks
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Way too many regulations, David. What gives the government the right to tell me which side of the road I've gotta drive on? Whoops, my copilot just jumped out.
I was told once the way a person drives shows their true self since we drive in anonymity.
As far as the Jesus aspect most people I find go to church to find an uplifting message to help give them a reason for living their pathetic lives and also to hold a spot in heaven. This shallow, unappreciative way of life probably explains why we are in the spot we are politically.
If Jesus drove, he would likely offer this bit of brilliantly counterintuitive advice, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew: “And the last shall be first and the first shall be last.”
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(JEm) sus, is from the French language. So Je (blank space) sus, would most likely drive a French automobile. He is probably in France right now.
Edit: (JE) sus, is from the French language.
The bigger question is what political party Jesus would join. David, it would not be your Republican party.
I’m pretty sure Jesus wouldn’t drive one of those ridiculously over-sized SUVs people are so enamored of.
I just rode with a group which doesn't practice "getting over"/"going left", making room for those joining the stream. They're dangerous. I had to listen to a fifteen minute "bark" from one man, about how they must yield to him. Fit his personality to a tee!
Nice essay on how to treat others as you would like to be treated, the 'golden rule' indeed. As a driver, I confess having been on both ends of the spectrum, given that some adverse circumstances 'seem' to validate our actions, however brutish in retrospect. Eventually, reason, helped with proper education and some humility, allows us to see the light, be respectful of the traffic laws and unwritten niceties to stop considering our car a weapon, a simple way to get from here to there instead. As it should. Enjoy the trip, and react to the needs of the road...instead of some abusive jerk cutting you off.
In the United States it's 'lead, follow or get out of the way'.
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David, one of your very best! Insightful, inciting very funny comments. A great start to my Friday!
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Jesus would take public transportation. He preached that we are stewards of the Earth, and I would expect Him to walk the walk - unlike so many Evangelicals these days who seem to believe it's their birthright to ravage our beautiful planet.
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I've been thinking for a long time that you can tell that America truly is not a Christian country by the way most drive.
There are no Christian countries.
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I think I see what you and the pope are saying: Be nice. It makes the world better.
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Hey, Eddie, we share a name. Speaking of Transportation, do you remember after 9/11 when we couldn't get on a plane without a terrified worker asking for additional identification? My father, who also shares our name, had the problem, and so did I, and so did a little kid quoted in Newsweek. Peace.
Why would anyone drive if they can walk on water?
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How would Jesus drive? Na, man. If Jesus were around today, he'd be taking the light rail.
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Try driving here in Houston! Total egotism, snaking through lanes, honking at those who respect the speed limit... Now I find myself retaliating by doing the same thing. Bad behavior is contagious but so is good thinking. Thanks for "Tikkuning Olam".
I have to raise one small objection: the notion that it is better, more fair, more "polite", if you will, to immediately get into the crowded open lane as soon as the signs tell you to, way before the site of the actual lane closure, has been show to be fallacious. Traffic actually moves FASTER if traffic flows into both lanes, with cars taking turns at the point of closure.
If you don't believe me, you can read about it, in the New York Times, no less! So it must be true!
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/us/why-last-second-lane-mergers-are-g...
The pope should have explained and given a justification for the way he handled the recent funeral of Cardinal Law, not some idiotic metaphor of driving habits.
I learned to drive in Cambridge, MA, many years ago. I'm surprised this column didn't include any of the Boston driver jokes: In Boston there are two kinds of pedestrians, the quick and the dead, and so on.
But in fact they've gotten better in recent years. What started it was the installation of "State law: stop for pedestrians in crosswalk" signs, with strict enforcement, but (amazingly!) good driving and even bending-over-backwards considerate driving have become part of the culture. I learned that when you're waiting to make a left turn and an oncoming driver flashes his headlights at you, it means "go ahead and turn; I'll stop for you."
But if you're trying to promote considerate driving in /Manhattan/, you have to remember that only crazy people would want to drive there. The wonderful subway (despite all the complaints in the Times, I love the NY subway) goes everywhere! And if you're carrying too much stuff to want to schlep it through the subway, there's always a taxi within seconds, wherever you are. (I do understand that if you live in Queens instead of Manhattan the public transportation story is less rosy.)
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If Jesus were driving in Italy, he would still be waiting to merge.
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Yesterday in Sumter, SC, it was beginning to snow. The roadway immediately became treacherous terrain. We do not know how to drive in the snow, but one fender bender victim showed herself to be “an artisan of the common good.” She was standing near her rear-ended car and comforting the driver who had just banged into her. “It happens”, she said.
Maybe Jesus could teach all drivers how to conduct competent alternate merging at lane reductions.
TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR DRIVERS
1. Signal your turns.
2. Lower your high beams.
3. Pass or get out of the left lane.
4. When waiting to make a left turn, pull up to the middle of the intersection so the car(s) behind you can make it through the light too.
5. Look behind you before opening your door.
6. Don't tailgate.
7. Don't text.
8. Don't idle unnecessarily.
9. Don't take up two parking spaces; in suburban areas, where spaces along curbs are unmarked, this means don't park with a large gap between you and the next car.
10. Stop for pedestrians in crosswalks.
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11. If in a left-turn lane with a lead green arrow (that is, the oncoming traffic still has a red light), make the turn, don't just sit there admiring the pretty green arrow and trying to figure out what it means. 11a. If you are the oncoming traffic, and you still have a red light, don't jump the light and cut off the cars that have a lead green.
And do not make right turns across cyclists who are moving straight ahead.
Also, when a cyclist has a stop sign and the motorist does not, please go--you have the right of way. Don't stop and wave for the cyclist (who has a stop sign) to move first. I will sit there and point to my stop sign until he(( freezes over.
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I was recently given 5 points and $245 ticket for not pulling completely over into the left lane when passing a state police car on the shoulder. beware--it's a thing!
I don't think Jesus would be driving a car. I'd expect to find him on foot, bike or public transit. He rode a donkey into Jerusalem after all. Why would we think the quintessential representative of the meek would be so ostentatious as to drive? Ponder that one the next time you get in a vehicle.
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Jesus would not drive, he would take Mass transit.
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But, likely not in Mass. Not very dependable...
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This might sound like a contradiction—maybe it is. I think of myself as a courteous driver. I enjoy making space for other drivers and helping them do what they’re trying to do by being aware of what’s happening around me. I do this for everyone except people who drive like jerks and think they own all of the road.
I ve often thought that I should just make ways for the jerks, let them cut in front of me, squeeze into the exit lane at the last second, weave all over the highway to get ahead, etc. I understand that I should not put myself in any danger or escalate the dangerous situations that jerks create intentionally, but another part of me gets mad and thinks that deferring all the time is just positive reinforcement to jerks. So there are times when I decide that making things easy for aggressive drivers does not promote an overall better driving experience.
I realize that at those times, Pope Francis would not approve, but my guess is that he doesn’t drive as much as I do.
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What a marvelous concept: "The artisans of the common good." I have encountered people in my life who's driving style ultimately reflected the defects in their character. Tailgating, speeding, honking, road rage, not to mention drinking and driving; indications of disorders of integrity I wish I has appreciated when I noticed this maleficent behavior. Thank you David Brooks for making this clear. Now, where were you when I married my ex-wife? You could have saved me a fortune, not to mention the cost of a few of wrecked cars.
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I have said many times, if you let someone into the traffic lane, you do more good than all the sermons on Sunday. Try it.
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I've tried to become a more self-aware driver. There's no place I need to get that's worth risking my life. In the big scheme of things, there's no place I need to be that's worth being impolite. But unlike Brooks, rather than feeling a renewed sense of the goodness in humanity when I drive, I feel despair. Driving has become another way for people to demonstrate perpetual rudeness. My theory is that the self-centered nature of human beings has a natural outlet on the streets. I'm most important; where I'm going is most important; you need to get out of my way because I'm most important; I'm so important I don't need to obey traffic laws. Coming to terms with my lack of importance has made me a more courteous driver, mostly.
Great article by David Brooks. I live in Putnam County NY which is pretty civil for driving. Most places in the Northeast are not. I was just in Ireland and was amazed how drivers respect the passing lane ( Only for passing ) where as in this country people think they own it. That and cutting in front at exits made me think about our tax selfishness in this country. In Ireland gas is about $7/gallon and the roads are good. Here gas is $2.79 and we have lousy roads and people complain if the government adds $.10/gallon to fix our roads. Maybe its our multicultural society but not sure how we do anything here to change the direction of selfishness & anger. If anything it is getting worse. My take is NJ & LI are the worst for selfish drivers but we are all way behind Northern Europe.
Our new Tax Law tells it all about selfishness and not caring about others.
I am amazed that Miami, Fl did not score high on the worst drivers. There is a joke that turn signals are optional equipment when purchasing a car there. I drove in Boston, MA for thirty years and thought I had seen it all, but those drivers are sane compared to Miami. It is a very competitive, "I'll do it to you, before you do it to me." The average speed is always at least twenty miles over the posted speed and there is never a police car in sight. It is a take no prisoners environment. Jesus would never venture forth there.
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I believe much of driving culture is influenced by lack of eye contact. People treat others in ways they never would face to face. In that sense it's similar to Internet trolling. Therefore if you're looking for hope for humanity, understand that driving is biased toward the worst instincts. Of course the same is true for fighter pilots or missile silo operators.
And then, of course, there are the drivers in NJ (my home for 33 years. Nuf said...
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Accepting the car as part of continuing reality is a sin with enough red flags attached to it that the Pope is dead wrong in even deigning to comment on how we should drive. The Pope should be for public transportation not private automobiles, those emblems of misguided capitalism. The legacy of our mindless acceptance of the inevitability of cars is the likelihood that global warming will triumph as driving continues. We knew 100 years ago this was a losing course.
I thought we have an algorithm for this idea of driving nicely. Simply remove the ability of these people to make these decisions, either good or bad. Driver "less" cars. That will free people to troll on their computers. I would imagine most of the people the Pope preached to have no access to a car.
Since a lot of commentors seem to think that this is an occasion for bragging about what crummy, thoughtless drivers they are, let me point out Mr. Brooks' point:
We all of us together make our civil lives what they are; literally, we are our civilization, good, bad, whatever. The ways we act and think matter.
So next time you're screaming about rhis or that, and want to know why something ain't DONE, well, take a good hard look in a mirror.
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Excellent column. One thing I've noticed in 50 years of driving is that nowadays young women drive as aggressively as young men. As equality grows it would have been better for young men to have learned to drive like young women.
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Wonderfully well done, Mr. Brooks. Even more could be said, such as "How would the Buddha Drive?" Or, how does a capitalist (America) based society compare to more socialist countries (Scandinavia) in driving patterns? How would mindfulness meditation alter the way people drive? Nonetheless, this article is a breath of fresh thinking.
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If Jesus existed ( I am a diehard atheist, but I will play along ) and was driving today, then he would simply be driving at 1km an hour ( if that ) with multiple stops in the middle of road. ( constantly )
You see, he ( or even she ) would not be whisking past all the broken souls that require the generosity or help of people so that they might be considered human beings once again. ( That is completely excluding all the people that need immediate attention just so they do not perish )
That is also putting aside that he\she would walk, instead of destroying the garden of Eden, with all that pollution.
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If Jesus existed ( I am a diehard atheist, but I will play along ) and was driving today, then he would simply be driving at 1km an hour ( if that ) with multiple stops in the middle of road. ( constantly )
You see, he ( or even she ) would not be whisking past all the broken souls that require the generosity or help of people so that they might be considered human beings once again. ( That is completely excluding all the people that need immediate attention just so they do not perish )
That is also putting aside that he\she would walk, instead of destroying the garden of Eden, with all that pollution.
1
When the GOP decided in their road rage to cut off President Obama's rightful choice of a Supreme Court justice they exhibited their contempt for our constitution and society. Road rage is not confined to the road as so many show it in their actions and attitudes. Paul Ryan shows his contempt for the elderly and disabled in his desire to privatize SSocial Security and Medicare. In our society examples of fear, rage and contempt for others is everywhere.
Turning the other cheek in the face of injustice becomes more difficult and leads often to further injustice. The question is how can we keep a peaceful heart in the face of this conundrum and not be consumed by what is happening all around us. Peaceful choices does not mean inaction. It means keeping your peaceful intentions even in the face of brutality and doing the just thing even when it is hard.
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I actually believe a culture's table manners reveal more about its members. Many of its bad table manners occur without conscious awareness unlike the activities with intent you describe on the highway.
Thank you, Mr. Brooks. I have been excessively annoyed when cut off or when someone dawdles in the left lane with no regard for flow or when someone darts from lane to lane to get ahead. I feel best when I do not personalize this, and I always wave if someone lets me in somewhere. Where I fail is in my annoyance when someone does not acknowledge a kind deed. I need to get over myself. Kind deeds should be without expectation. Thank you for your reminder about being a steward for cooperation.
If Jesus existed ( I am a diehard atheist, but I will play along ) and was driving today, then he would simply be driving at 1km an hour ( if that ) with multiple stops in the middle of road. ( constantly )
You see, he ( or even she ) would not be whisking past all the broken souls that require the generosity or help of people so that they might be considered human beings once again. ( That is completely excluding all the people that need immediate attention just so they do not perish )
That is also putting aside that he\she would walk, instead of destroying the garden of Eden, with all that pollution.
1
When in Rome, drive as the Romans do. I'm a different driver in the Northeast than I am in the Midwest or South. I'm a different driver in a big city than in the 'burbs. I try always to drive politely, but when things are crowded with a lot of moving vehicles you can't be shy or you'll gum up the works.
Ditto for retail checkout. In some places it's perfectly fine to go slow, have a chat with the cashier, and take your time. In other places, it's just rude when there's a long line of people waiting for service while you fumble around looking for your checkbook.
1
Both metaphorically and literally. Actually, he'd probably walk - without trespassing on anyone's properties.
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Witnessing the number of people who stop their cars in pedestrian cross-walks when facing a red light, exhibiting ZERO common courtesy, makes me feel our society is a hopeless case.
More and more, though, we have to be wary of the very people who are assigned to protect us--the police. Frivolous stops with high fines are happening more and more as a way to gleefully fleece the public. Beware out there!
After my first trip to Thailand a few years ago, my driving changed dramatically.
Bangkok is absolute pandemonium. I'd never seen anything like it - Rome? Istanbul? Cakewalks. But something that you rarely ever hear is horns. No one honks. It's almost eery. So I tried an experiment when I got home: never honk (unless there's a real danger). It totally changed how I drive: more patient, less stressed, even more courteous. I've never minded being "cut off" as I cut people off as long as there's room, I'm going faster, signal, etc. but I did use to get very frustrated by all kinds of other things. Now, I really don't care. It's been one of those ah-ha life lessons.
I usually drive between 80 to 140 miles a day in central and northern nj, one thing I have noticed is how people in NJ are consistently courteous when out of their cars,for example in a covenience store,and yet when behind the wheel it seems like everyone is a jerk.It is like the wild west on nj interstates, if you drive the speed limit,even in the right lane, there will always be a BMW or an Audi tailgating you. I see people pass me speeding, tailgating and texting all at the same time.I think cell phones have made the roads the most dangerous they have been in my forty years of driving. Jesus would be ran over and kicked to the curb if he were in NJ during rush hour.
When my father was teaching me to drive, he had a number of pointers for merging into traffic. He emphasized fairness and not cutting in ahead of others, but he also made specific observations about certain states. In Missouri, he said, drivers will always create space for you if you are stuck in the wrong lane. But in states like Michigan, he cautioned, they'll cut you off or block you from merging.
Thanks, Mr. Brooks, for reminding me of the driving lessons of years ago, and thank you for making some interesting observations about character and location. I suppose the next question is, why are people in states like Michigan so selfish or angry?
Friends don't let friends drive. Walk - it's much better for you and for the planet. Cars enable our need for speed, where in fact we all wish we could slow down.
OK - maybe the occasional road-trip, but this habit of driving every day is insane. Americans have long been hooked by all of these auto ads and by the hunger for social status that the ads subtly promote.
As for Jesus, he would probably ride a bicycle if he were in a real hurry.
How would Jesus drive?
Well, as a carpenter with twelve dependents, he'd most likely be using a window van. Which means he'd have to drive a bit slower than the norm, what with the followers and the lumber he'd be bearing.
Crossing a bridge? Depending on how heavy the traffic is, he'd probably figure it'd be faster to walk.
In the western suburbs of Philadelphia, I've discovered that 4-way stops seem to uniquely sort people into several buckets instead of providing a general indicator of local driving manners. It's pretty amazing how many different ways there are to act at a 4-way stop, and perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the prominent defining criteria is just how compelled a given driver feels to actually stop. Specifically, most people don't. Those who come to a full stop regardless of circumstance are most likely to yield, appropriately or inappropriately, the right of way. Those who don't range from those saving gas or playing a complicated game of chicken to those lofty rich folk who clearly disdain the very idea of yielding to lesser beings.
I am pretty sure that Jesus would always stop, would only take his right of way when nobody else was obviously wanted it first, and would not judge any of them...yet.
The highway is a microcosm of the greater world and I have found that people's driving has become increasingly reckless and inconsiderate. So, David, today's column is one I can FINALLY relate to. But no matter what you write, there will always be a one or two who just can't pass up the chance for an off-point criticism.
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Jesus would only use green transportation. He would set up volunteer community transportation for anyone in need. He would encourage room in the road for cyclists. He would offer help at every turn. Oh yeah and feed the hungry, heal the sick, comfort the oppressed.
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It's only my personal experience, but it seems that the more expensive the vehicle, the more obnoxious the driver. BMWs and Audis in particular will generally cut you no slack. In NYC, such vehicles actually have gun turrets.
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Culture, shmulture. It's called the "Rules of the Road" - and if you are going to be a good driver, you should follow those rules: leave 1 car length for every 10 mph you are going between you and the car in front of you - tailgating is dangerous and discourteous. Yield when you should yield, take the right of way when you have it. Drive sober and cautiously by default. Be respectful, because, as you put it, David, a car is a 4,000 pound weapon. The problem is not in any one city or state - it is nationwide: Americans don't like to follow the rules of the road - either because they are self-entitled cretins, or because they are sorely ignorant of the importance of those norms. Substitute politics for driving - sound familiar?
I'm an aggressive driver, not a jerk but hellishly fast. So I can forgive pretty much any highway sin except driving slowly in the left lane. No signal? No problem. You need to slow down to get into a neighboring lane? No worries, it happens to the best of us. But driving ten miles per hour in the left lane with a line of cars behind you, you need to be slapped.
Thanks to Pope Francis and you for taking from the ridiculous to create the sublime. That "artisans of the common good" concept of ordinary people is a precious one.
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Jesus would forego driving entirely. He would ride a bicycle in deference to the stunning, gorgeous, amazing planet that his Father created.
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Every older driver can attest to the dramatic changes in driving behavior over the past 40 years. Unfortunately, driving conduct reflects similar overall changes in social and moral attitudes. I recently encountered some absurdly improper driving and asked the operator why he was acting so inappropriately. His amazing answer was "because I just don't care about you!"
The Pope seems to think that changing our driving behavior will encourage a movement towards community concern. But, the driver in the left lane who wants to merge into the right lane is usually someone who has passed a line of reasonable individuals who recognize that the left lane traffic is restricted in some manner. Slowing down and letting that person into the right lane simply reinforces his or her behavior, behavior that will then be repeated in the future.
Perhaps Machiavelli was correct when he observed that the rejection of a nation's religious rites is the first sign that a nation is doomed. It is not surprising that there is a correlation between the decline in all church attendance and a decline in a culture of community. We need to focus on changes far deeper than our driving habits.
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I've been driving for over 40 years, and haven't noticed this change. There are always a few jerks, of course. In a way, it's a compliment--they are putting their lives in our hands! They rely on the rest of us to act normally, and keep them alive despite their own stupidity.
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One will know that Americans have become genuinely egalitarian when drivers just stay in lane when there is a lane reduction ahead until a single point where the cars alternately zip-merge.
In Vermont, everyone pulls over out of the lane to be reduced up to a mile ahead of the actual reduction. How do they enforce this? With guns?
In defense of the Bay State, Greater Boston alone has over 300,000 college students, most either drivers, cyclists or pedestrians from out of state. This seasonal population is so incredibly annoying that any driver might be excused for occasionally losing the customary poise and decorum for which Massachusetts drivers are so well-known otherwise.
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I believe every city has a "rule", an unwritten idea that underpins the behavior of most drivers in the area. Many years ago I lived in Fairfield, CT and frequently drove to an office in Manhattan. I quickly learned about the "rule" for driving in NYC, "I must win". It was probably set by the ubiquitous yellow cab drivers who understood that if they "wanted it" more than other drivers, moving from the left lane to make a right turn across five lanes of traffic, others defer because they were more aggressive.
I moved to Boston three years later, expecting that "the rule" was the same in Boston. It's not, but it took a few years to understand the difference, it's not about winning. The rule in Boston, "it's more important that you lose". Drivers in Boston will go out of their way to inconvenience others on the road. Any attempt to merge onto a crowded street or get into a rotary are resisted, with "extreme" prejudice.
Then, I moved to California, the ultimate "do your own thing" state. Years ago the rule seemed like a "we're all in this together" kind of ethos, allowing people into jammed freeways and to make lane changes. But that's changing... Today, drivers in LA are increasingly disconnected from others. Blissfully cruising in the left lane as traffic zooms by in the five lanes to the right, drivers rarely even look at the road or what's around them anymore.
1
Upon retirement, in the interest of having something meaningful to contribute, I became an Oregon certified drivers ed instructor. I like it because I like kids and the opportunity to shape them into responsible adults. One of the most difficult tasks is weening them, especially girls, from the notion that driving is an arena for the expression of "courtesy" in the form of waving people through intersections regardless of who has the right-of-way or waiting interminable amounts of time at four-way stops. I teach "decisive" driving because it is safe driving; in other words, understand that traffic is a dynamic environment that changes every second and that, consequently, every decision made is based on old information a second after we make it. Obey the laws, but don't use the roadways as a stage upon which to demonstrate your own "goodness."
8
Civility in the public arena, both in driving and behavior is declining regardless of location. The proverbial midwest nice of the proverbial small town has declined as well in both public utterances and driving decorum. It is just sad. Mayberry no longer exists.
3
Thanks largely to the comment sections of the internet.
I've finally been vindicated -- by the Pope no less. I've lived some 80 years and always thought -- and expressed my feelings about -- the rules of the road. The rules are for the common good. They are so sensible and in obeying them we protect our own lives as well as the ones of others. It that not the way we should govern?
17
Good article, but I wish that Brooks had also written about all the other areas of life where ordinary people are the "artisans of the common good" - giving up your seat in the subway, helping an elderly person cross the street, saying good morning to someone who could use a cheery word, and so on. All those small acts of kindness change the culture of society and make the world a better place. I hope Brooks will stay with the idea of artisans of the common good in other columns and continue to give examples of how we can change our culture for the better.
15
Driving is about being safe, not being kind. When drivers suddenly stop in the street to let someone pull out of a driveway, they are endangering the drivers behind them. When drivers slow down on the freeway to let another driver change lanes, they endanger other drivers. It's all well and good to be a courteous driver. But, being nice shouldn't be more important than being safe.
3
Drivers in Spokane look for opportunities to stop for pedestrians about to cross the street, in part because the rules call to yield to pedestrians, but I think in as much part to make a statement of respect for their neighbors. It's taken me a while to adopt the mindset after decades living in of Boston, Washington, and Philadelphia. Spokane drivers know they live in a special place.
3
Driving behavior expresses much about a person's relationship to our now-all-too-impersonal world. Drivers act alone, knowing that their behavior impacts those in their immediate surroundings but usually without having to experience the impact personally (other than perhaps to see a fleeting raised finger from another driver). When they are forced to personally confront the others (say, for example, in the case of an accident), the dynamic changes dramatically (not always for the better, but usually). The same dynamic expresses itself on the internet, where one can attack or malign others without experiencing the consequence. Although in the case of the internet, there is almost never a personal reckoning, as there is occasionally with driving. Truly, driving and internet behavior are windows into a person's soul.
3
It's been a long time since I have regularly driven in NYC but my experience then (the 1960's to 1990) was that drivers from NYC were much better and more polite than upstaters and out of staters. In the 1980's on days when I drove my wife from Queens to work in the Bronx on my way to downtown I encountered a great deal of rudeness by drivers from Connecticut and southbound from upstate. On the days I drove directly to work via the Grand Central Parkway and BQE there was far less rudeness and in fact much more of the polite yielding that David Brooks and the Pope call for. When I moved upstate and started driving to the Bronx the speeding & madness of other drivers was a daily experience.
I also question Mr. Brooks assertion about BMW drivers. Perhaps it's easy to identify BMW's and thus to think they are a greater proportion of the rude, but I have often been surprised by some very considerate BMW drivers. I have also had some considerate, helpful and generous experiences with yellow cab drivers.
An interesting and creative treatment of driving habits, to be sure, though I'm not sure that channeling Jesus while driving is going to change a lot of people.
Distraction while driving comes in a lot of forms, and I don't think that the "Jesus made me do it" defense is going to persuade a lot of cops.
Wonderful column. As someone who relies on my legs and my bicycle to travel, I barely escape serious injury or death almost every time I venture outside. Whenever someone yields, even if required by law, I try to remember to wave or otherwise express my gratitude. I just wish their was an accepted gesture to signal an apology when I make the mistake. I sometimes point to my chest, as in "my bad," but too often that person has driven off. Or I'm just too vain to admit my failing. A work in progress, as they say.
5
An enjoyable read. I would suggest that encouraging mindfulness meditation would help people to create a gap between stimulus and response. It is in that gap that a skill, artistic choice can be made.
3
Excellent reminder. I'm reminded of John Stewart's observation about normal people at a normal merge-point: you go then I go, you go then I go...we do it every day.
2
I am not sure how Jesus would drive, but it is worth it in terms of mind-body connectivity and insurance premium to take the National Highway Safety Standards online defensive driving course. The course itself provides an opportunity for self-awareness on a number of levels.
1
I love this! Something practical, and reasonable, that we can do every single day to improve the world around us and work on our own character flaws. And, I must say, Virginia stands out as a wonderful example of this. I lived for over 50 years in California, I have visited, and driven in, every state in the Union, except Alaska. Having lived in Virginia for nearly 10 years, I can say they are some of the most considerate drivers I have ever seen! (And they also hold the door for you when you are going in and out of buildings).
6
Here's another WWJD fact pattern to ponder: riding on a commuter train or subway, dealing with scarce seating and other space, disembarking to the platform, locating and ambulating to the stairway or escalator, navigating the station level to an exit area or connection, getting to the street, threading the commuting throng to the destination. How Jesus might handle the myriad opportunities for elevated systolic and diastolic readings would be fun to ponder as well.
1
Nice metaphor, one to which we can all relate. Now, how about in your next column considering the question "How Would Jesus Vote?". That would be a beneficial exercise all around.
17
The entire issue would be moot with autonomous vehicles. we have the technology right now. its only a matter of how many more 10s of thousands of deaths and countless injured we will endure every year before we get with the program accept the innovation.
future generations will not even recognize a steering wheel. they will look back on our driving behavior and view us as pathetic animals.
I drive a 2017 car with lane departure warning, automatic anti-collision braking, etc. It doesn't take long driving through snowfall to make the warning light come on that indicates the sensors aren't functioning.
1
Amazing. The Pope confirms my long held opinion of Lincoln owners.
Thoughts on a drive in the modern world?
It's a truism in the modern world, according to modern science, biology, theory of evolution, that evolution happens only on the long scale, that particularly when it comes to humans, human brains have not changed much if at all in thousands of years (we are all homo sapiens period) and that the big changes we have seen have been "cultural", that culture has been the big driver of change.
Well, that seems to me more and more false reasoning. The trend in the modern world with STEM appears to be a relegation of entire modes of thinking, namely human language and fields such as the humanities, to being merely emotional intelligence type thinking, that such thinking is not of forebrain but destined to take a backseat to mathematical, physical, machine type thinking.
In other words, it appears that our concept of culture as driver of change is an illusion and that all along human brains have been evolving, in fact according to Moore's law, that just in a span of thousands of years we rocketed into history and now, led by the STEM type people, we are rocketing right out of language type thinking, the humanities, into some sort of spatio-mathematical type reasoning, that all along many people among us have been a new human type and that most of us are just backward, not up to the new paradigm of the human.
Today I drive my car. Tomorrow my car drives me and I no longer even speak; I reason as a math machine or do not reason at all.
2
Thanks for this. I've been touting my theory of judging a culture by its drivers for years. I lived in Brazil for a long time, and always complained about how the driving was an accurate portrait of everything that was wrong with the country. Everyone tried to get one over on everyone else. The poor in Brazil never obeyed the rules, mainly due to the awful, public education system, and the rich didn't because they thought they were so wonderful that the rules couldn't possibly apply to them. Now I live in the UK, in a rural area, and it has been a godsend. My level of expectations has gotten so much higher that I get minimally annoyed when someone fails to wave at me when I pull over on a narrow lane to let them pass. They do smile and wave at least 70% of the time though.
And in both Brazil and the UK, BMW drivers are the worst.
18
Our parish priest would do homilies on how holy the sunday service always was, with so much kindness, love, worship, etc. Then (as he pointed out) people would go to the parking lot and practically run over each other to get out. Great article.
190
Thank you for giving me my first good laugh of the day. :-) I live in a state with a high church attendance (compared to the rest of The US). My state also is in the Top Five in The US for the worst driving.
1
Yes, indeed. How quickly we forget that what is important is application of the principles we are being taught by those who may better understand God's plan for humanity and His creation.
1
That's the beauty of Always Being Forgiven -- you got a whole week to make it worthwhile.
Thank you Mr. Brooks, thoughtful and inspiring.
1
I am convinced that the proliferation of pickup trucks is relate directly to pictures of ME terrorists using them as military vehicles.
2
Let's carry this metaphor beyond the highway -- Trump is the driver of a busload of Republican leaders, pulling a trailer filled with Democrats. The driver is delusional and steering as if he were avoiding obstacles on the road that just were not there. The bus is heading towards a rail crossing, and to get there must pass an elementary school.
How would Jesus act as a passenger in the bus?
6
Seattlites may have the reputation for dawdling at intersections, but get them on the I-5 corridor and they transform into some of the nastiest aggressive drivers around. Give me Boston or NYC any day.
I live in a city with horrendous traffic problems. Mega multi-lane highways that crisscross the city in every direction are clogged daily with tens of thousands of cars hardly moving for hours on end. People sit in their metal and plastic cocoons and seem to accept this torture with Christ-like equanimity. They accept the fact that 45,000 people die each year in this country alone while enjoying the glorious pleasures promised by the car companies. They accept the fact that motor vehicles contribute significantly to pollution, global warming and wars for oil. So you ask, would Christ drive with courtesy, caution and love? I don’t think so. I think if he is half the person we imagine, he’d be riding a bicycle and saving the planet.
"According to Allstate, the most accident-prone drivers live in Boston; Baltimore; Worcester, Mass.; Washington, D.C.; and Springfield, Mass. (Way to go, Massachusetts!)" Massachusetts' reputation for risky driving goes way back. When I went there for college in the 1960s upperclassmen warned freshman to be alert anywhere near streets and traffic--we had moved to the state with the worst drivers. A line in an MIT humor magazine circa 1965: "Mass license plates should all start with '00,' licensed to kill." (Apologies to James Bond author Ian Fleming.)
I actually enjoyed living in Mass and enjoy visiting since I moved away about 1970, but I'm glad I only had a car for my last couple of years there. And I'm glad that we sold our cars when we moved back to NYC from DC 37 years ago. Though I must admit to this incident in a rented car with New Jersey plates while in Vermont, with my wife (also a born New Yorker) at the wheel. She had a sudden change of mind of where to go, and, seeing little traffic, pulled a sudden U-turn in the main intersection of a small town. But one driver we passed who witnessed the move saw our plates and shouted "You sure are from Jersey!" Once clear of traffic my wife had to stop the car because we were both laughing so hard.
49
Massachusetts also has an E-Z Pass system of GPS monitoring on tollways and bridges, which could, conceivably, document driving styles. I wonder if any city in the state has figured that out, and used real data to plan traffic changes? And I wonder if the state itself has used its own data to plan snow removal or parking patterns?
yep. making sudden U-turns when one feels like it. THAT is what Jesus would have done in that situation as well! He is all for personal freedom!
I decided to start making U turns in the middle of the road, clear of traffic, of course, after seeing those televised riots in Los Angeles many years ago where the rioters attacked cars that just happened to drive through an intersection. I noticed that a lot of other drivers were doing the same where previously it was a somewhat rare occurrence. I didn't want the habit of strictly obeying the law cause me to drive into a situation I could easily avoid by just turning around.
I’m guessing Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and Mitt Romney can not be faulted for aggressive driving behaviors. Based on their public records, they would probably say their courteous driving was to give the ordinary insignificant Joes on the road a privileged lesson on how the entitled, chosen folks drive with dignity. Regardless of how they behave in their day to day life on the road, in their house of worship, or in their use of polite pleasantries in everyday encounters, their policies are destroying the very fabric of our democracy. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing leading us all to slaughter. Jesus would not have been fooled. Why are you Mr. Brooks?
2
Nonetheless, every time anyone takes the wheel of a car they are participating the the death and mutilation of many thousands We are always at risk out car will become a two ton killing machine. As drivers we are all tainted by collective guilt.
Drivers here in Maine are usually quite considerate. We have lots of visitors from other states and they seem to adapt quite well to the prevailing customs.
In the winter, considerate driving is even more important: caution in case someone has a moment of inattention, or possibly bald tires, because snow and ice may make split-second decisions disastrous.
In a very busy period of my life, I was grateful for red lights because they allowed me a moment of rest.
More pointedly, what would Jesus say about a society that depends almost exclusively on an individual mode of transportation. One that, due to lower fuel costs, seeks bigger and bigger vehicles which could carry 6-8 passengers, but rarely carry more than one or two. One that elects a leader who thinks “CAFE” standards are that he can get his Big Mac with fries and Diet Coke.
As for actual driving habits and conditions in this country, my guess is that he would just chuckle about this self imposed “purgatory” on earth.
3
Brooks' bad faith remains a constant.
He has advocated GOP policies for decades, all of which have culminated in the Trump fiasco: destroying the environment, tax cuts for the least deserved, the destruction of health care. perverting the Supreme Court.
Brooks' negative comments about Trump can't change his record. Does he really think that he won't be viewed as a collaborator because he calls Trump a "sleazoid?"
Does he really think his readers just fell off the tulip truck?
5
To answer the question posed in the header, Jesus's driving habits would be largely determined by where he lived. If he grew up and learned to drive in the midwest or mountain states, he would be courteous and careful. Everywhere else, especially the east, he would have no patience and would try to exploit the patience of other drivers. However, being Jesus, he would likely not drive at all, instead walking to work (mainly sermons and good deeds) -- just like New Yorkers (except those who walk like they drive).
54
You obviously are not familiar with the Bible, Jesus' teachings or the principals which this country was founded on...not that many of us are that familiar. I think most of the other commenters have it closer than you. If Jesus were driving, we would not have the problems we have in our crowded city traffic, especially the I-95 corridor.
Midwest drivers are not particularly courteous, nor careful. My drives around town are filled with tailgaters, speeders, and people who apparently have never heard of a turn signal. Folks speed through red lights, block streets, and honk profusely. This midwest of which you speak is a fantasy.
1
Jesus would transport Himself to where He needed to be. No vehicle usage necessary.
There are exceptions to every rule. Any survey taken/given right now after the holiday traffic is going to be that there are a bunch of aggressive chance taking drivers in France. We left on the 19th to avoid traffic and returned on 25th. Even then there were plenty of last minute shoppers, double parking in Paris, speeding and passing down the emergency lane on the highway/tollways. Coming back was pretty nice actually. We practically owned the road until about 3 pm when other drivers began to appear. Within an hour the imbecilic drivers were again practicing their stunts. We arrived home by 9pm unscathed. The next day, the 26th, I read was the typical headache of returning.
Take the survey in Feb to June and people in France will tell you there are bad drivers but most are good.
1
How would Trump drive? Racing down the road with reckless abandon, madly tweeting away, his supporters partying in the back while periodically bawling: “Are we there yet?” A sane person wouldn’t want to be anywhere nearby. Yet the rest of us are there, too, because we managed to strap ourselves in for the ride. Was that ever a costly mistake. What, exactly, were we thinking?
3
Well said. But a point you miss is that respect for realities is more important than respect for rules. German drivers, who respect rules more than everyone, maim and kill more pedestrians than Italian drivers, who often overlook rules but are keenly attentive to realities.
1
I'm not sure how Jesus would drive, but I've sure mentioned his name more than a few times when I've driven myself.
678
And His Father, too. :-/
1
LOL
1
I laughed out loud!
I am very selfish in traffic. That is why I let people in when they want to change lanes. Give me a signal about what you want to do, and I will help you do it. I do not block side streets or driveways. When I notice someone behind me in the fast lane who is going faster than I am, I will change lanes and let them pass.
I am old enough to know that I do not have to be anywhere at the cost of life, health, and property. I am vain enough to think that they will not do anything important until I get there.
Jesus would be very cool in traffic because he would treat other people the way he would want to be treated.
308
don't be ashamed of your selfishness, Ma'am, - embrace it!
David—haven’t you cultivated political contacts, in Washington and elsewhere, over many years? Could you purpose those contacts and understanding of politics to writing on topics of concern to readers and importance to the country? If you want to provide a running annotated bibliography of topics that make you go ‘hmm,’ then please do so. But while you’re politely waving us over to the right exit off-ramp, the country is careening off the edge.
1
Thanks, Mr. Brooks, for the occasional respite from the awfulness of Trump!
Have you noticed that there are far more rude drivers than rude people? Driving seems to imbue an individual with a sense of anonymity and omnipotence.
The drivers in my small neighborhood are relaxed, observant, and courteous. They will even stop to scold a wandering pet or to correct misbehavior at the school bus stop. But, as soon as the car merges into freeway traffic it becomes a rocket-powered missile hurtling toward Atlanta!
1
I have noticed the same here in my midwestern city, AynRant. At 4-way stop intersections in my small suburb, drivers are almost ludicrously polite. After you! No, after you! But highway drivers are insanely aggressive, uncivil and dangerous. Are they from somewhere else, or do people change when they enter the on ramp? I'd really like to know.
1
This is nice and I see the relationship to civility, but with all the mind-numbing gun deaths that place in this country on a seemingly daily basis, I'd like my Pope to challenge each of us to answer this question; "What weapon would Jesus choose?" It's time for those who profess their love of the bible while at the same time maintaining a stockpile of weapons to reconcile this disparity of devotion.
1
I'd like to suggest that we consider this when walking and bike riding as well. As a long-time bike commuter (Boston, NY, DC), I've always had to be extremely aware, ready for whatever drivers and pedestrians might do next. it's been stunning to see how quickly electronics have destroyed cultural norms and turned people into zombies oblivious to their surroundings. In the past 5-10 years, he number of dumb dangerous moves I see on a daily basis has multiplied by at least 20x.
I often think of the way we interact on the street as a social contract. For example, walking on the right side of the sidewalk, slightly changing our navigation traversing a plaza when we see another about to cross our path, looking before crossing the street, and really, just looking and recognizing each other at all. To feel unseen by someone else breaks the contract.
People don't walk in straight lines anymore. People walk across the street without looking, even when not buried in their device (our brains are changing our attention skills). Even if you're at a crosswalk, looking up and acknowledging that a car or bike or pedestrian is in your vicinity, and possibly adjusting your timing to make it easier for everyone involved is not only safer, it is more human. It is being an artisan of the common good to walk through the world as if you're not the only one on the planet, and there is something beneficial in being part of the crowd.
3
I wonder what Pope Francis would say about Pittsburgers. The "Pittsburgh left" drivers routinely stop a line of traffic to kindly wave a "left turn" in the opposing lane through. Kind, but not particularly safe. Being far too obedient, Pittsburgers queue on highways as soon as the first "Lane Closed Ahead" sign appears--- even if it reports "5 miles ahead." And of course, Pittsburghers slow down in tunnels of which there are many in this otherwise great city. What would Pope Francis say? "Too kind for their own good?"
Mr. Brooks did not mention driving-while-texting (euphemistically called "distracted driving"), probably because the data is scarce, the phenomenon is relatively new, and there are few reliable studies about it. But it is scary to see how many drivers have only one - or no - eyes on the road, even at highway speeds. Nothing says "I'm way more important than you" than driving without looking.
And in New York City, where I do most of my driving, we have an additional problem: self-important pedestrians who cross the street whenever and wherever they please, daring me and all other drivers to choose between squishing them and yielding courteously to a discourteous pedestrian.
3
Buddha (or maybe an early monk) talked about how we can be grateful for those who cause us distress because they provide concrete opportunities for us to practice our grace and equanimity. I try to remember that while driving, especially on roads like the Belt Parkway and the NJ / PA turnpikes.
Better driver training in the Northeast would be a great help, especially with regard to lane choice, but I digress. And what is it with New Jersey drivers, anyway? Was Chris Christie a driving instructor?
In my lifetime the social norm has changed from politeness to "me first". I call it the "you can just go around me" society. Stand in doorways. Block subway doors. Stop in the middle of sidewalks. Step in front of people as if they are not there when boarding a train or coming out of building. Burst on to roadways without yielding. Cut off a car by turning in front of it and then turning into your driveway or other road 100' later. Drive as if no one else is sharing the road. It is no wonder we elected a President who is the very epitome of the "ME FIRST!" culture.
466
Hillary still won the popular vote, so I don't share your hopelessness.
2018 will be a game changing year. Enough sick selfishness.
1
Yes, Marie! Thanks and well said! I feel the same...most of the time, especially regarding your last observation.
1
Marie nailed it.
In fact I heard those exact words, “You could just go around me,” a few weeks ago from a woman blocking the aisle at the local grocery, after I said “excuse me, please”. (I should back my cart up and take another aisle?) Her young companion, I presume her child, was there to hear this and learn from her.
I don’t get it, but am at least glad to know I am not a total dinosaur when it comes to expecting simple courtesy.
Thanks for the column, David Brooks.
4
A good lesson from Brooks this a.m. We can all improve our attitude about driving, and I am going to try to be more courteous and patient.
2
Yet another well-intentioned by overly simplistic column from Mr Brooks. I have lived all over the US. The way people drive is profoundly shaped by the nature of the roads and the density of the population. People are going to necessarily drive differently in crowded urban areas than they do in rural areas. And people are going to drive differently in cities like Boston and New York, whose roads are not necessarily based on a grid, then they do in the western grid cities. And the conditions and qualities of roadways, the nature of state traffic laws, the level of enforcement, etc etc play a huge role in how people drive. Oh, and by the way, a National Transportation Safety Board study from several years ago found that Massachusetts and Connecticut had the lowest fatality rates per 100 million miles of all 50 states. This is a complex topic that Mr Brooks oversimplifies to make ill-founded moral arguments.
1
I agree. It is the small choices we make every day that can have the most profound effects on our health and safety. So, for a start: try not to curse; drive carefully and calmly; be patient with the woman with the coupons in front of you at the grocery checkout (you will eventually be the old driver and the fumbling old person); store your weapons safely and securely; and most importantly recognize that people differ and they may be your opponents, but they are not your enemies.
True, Boston drivers are notorious for being aggressive and rude. Once I was rear ended just because I stalled when the lights turned amber. The driver who hit me was late for a doctor's appointment and who would stop at an amber light, she said. I would, at least slow down. But the sun was bright in her eyes and she couldn't tell one amber from the other...excuses excuses.
Having lived in Boston suburbs for three decades now, I can safely say the drivers outside of Boston (excluding Worcester or Springfield), are much polite. Especially when their kids are going through the driver education classes and tests. My son failed his driving test twice because he was not as accurate, my daughter nailed it at her first try because she had practiced the driving test route a million times before her test.
2
A couple of unrelated thoughts (apart from both being related to this essay):
The different responses given by people of different countries when asked whether they had been subjected to aggressive driving behavior could lead to either of two opposite conclusions: that the countries with low reporting of such behavior actually have less of it, or that they have so much that the threshold for complaining is higher.
Anyway, a similar essay written a generation from now may require a different example of the way people show their civility or lack thereof. By that time, with any luck, driving will be handled by well-bred Artificial Intelligence.
In areas where traffic and congestion are worsening, like in Portland, OR, despite whatever data show its being among the "least aggressive", several observations:
Drivers get more intolerant and aggressive as they deal with ever more traffic in some areas, with attendant delays in reaching destinations. Frustrations surface, and personalities, driving styles, and decisions behind the wheel often reflect that.
It's also a matter of road conditions. Driving styles are affected by potholes and the like.
1
I am from the East Coast but have lived and worked in the greater Cincinnati area for 38 years. I am continually surprised by the large number of traffic accidents occurring here on a daily basis, year round, regardless of the weather. It seems to me that the high accident rate is driven by sheer rudeness. I have gotten used to being tail-gated almost no matter what lane I use, and the norm seems to be to drive ten miles over the speed limit. In late March, 2016, a chain reaction series of crashes involving 12 cars occurred on the Combs-Hehl bridge which crosses the Ohio river. It was a clear, sunny, dry day. Yet, a vehicle was hit with such force that it flew over the guard rail into the Ohio River, killing the driver who died of head trauma. I must commute across this bridge regularly and there are always cars zigzagging at high speeds as they change lanes. In just a four month span last fall, this bridge was closed three times due to traffic accidents, and I had to find an alternative route home. My instinct has always been to drive "protectively." I try to drive in a way that protects the other guy or makes things easier for him or her. If someone is signalling to change into my lane, I slow down to let her do it! It just feels good to do that. David didn't mention trucks and SUVs---in my opinion, they tend to be the worst perpetrators of entitled, rude, aggressive driving. Driving with more kindness would greatly reduce the accident rate here for sure.
3
I judge people by the way they dispose of their shopping carts outside supermarkets. Unlike driving, which poses multiple possibilities to the driver in multiple situations, returning a cart to its allotted space is a simple step, takes only a few moments and is nothing else than a courtesy to other shoppers.
It's astounding how many people think nothing of leaving their carts in the most inconvenient places, blocking parking spaces and smashing into other cars.
(My rule in driving is that I stop looking at the clock once I start driving. The time to hurry is before I get in the car.)
5
People who drive erratically and rudely gain very little if any time, or any other advantage. People who drive politely and cautiously arrive more often safely and in a better mood. On the whole driving aggressively gains one nothing and thus is the action of the unenlightened. Of course some people, mostly guys, fancy themselves race car drivers, which is childish.
Kindness spreads, not only in driving but elsewhere.
2
Your focus on driving habits and society Mr. Brooks, hits a particular nerve in me. My wife is from a small town in Argentina. When I am there I feel a kind of debasement. A feeling of existing at the lowest common denominator. This results from the driving habits there. No one yields right-of-way, stops for pedestrians. Nor is there even acknowledgment that a pedestrian, let alone another car might be waiting or attempting to cross. This phenomenon is even worse in Buenos Aires because people realize that only through aggression can they cross an intersection, turn, or change lanes. The same goes for pedestrians who regularly cross the street mid block, and ignore traffic signals.
1
in peak hour stop and go traffic, if everyone resisted the urge to surge and instead drove at 30mph the entire system functions smoothly.
1
It's been my experience that most truly aggressive drivers think of their cars as devices that correct the bad things that happen to them day after day. There are as well those who wish to dazzle others with their skill in racing to the front. Third on my list of the dangerous are those people who wait until the last minute to change lanes for an exit and then expect traffic to bend to their will by creating a space for them.
4
If you want to live in a town where people drive friendly, you have to drive friendly yourself. It becomes the norm and everyone is safer.
1
I feel for Pope Francis, who lives in a teeny, tiny sovereign nation surrounded by Rome, home to some of the most inconsiderate drivers I've ever encountered. (Yes, I know there are worse drivers in the world, but the daily threats loom large. I've had too many near misses, and a couple of actual accidents that were no fault of my own, not to be extremely wary.)
Romans express deep appreciation for this pope, but I fear they'll never take his wise words on good driving to heart. Che peccato. (What a shame... or sin, as the word also translates.)
1
I see a glaring contradiction here. Many of the points Brooks makes in his columns would not pass the same test: How would Jesus write an op ed column?
What would happen if every person in office asked themselves when they drafted legislation and voted asked themselves: Would Jesus write this policy? Would Jesus vote for this bill?
I realize that this, too would be perverted much like Brooks does himself in many of his columns that contort almost anything into supporting conservative policy. Honestly, my bet is that Jesus would vote for abortion, passed a socially funded health care system long ago, and stood up on the floor of congress to eloquently state for all to hear that the latest tax bill is a moral abomination.
About driving, How would Jesus drive? needs to be a bumper sticker. Even as an atheist, I know it would make me think twice at a weaker moment.
3
This article gets to the heart of why self-driving cars are quite a bit further off than Google would have you believe. It is precisely in those situations where morality enters into decision making that autonomous driving algorithms break down. A.I. is advancing at a pretty fast clip, but A.M. (artificial morality) hasn;t even been invented yet.
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While your arguments may be true, I can't think of anything more boring than being trapped in a car for a several hour drive with nothing to do.
2
I disagree with that. I think 99% of driving decisions are programmable. For example, aggressively flipping lanes to try to stay in the fastest usually results in overall traffic slowing down, which would be prevented by a proper algorithm. Decisions about what evasive action would result in the least injury or loss of life are not infallible, but neither are human decisions. My guess is that when self-driving cars start to take hold there will be glitches resulting in horrible loss of life, but eventually people will realize it happens much less frequently than due to human error.
But you wouldn't get to feel good about letting someone merge into your lane. All that would be handled by algorithms that bring the greatest amount of good to the greatest number of people.
Huh? I think you missed the point of this article.
Almost everything we own is an extension of our ego, esp. so our car. Anecdotally, as a driver I've noticed that generally (not always), the drivers of big vehicles are the most aggressive drivers.
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A great historian who taught at MIT once told me (this was in the early 80's) that a difference between New York City and Boston was that in the former, most crimes took place on the street, whereas in Boston, most took place in the institutions. What he meant was that you could get a ticket if you parked your car more than one minute after the time expired on the meter, but the police would ignore you if you make a U-turn on Mass Avenue.
Driving is the main area where people come into contact with the law every day. So it is a useful site for investigation. A worrisome question is why incidents of road rage seem to be increasing. Part of the reason might be that drivers in small cars become angry when drivers in SUVs or BMWs cut them off. It seems that there are many more SUVs on the road than heretofore.
A good rule to abide by, though I often find it hard to do, is to think of the guy who cuts you off as just an extra link in a chain. He is probably not going to arrive at his destination much sooner than you. And if you are late to a doctor's appointment, remember that he will keep you waiting anyway.
David, in Chapter Two, please write about which vehicle would J drive. Surely, the driver's vehicle would reflect the driver's culture... but who knows? Personally, there's still quite a few of us that walk, ride bicycles or if required, a motorcycle or, if it becomes really wet/cold/hot, a cage type vehicle. If you're on a two wheeled conveyance, all of the other vehicles become predators, especially the tall, over-sized, humongous pickups with the tinted windows of disguise.
Driving properly and other small deeds--practical civic education--by which we are "artisans of the common good"?
I understand less and less with each passing day what one can possibly mean by artisan of the common good. That implies present and future tense, that you have a possibility of acting, that there is art in your motion and thought. What society actually appears to be doing with advances in technology and bureaucracy is reducing people to past tense. It is suggested you have present and future tense if you conform, agree, but you begin by being viewed as the past.
Not only will cars drive themselves in the future but you will be grasped at birth in all your genetic fingerprint. You will go through an increasingly more maze like and surveillance system education not to mention be watched in every move in society. Not a single one of your thoughts and actions will be left to chance. You will be watched, studied, exploited, tested, and it will not be enough to hold you to every word and action: You will be plotted to point of prediction of your next word and action.
It's taken as a scientific commonplace that although humans evolve man's brain has been the same for thousands of years and recently it's only been culture changing. It seems to me culture is an illusion, that we have always been evolving--Moore's law in fact--and that most of us are in the grip now of minds working to have even machines think and act decisively over anything we might do in our lives.
I have read that 95% of drivers consider themselves "good" drivers. I'm constantly amazed that the other 5% has doggedly followed me everywhere I've driven for the last fifty years.
4
I’m in the bicycle camp, and thanks for the article. One geeky note re: traffic engineering- speeding up and cutting in at the crowded exit ramp has been shown to be the most efficient way to move more cars, even though it feels like those that do it are ‘cheating’. They are actually acting in the group’s best interest even if they’re only thinking of theirs.
I've driven everywhere and lived in Boston for many years, which is the WORST. They have had to have a campaign of trying to get people to use their blinkers, which is most commonly treated as a nuisance to the driver, with no awareness that it's about helping those around to know what you are doing.
When I moved to Maine I became aware of my own impatience and aggression behind the wheel: a real driving culture change. I love it now--I love the slowness and politeness, although it is changing, just as politics in this state have changed.
1
I hope you're not suggesting that I must slow down to wait for someone to enter onto the highway. They should be yielding (like the sign says) until I am safely past the entrance. I'm not going to speed up, but neither should I have to slow down or change lanes in anticipation of them forcing their way into the travel lane.
I have long thought that traffic issues will not improve until drivers do. I have driven in Italy, and was moderately surprised that the drivers in Tuscany were no worse than, say, Atlanta. When I have to drive into the city (increasingly rare for me), I put on the classical station, and work to breath deeply and remain calm, and avoid switching lanes. I try to keep some sensible minimum distance, and realize those vehicles contain my fellow humans..It is distressing to see how many of them are on cell phones or obviously driving with distractions.
Sometimes, I wonder if listening to rightwing talk radio, designed to make one angry, makes drivers more aggressive: and if a libertarian mindset leads to disregarding of the needs of other drivers...
After all, it doesn't have to be a Darwinian struggle.
1
Charming as this essay might be, there are other interpretations--perhaps less amenable to biblical reasoning--for any number of driving behaviors: https://www.thedailybeast.com/americas-worst-drivers-the-states-gender-w... ("America’s Worst Drivers: The States, Gender, With the Most Accidents"). And even the references cited therein are likely open to dissent.
One comment about drivers in NYC and DC did get my attention: "The 2011 GMAC National Drivers Test, which uses actual DMV questions to appraise drivers’ knowledge of road rules, found the greatest rate of failure in the Empire State and the nation’s capital: In those areas, one in every three participants failed. " So many questions, so little time. But I live in a community where honking horns are uncommon.
Interestingly, nothing is said about the real modern day culprit responsible for most of the mayhem on the highways, the cell phone. Speeding, cutting-in, and tailgating are small potatoes compared to cell phone distractions. I’ve driven multiple times across country with a friend, a former military-commercial pilot, who is otherwise quite responsible except when it comes to using his cell. He is constantly running off the road or weaving as he receives and responds to texts. What is the psychological dynamic of folks so hooked on phones that they regularly put themselves and others at risk on the highways? What doers Pope Francis say about that? Or, WWJ text?
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Weird that Brooks didn't address distracted driving. As a daily runner who sees a growing percentage of drivers looking at their laps, I'm constantly struck by the disregard for others inherent in this behavior. It says at least as much about societal norms as honking.
David first of all you have been one our favorites for years whether we agree on everything or not, like why don’t you give up on being a Republican these days?
I am a woman in my sixties and have always driven a lot (20,000 -30,000/year). You make some interesting points and are some of the things I think about whether I am driving rurally, where I have always lived, or in cities, which I have always visited as much as possible, ie. Seattle drivers (lived in WA sixty years) I was always yapping that they needed lessons from more aggressive CA drivers on appropriate entering and exiting the interstate, etc.
I think faulty equipment (worn tires) and speed are huge problems. I have never had a ticket.
I just drove two 10 hour trips last week through the upper Midwest and could not believe how many accidents there were. I have lived here two years. How come these people cannot figure out how to drive in light snow and freezing conditions? Speed, hence needing to brake inappropriately with worn tires in my thought.
David's observations cohere with my everyday experiences on the road. I would add that since the speed limit was raised to 70 here in Wisconsin, people are driving at excessive speeds, even in zones marked 50-55, and are dangerously distracted: cell phones and various other electronic gizmos are competing for our increasingly limited attention spans. I think our social media-obsessed (look at me) culture is contributing to a less communal and more selfish attitude on the road. People are more aggressive; distracted; and concerned about themselves not the "community" of drivers.
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David, you will have to do a follow up piece on the necessary virtues of forgiveness, self control, and detachment as it relates to driving. They are essential for drivers regardless of the location.
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I learned long ago that the best way to drive is to meet the challenge of the traffic, being neither too aggressive nor too passive. Hesitating when you need to step on the gas is just as bad, if not worse, than charging in ahead of your time. As a police officer shouted to me one rainy night on a twisty, two-lane coastal road, in 100 kph bumper-to-bumper traffic, in Sicily, when we were forced to detour through a small village, including one particularly steep incline that included a hairpin turn at the top: Dai! Forza!
Being from Massachusetts, I'd like to point out that the layout and condition of our roads also play an important role in the number of accidents. The roads in our cities were laid out in the day of the horse and buggy. They were never designed for the speeds of automobiles. Having said that, yes, we do have a lot of crazy drivers here.
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Oh come on...I-93 and. I-95 were not laid out in the horse and buggy age. That is where I have been tailgated because I needed to exit at the left, and was driving 70-75. Where the breakdown lane is legally used at rush hour and in that far right lane the Massholes drive 80-90. And if you guys COULD do 70 on the streets which actually were made before cars, well, I am sure you would.
Loved this essay. Well done, Mr. Brooks.
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Under President Obama, the normal folk were regularly invited to the White House for dinner - people like Jay-Zee and Beyonce and George Clooney - people who know what it's like to worry about food on the table and making sure their children obtain an education.
And under former presidents, it was the same.
Mr. Brooks and the NY Times have championed consistently for regular folk to continue to have access to their presidents, instead of only celebrities and wealthy people. No doubt, the NY Times also walks the talk - the Publisher of the NY Times regularly meets with the "regular folks" to obtain their perspective and to remind himself of their concerns - Mr. Brooks does his part by acting as a waiter at such meals, to experience the reality of what it's like for the regular folks. Kudos to him.
Someone said to me, and I agree, that the best place to participate in common courtesy is where traffic lanes merge to enter the Holland Tunnel.
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someone should tell the Pope that New Jersey is way worse than Mass...or Mass., for that matter. But road design plays a significant role in shaping the "culture" of driving. In places like MA, CT and CA you have very short exit ramps right onto local streets, so people are always flying on and off them because you need that sort of aggression to safely enter or exit the highway. You need something in between to muffle that, eg a 40 mph zone between the 30 side street and the 65 highway.
In NJ there are the infamous jug handles, plus divided highways which make it hard work to retrace your steps if you miss an exit. So everyone drives fast and will do anything, anything, not to miss their exit. Try driving from Newark to Bedminster and watch the fun!
This column is the distilled essence of Mr. Brooks’ role in the conservative movement. Preach civility to the masses while the robber barons accumulate the wealth. To extend his metaphor, he is Mr. Trump’s chauffeur.
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How come some of the kindest, nicest people I know turn into rude demons behind the wheel? While I understand your need to apply a social construct to the act of driving, I find no connection to equate driving style and character on a consistent basis.
I have a fairly miserable commute composed of canyon defined corridors, busy boulevards, and heavily travelled freeways in an urban corridor full of tech companies.
When I leave in the evening, the street my company inhabits intersects a more major artery at a stop sign. At rush hour, the flow through the artery is continuous and we at the intersection might never get out. Another interesting feature of this junction is that there is a blind curve about six car lengths back of the intersection on the artery side
I've long considered this intersection an interesting sociology experiment.
When the traffic flow on the artery is freely moving the artery drivers pass by the intersection without noticing the stalled que.
When the artery flow is stalled by the gates and eddies of the prevailing traffic flow pattern, it is common to see the arterial traffic dwellers courteously offering passage to those trapped behind the stop sign in an I-go/you-go take turns civility, frequently acknowledged by a friendly hand signal by the person granted passage.
Inevitably, some jerk stalled by the stop sign will force their way into the flow without awaiting an invitation...and the next 6-8 drivers in the arterial flow (those within view of the jerk maneuver) will fail to invite the intersecting drivers into the flow.
I have seen this pattern hundreds of times.
The good news is that I've often seen the opposite pattern be just as catching.
Remarkable, astute interpretation of people's interactions with one another on the public streets. You don't want to know how people drive in this city.....highest insurance rates in the country provide you with a reasonable clue.
A Filipino friend of mine cites our civilized approach to driving in the US as one reason he won't move back to the Phillipines despite a tempting job opportunity. There everyone drives selfishly. He sees our generally courteous driving culture as a symbol of a less selfish society. Good for the Pope to say this. Another example of why David Brooks is my favorite columnist.
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Spoken by a man who does not drive a car. Pope Francis has a driver so should we take his advice seriously. I am a Catholic so am not criticizing the Church but wondering if we should take his words to heart.
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I'm a cyclist who "takes the lane", which is to say I position myself so as to leave no doubt in the mind of the motorist behind me that they will have to change lanes to pass me. This is a practical and safety measure for me, as it makes me more visible and keeps me away from the hole and debris near the curb. For the most part, drivers adjust. Once in a while, I am tailgated, honed at, or strafed, but in the last year that happened maybe three times in over a thousand miles of cycling. Back to my point, though. Recently, with the various news of sexual harassment and other abuses of power, I had a moment of clarity. When I take my position in my lane, I threaten no-one. The motorist who tails me, or strafes me to prove a point IS threatening me. Herein is the perverse genius of bullies and abusers—they carry on as if the person claiming her space is the threat and that they are the put-upon victim. I believe lane command has made me a more secure person away from my bicycle. It has definitely made me a more considerate motorist.
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Brooks: More important than the rudeness of drivers which truly is awful, is the fact that many, if not most of these drivers drive low efficiency and gas guzzler machines. (What do you drive? Brooks). No concern for the environment. No concern for future generations.
Jesus had the right idea. He walked.
"Driving puts you in a constant position of asking, Are we in a place where there is a system of self-restraint, or are we in a place where it’s dog eat dog?"
No, it does not. Sigh. Once again Brooks tries to assert sweeping and emphatic generalizations from the random instances of individual behavior, a rhetorical approach that wold earn him a D in an college sociology class.
The future of humans and automobiles, driving, and the concept of a person being an "artisan of the common good" in the future, what the average person's thoughts and actions will be like in the human future?
Taking various trends politically, economically, socially, culturally, technologically, I don't recognize my being able to think at all in the human future unless driven entirely, herded mentally and behaviorally, into some sort of spatio-mathematical type reasoning, pure machine making thought. First, cars will drive themselves, humans will not be trusted to initiate much behavior we now take for granted. The military need to know entirely, and to predict and control, what enemies are thinking and doing means entire decline of private life and total surveillance, and machine control and manipulation of public.
And billions upon billions of people in an increasingly wasted environmentally world means the most banal public discourse and predictable morality, combination of religious mush and socialistic everybody is exactly equal petty police control of thought and action. I honestly can't imagine thinking and writing in any way which will not be deemed offensive to somebody and therefore just cut entirely out of consideration. All of life appears more and more like the film the "Truman Show", set piece after set piece in which you walk in ignorance.
I see the set going up, am considered of no role, management is obscure, and people are automatons.
When I got my license and began driving I was a Democrat. After years behind the wheel I have become a staunch Republican.
In an attempt at expressing some humility in my life about 10 years ago I started a conscious effort to obey all traffic laws. For example when the speed limit is 50 drive 50 instead of trying to figure how fast I can go without receiving a ticket. I find it a very convenient way to to get out of my own self concern and much as Brooks expresses to perhaps make myself a little better member of the brotherhood of man. I also fail frequently which serves to remind me that I am indeed a flawed human being.
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On interstates, I find that driving a little under the speed limit allows me hundreds of miles of driving in cruise control without braking. This of course does not work when semi trucks are trying to go up hills in front of you only to pass you again on the way down where the next hill is a repeat performance. I have found as I get older, my patience factor has increased though.
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To exactly obey the speed limit, especially in traffic, you are dangerously overcompensating. It is safer to drive around the median speed, where you pass about as many people as pass you. Thank you for providing your location - now I know to avoid central New Jersey.
3
Thank you. Hopefully you're also in the far right lane, rather than acting as highway cholesterol blocking the arteries of transportation by driving the speed limit in the middle or left lane.
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I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in South America, fortunate enough to have a vehicle for my work. The country I served in was predominantly Catholic and everyone loved the Pope. The single most important rule of the road I had to learn was the bigger vehicle had the right of way. It's funny, but traffic flowed relatively safely under this might makes right protocol. It was tough being a pedestrian though.
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This is a great article. Maybe we should modernize the old expression to The person talks the talk; but does not drive the drive.
Of course you can see that in many aspects of society, with politicians most at risk.
In some countries politicians state their country has large Freedoms of expression, then censor the newspapers and internet. In some countries politicians state they follow the highest standard of their religion and then ignore the basic needs such as healthcare.
Talk is cheap, action speaks louder than words.
6
Courtesy begins by recognizing that you don't know the motivations of a stranger. Assuming the worst motivations when someone inconveniences you directly feeds the kind of hostility and rudeness David Brooks bemoans here.
The driver who cuts into the exit lane at the last moment may have just realized that this was his exit. The driver who makes a 3-point turn in heavy traffic may be lost and confused. The driver who speeds up when you want to merge into his lane may be trying to make space for you behind him, or is accelerating because the traffic is accelerating.
How would Jesus drive? Jesus would drive with compassion for the stranger, and recognize that other drivers are human, and include not just the selfish b*stards, but student learners who haven't mastered the rules of the road, elderly drivers who drive more cautiously than he would, out of town people who are not intimately familiar with the local roads or customs, and people who are not behaving at their best because they are tired, frustrated, or frightened.
30
You are not surrounded by idiots, but defensive driving requires assuming that every other car is being driven by a not very bright chimpanzee since one cannot tell by looking exactly where the idiots are.
16
Good one Mr. Brooks and Pope Francis. I tend to think that the idea of goodness coming from the ground up is much more potent than all the top down goodness that our leaders and billionaires like to use as PR. Effective goodness involves human interaction. Donating a million dollars to an anti-malaria campaign is great, don't get me wrong, but its the people who implement the campaign that have the strongest effect. The individual is where the rubber hits the road... the doctor without a border or the fireman who fights somebody else's fire. The actual good is performed by people who are making mortgage and student loan payments. The actual sacrifice is made by people who prioritize good acts over profitable investments. In a world as unjust and inequitable as this one, I guess we need the benevolent oligarch to facilitate good deeds, but let us not forget who is actually making a sacrifice. What's a million dollars to a billionaire? One less house? Is that a sacrifice? No. That's a luxury.
We heap accolades and tax-breaks onto the big-money donors but our representatives have no problem considering the removal of tax deductions from high school teachers who buy school supplies to help their students. It's high school teachers, not the wealthy, who are emulating Jesus.
The merge is an amazing act of cooperation. The berm rushers stand out.
As for driving styles, I'll be kind and just say that BMW drivers are amazingly consistent.
18
Having driven in all 50 states and in numerous countries, I have found that US drivers are the slowest, but that does not mean the safest. On several trips abroad, and while riding in a minibus or a taxi, I have had to ask the drivers to slow down. In one case, in China, I polled the occupants (foreign tourists) in a minivan, if they thought the van was being driven too fast. They said yes, but it was more of wanting to be polite to me rather than the perception of too much speed.
The fastest drivers I have encountered are in Europe, and especially in Italy and Germany. I was in Germany over Christmas, and there was a little bit of snow/drizzle, but yet, drivers were passing me at speeds in excess of 80 miles per hour. Some were as high as 100 miles/hour!
But still, driving nearly 1600 miles over Christmas through six European countries with wet/snowy roads and temperatures just above freezing, I saw only one accident, and that was on a highway in Austria. The accident was not in my direction, but there was absolutely no rubber necking in my direction!
European drivers will flash their lights when a driver is going too slow for a particular lane, and some drivers will approach your rear bumper.
Back in the US, I rarely encounter speeds that much different from what most cars would be doing on the highway. The only exception I have found is in California, south of Sacramento.
THanks to Pope Francis for the life lesson and the driving lesson. I hope to improve my skills as an artisan of the common good. THanks to David Brooks for spreading the gospel.
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Nothing sleazy about dumping a wife of 27 years for a newer, much younger model.
People in glass houses and all that. Pontificate away, Mr. Brooks. Yes, the list of sleazoids could make one feel fairly sanctified. Particularly by the Catholic Church, with it's thousands of years worth of creepy and morally flexibly leaders.
When the Church passes the hat for a candidate running on a social justice platform, including transportation and housing for all, we'll reconsider Francis' cred.
6
Public shaming is also sleazy.
Calling this what it is: a snarky, personal attach on the author, followed by further snarky commentary.
Instead of driving, or even using the tired cliche that heads this op-ed, why don’t we emphasize massive transportation and/or bicycle riding. We have enough cars on the road that contribute to global warming. Enough with the idea that driving and owning a car is one of pillars of being a free citizen in a democratic country. Let’s have more bike paths and light rail for city travel. Let’s improve our decrepit subway infrastructure. Oh, I forgot those are not the Wall Street priorities.
7
"But if you get over to the right and wait your turn in a crowded highway exit lane, rather than cutting in at the last moment, that teaches me that there’s a sense of fairness and equality, and that people feel embedded in the group."
I suggest you read Tom Vanderbilt's book, Traffic, in which he reveals that cutting in at the last moment is actually the more efficient way of merging and allows more cars to share the same pavement.
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I believe Vanderbilt was referring to a zipper configuration, not an off-ramp. Great book.
1
Paul:
I have been in those lines where a lane is closed for whatever reason and people zoom past the people that waiting in line and force others to allow them to merge from the closed lane to the next lane. So many people do this that the people toward the back of the line never move. It's called "cutting the line".
2
I had the exact same thought. The popes metaphor is fantastic is so many ways for so many societal problems. Not all of them the way the Pope or Mr. Brooks is painting it.
Mr. Brooks, like you, Jesus was a nice a Jewish boy born into a kind family who had a lovely way with words that greatly influenced people.
Unlike you, though, Jesus had conviction in the words he preached, and lived his life as a democratic socialist by helping the poor, healing the sick and having utter contempt for hypocrisy, whited sepulchers, false prophets and religious posers.
Jesus drove a pair of well-worn Birkenstocks and got the best mileage in recorded history.
Here we sit in time and space, knowing perfectly well that the world's Prosperity Gospellers and Oleaginous Oligarchs have recklessly driven us into a ditch with a hyper-carbonized atmosphere, dying oceans, murdered coral reefs and a destabilized climate.
What would Jesus drive ?
He wouldn't drive drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
He wouldn't drive the expansion of offshore drilling for gas and oil for psychopathic profits.
He wouldn't set foot near the Grand Old Phony bus of scientific ignorance, denialism, Robber Baronism, petro-profits and pretend he was doing the Lord's work.
But you have, David Brooks, and you diminish yourself by not publicly renouncing the comprehensive moral, intellectual and economic fraud that is modern Republicanism and conservatism.
You hitched your saddle to a smoke-belching Republican coal plant horse in your youth and have failed to dismount and walk away from the apocalypse you aided and abetted.
Get off that wretched GOP horse and walk away.
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Even though I agree with the values expressed here, I wonder if it will ever be possible for David to write a positive column without being taken to task for it.
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Please PLEASE read the comments section, David.
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I love Socrates!!!
4
Driving driving a car is one of the most self deceiving exercises of individuality. The car you drive was probably made by many people and assembled from pieces made in different parts of the world. Heard of the global value chains? The roads that you drive in were made by others with materials extracted probably thousands of miles form where you live and drive. In sum, your driving depends on the social labor of many others (even if those others live in other countries). So the myth that driving epitomizes the rugged individuality of this country is just another self deceiving and aggrandizing tale we tell each other. Social individuals we are but we want to believe that is all up to us.
23
I live in an older area of Denver where many of the residential streets are too narrow for two cars to pass each other if any vehicles are parked on the sides. One driver has to pull over and stop to let the other by. There's an informal protocol that whoever can do it most easily does. The driver who passes through first gives a wave of acknowledgement and thanks. It has always amazed me how well and consistently this system works. In the 40 years I've lived here, I've never seen anyone selfishly violate the custom.
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I don't know what kind of car Jesus would drive, but I do know that Donald Trump is driving me crazy.
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"... I do know that Donald Trump is driving me crazy."
-------------------
Short drive.
(old joke)
1
For many (this reader included) the seized opportunity to drive oneself across continents and subcontinents in all kinds of vehicles and through all kinds of weather made living in the twentieth and early twenty first century seem like far less of a drag than it otherwise might have felt. Good luck to future generations in finding that kind of freedom of the road.
8
Guessing that Jesus wouldn't have to text or check e-mails while driving, which is far more hazardous than aggressive drivers.
It is interesting to observe driving in collective cultures in Asia. What at first appears chaotic is a highly attentive and cooperative flow system where drivers reflexively yield just enough space to other motorcycles, pedestrians, buses, trucks, cyclists, cows or whatever else is using the roadway. Honking is more of an auditory complement to visual awareness and rarely an angry gesture. It's a very difficult adjustment for western drivers.
There are definitely more safety problems because of intense congestion and less protective equipment and lighting.
But distracted and inattentive drivers are the biggest hazard in our area, followed by poorly maintained vehicles.
17
it is all part of the same pattern of being dangerous to others
Nonsense, from the opening silly claim about texts and e-mails.
Your essay reminds me of a time in high school, a few decades back, when a math teacher suggested I might enjoy 'speed reading', which admittedly had many of us spell bound when a man demonstrated whisking breezily through the pages of a book, and somehow was able to comprehend enough of it to give a good synopsis.
I passed on the speed reading course, deciding even at that young age, that when I read, it is to enjoy. I like to read slowly, to savor the words.
Similarly with driving, why race around which only brings up the heart rate, slow down and allow others in from side roads and parking lots. Wave and smile and it often brings back somewhat surprised but happy looks. But then I am from Seattle.
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I used to live there and am horrified when I go back to visit how long it takes to get anywhere now. My daughter tells me that it is a faster drive to Seattle from Ellensburg that from Tacoma!
1
Cosby wasn’t a TOTAL “sleazoid”, and did vast good among the black community before he was brought low by revelations of substantial sleaziness.
I’ve been a Manhattan driver for forty years – long enough to cause drivers in Rome to fear and respect me; and if David’s interpretation of papal wisdom were accurate, NYC already would be a significant station on the road to Hell. Yet if someone caught perpetually looking up at “all the tall buildings” (read “tourist”) asks directions on the street, he’ll typically find a very polite New Yorker willing to help. It’s only occasionally that he’ll find someone who directs him to E. 110th St. and Manhattan Ave. when he’s looking for the MOMA or the Empire State Bldg.
NY and NJ drivers simply have superb reflexes, and insist that everyone else have them, too.
From someone who has driven millions of miles on three continents, in every imaginable weather through every imaginable terrain, it’s clear that the worst drivers in America are Marylanders (this is a population I haven’t recently antagonized but who deserve it). They park themselves in the passing lane, forever going too slow, blocking traffic as they’re forever and loudly passed on the right – like the aged, they’re never involved in accidents unless by a passing (on the right) motorist with a weapon, but around whom MANY accidents miraculously happen.
But I can’t predict their worthiness of heaven by their driving habits. Marylanders could be nice people otherwise.
9
Marylanders also tailgate like nobody's business, and then wonder why they have 15 car pile ups when it rains and is foggy.
That being said, it always takes some time to get the feel for a new place and how the people drive there. I used to be a nervous wreck in Manhattan until I figured out the way it works. Once you get the rhythm and decipher the unspoken rules it's not a big deal. Only if you want to get there fast does it become awful. Go with the flow and get there safely. And remember, taxis and busses are always going to be horrible and make all sorts of unpredictable moves. Just accept this and don't let it bother you. Let the hotheads do their thing.
I frequently get some small amount of satisfaction watching a jerk weave himself through traffic going south on the West Side Highway, only to pass him down around the TRUMP village when he makes a stupid lane decision... usually thinking that the left lane is faster only to be surprised that it becomes left-turn-only a little further down. Meanwhile I haven't changed lanes at all.
1
LBJr:
A real New Yorker. It's always a pleasure.
I had to smile when I read that headline. I grew up in a very small, close-knit evangelical church in Appalachia. Although I haven't been religious for decades and would be terribly uncomfortable in an evangelical church now, my feelings toward that upbringing are almost entirely positive. I'm grateful for having gained biblical literacy, which was an asset to my literary studies, but most of all for our youth leader, who encouraged us teens to speak frankly of the issues that troubled us and to seek ethical guidance in the life of Jesus, whom we saw as a sort of romantic hippie-rebel.
Because of years of "What would Jesus do?" I can answer with great confidence that he would not vote Republican nor be any kind of capitalist. He'd probably be pretty good on Twitter, and that's the only quality I can think of in common with You-Know-Who.
I'm amused at "How would Jesus drive?" because we actually discussed that question in our youth group in the 1970s. We gravely concluded after much scriptural deliberation that Jesus would not break Caesar's law by speeding—unless, of course, he was in a really big hurry to help someone in urgent need.
Narrative is a more complex form of persuasion than rationalism in engaging the emotions and imagination. You aren't observing and analyzing the act of driving: you are the driver. And you are Jesus. Or Frodo. Whatever. It only works if you really believe.
45
What immediately comes to mind is a classic Disney cartoon short called "Motor Mania." It's a take on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where the mild-mannered Mr. Walker becomes the monstrous Mr. WHEELER once he gets behind the wheel. Even though it was made in 1950 it is still a near perfect depiction of drivers today. There's a touch of Mr. Wheeler in me too but I'm doing my best to keep him at bay.
8
Driving styles are a "lagging indicator": a result of some process that is often unrelated to culture. My driving skills were honed in the 70's by a college summer job as a cabbie in Manhattan. I learned to be aggressive to a point, because my riders gave me bigger tips if I looked like I was getting them to their location fast but safely. With so many cabs on the road, if non-cabbie wanted to keep up with traffic, he or she had to drive that way. (I left NY soon after, and cannot comment on current driving conditions.) Based on that experience (and many others), it does not seem like driving habits are a fair basis to judge whether the people of a region care about the common good.
6
Perhaps David could add a paragraph on the role of regulation: stop lights, solid and dashed center lines, signs... The point being that how we react to rules is significant as David suggests, but sensible organization helps.
The analogy could include government by and for the people, not by billionaires for billionaires.
15
Having been driving in Southern California for decades, I can personally confirm the various driving behaviors and their effects on the drivers Mr. Brooks so eloquently described in this article. The best driving day I have ever had over the past 34 years in San Diego was September 11, 2001. Every driver was an artisan of kindness during rush hour driving on that tragic day. It only occurred on that day, the kindness was short lived.
31
As a non-driver I'd be more interested in knowing how drivers would react if they knew that the pedestrian they had just nearly mowed down was Jesus. Having survived more than my fair share of near-catastrophes I suppose I shouldn't complain but I'm guessing that Christ Himself would have some choice words to utter if He found Himself trying to cross the road while dodging a car making a left turn at a red light.
23
If driving is metaphor for how we govern ourselves, it doesn't exactly speak highly of the merits of wholesale deregulation.
I'm very happy to see one of the Times' resident conservative columnists follow the Pope in advocating for the Common Good; slowly but, I hope, surely he seems to be abandoning the dark side. The idea is enshrined in the Constitution as the General Welfare, which the more ideological conservatives who claim to adhere to the Constitution conveniently forget, because it doesn't fit their view of the world.
37
Thank you! For many years I’ve noticed the parallel between personal and driving skills. Kind people drive with kindness and vice versa. Now we need a study on how the ruder we are, the more crowded our roads become!
21
Actually, there have been many studies that show the opposite: the more crowded the area, the more aggressive the residents. I think that's why NY/NJ drivers are so awful. When we travel out west or other led dense areas, drivers are much more courteous.
1
When I moved from NJ to Massachusetts in 12 years ago, I was astounded at how truly awful MA drivers are. Nobody merges onto a highway--they fly out at top speed, forcing people about to exit to practically screech to a grinding crawl.
So, I'm not surprised at all by how many cities here whose drivers are the bane of Allstate.
So I agree with Pope Francis: probably nothing is more indicative of one's entitlement or sense of cooperation than driving. If like Jesus, an impatient driver metaphorically turns his or her cheek, they may be spared a significant amount of damage.
Of course the Lord was trying to impart an attitude, a Christian way of life, not simply a defensive posture meant to avoid a serious accident.
But I would venture to say that driving is the perfect place to test and build patience, so much so that maybe if you drive well, it will spill over into your other personal life. Maybe if you get in the habit of yielding, you'll grow to automatically treat the ones you love--as well as the casual stranger--with a little more respect, tolerance and kindness.
114
I agree with ChristineMcM. Any study that doesn't rank Massachusetts as the worst driving experience in the country has it wrong.
Christine. Watch where the backups are on highways like Rt 3 to/from Cape or the Pike. It is always where the on ramps are. As you say people simply don't yield, or look, they just go forcing the cars with right of way to slow which accordions back to where people are forced to stop. Forcing people to yield, maybe by installed west coast style lights at on ramps.
They other one is where everyone knows there is an exit ahead and they queue to get in the right lane for it and along comes the people who are two important to wait in that lane so fly by and jam themselves in at the last second thereby perpetuating and making worse the line that was probably started by someone doing the same.
Driving with respect for others also cuts way down on stress for yourself and is safer. It actually is the most selfish way to drive since you, yourself, get the most benefit.
1
What a great title for this essay. When I travel, my wallet joins me, holding inside a photo of Pope Francis. You will have to learn how to drive, I was told, when living in the countryside. A menace to my fellowmen, women and children, all creatures great and small, I refuse.
A friend came to pick me up on a winter day, and it was tense. Once fearless, her way of driving had changed. We were of a sudden on Black Ice and losing traction, nearly sliding off the road. 'This is your fault, I was told, you should never have let me drive in this weather', while I remained silent as a golden retriever companion in the front seat. We arrived at our destination safely, and a glass of wine was offered to my guest. On a note of humor, it was a housewarming gift from 'Republicans'.
Thank you, Mr. Brooks. I am going to try to be an artisan of the common good, laced with some common horse sense.
4
I spend my winters in Phoenix, one of the cities listed as having the "Most aggressive drivers." I honestly believe that if Phoenicians drove cooperatively instead of competitively the # of collisions, especially on I-10, would be so greatly reduced average speeds would go way up.
11
About 15 years ago I drove from Szczecin to Gdansk. Much of the trip was on a three-lane highway - one lane each way and a center lane for passing from either direction. While it may sound frightening it was a positive experience; the Polish drivers were amazingly courteous in using and allowing others to use that center lane. It was a real test of David Brooks' hypothesis.
8
I'm sure things have changed. The 3-lane highways that forced courtesy are very likely gone. And the proportion of first time drivers has, no doubt, increased.
Thank you, Mr. Brooks, for drawing attention to this topic. I've never had a powerful highway car, mostly little sports cars over the years, but I was never afraid until recently. More like terrified. I've never seen worse driving, and where are the police when drivers are going 10-20 miles over the speed limit and recklessly changing lanes?
I stay in the outside lane and drive the speed limit, and I'm passed like I'm standing still. Drivers pass me just to get off at the next exit. Once, a driver passed me by USING an exit ramp. I've been so frequently tail-gated by huge pick-ups and 16-wheelers I wondered if they were being intentionally intimidating, and I scrubbed off my liberal bumperstickers.
My boyfriend is a very safe driver but he has a one hour commute to work each way. I fear for his life every day. He's scared too by what he's seen. It's like Road Warrior or Mad Max out there. And women drive as wildly irresponsible as the men! I think over-sized SUVs and pick-ups give drivers a delusion of invulnerability. And yes, I believe the recklessness and discourtesy reflects a breakdown of society. Jesus would weep.
40
Respectfully, you need to learn to drive the speed of traffic, or get off the road. You sound like a danger to others, driving so slowly that others are forced to pass. Go when there is no traffic, or pick it up. And for heaven's sakes, don't drive in the "outside" lane: the left lane is for passing, the right lane is for righteous saints who are doing the speed limit. Can you plan your travels to include times of no to little traffic? Sometimes, when you go too slow (and usually it is people talking/texting on their phones who slow down to undertake those activities), you are the danger to other vehicles..
I too wish more vehicles would drive more slowly and safely, but when they do not, and you don't adapt to the speed of traffic around you, it really is you who is endangering others. God bless.
3
gw, inspired by David Brooks and the commentators, I have just sent this to my favorite driver, and it is for All of Us:
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Rtajxo8d7js?rel=0&controls=0&...
Sorry but "Driving the speed limit" is not safe when everyone else is averaging +10 over. You need to keep up with the "flow" of traffic, in other words, speed. Instead you are turning yourself and your car into a rolling obstacle other drivers must go around. You are the "letter of the law abiding" driver that makes the aggressive ones "act out," pass on the right, swerve, and endanger the rest of us. Seriously. You need to obey the SPIRIT of the traffic law, which is safety, and not the letter, which is 55 or 65 or whatever. Thanks.
1
I don’t know how he would drive, but he most likely would drive a Christler.
218
Audible groan
3
Wonderful -- this made my day!
2
Driving was the internet before the internet existed. Shielded in iron, drivers are anonymous and can do whatever they wish with little fear of consequence. At some point, all those aggressive, selfish, angry drivers get out of their cars and go into supermarkets, where they navigate their carts with smiles and nods, surrendering their right of way to others without a thought, and wait with great patience for those slower than them.
13
"...where they navigate their carts with smiles and nods, surrendering their right of way to others without a thought, and wait with great patience for those slower than them."
------------------
Where do you shop? Where Jesus shops?
It has long been known by drivers not from Mass that Mass drivers are the Nation's worst. I'm only surprised that Cape Codders aren't on the list. Out there they not only aim to take you out but themselves as well. Does it start with driver's ed? Something in the water? Could the Pope please speak to them?
20
Pope Francis will be here in Lima on the 21st and I'm praying fervently that he will give this exact same talk here. The traffic in Lima, Peru where I live, is horrifying. 2 highways to move you around this massive city where most traffic crawls around city streets and motorcycles use the sidewalk. The driving in this city is so terrible that I won't drive because I'd be homicidal in about 2 hours. Thousands upon thousands are forced to spend hours either squeezed into ancient and modified vans with seats jammed in tightly, or riding squeezed in and hunched over because they have low ceilings. Now imagine your commute is 2 hours each way provided there isn't an accident up ahead. think what that does to your time with your family. If Jesus stuck around for a while, and didn't leave I'd beg him to make the public buses accessible. Not one single bus in the entire city that has access and the steps to get on the buses are about 18" above ground. The City bus line that runs in a fixed lane never stops close enough to the platform so that a chair might get on but bus is so crowded a chair wouldn't fit. Por favor, Papa Francisco, repita sus palabras de lo que manejaria Jesus cuando venga a Lima. El trafico aqui en Lima es una desgracia.
9
Great article. I have experience driving in countries outside of the United States--very different styles to be sure. Some cities seems lawless but as you get to know how drivers manage their cars, you discover unspoken understandings about how to drive. That people wait at stop signs to take their turn still amazes me.
I learned to drive in crazy-driver Boston and for a long time thought it prepared me to drive anywhere. Cowpaths for streets, flying out of red lights, and the infamous rotaries!! However, a friend in Mexico City claims that it is the other way around. Driving in Mexico City prepares one to drive in Boston!! I have come to agree.
On one occasion, the Boston Globe even published an article reminding people to obey the red lights!!
Nonetheless, the Pope and Mr. Brooks make an important point in that roads are spaces that we all share, whether we know or like each other, whether we drive a Ferrari or a jalopy.
6
David, I'm sorry if this comes across as harsh, but every week, as it becomes more and more clear that you have been backing the wrong horse the less your column focuses on the politics you helped create.
I really don't mean to be mean-spirited, but that is really cowardly behavior, David. If you really believe in your convictions, try to defend them. Don't ignore them when reality doesn't support your thesis.
348
This is one of the good conservatives, Chip. It doesn't help our side to act with intolerance towards someone who obviously strives to be fair and thoughtful, even when he misses the mark sometimes. We need to stop testing for purity and vilifying those near the center. Like in driving, our political rhetoric needs to show us as artisans of the common good.
3
Speaking the truth boldly and clearly is not mean spirited. Jesus of Nazereth spoke truth to power when he threw the money lenders out of the temple and told his followers to let the children come to him. And when he said there were only really two commandments: love God and love your neighbor as yourself (strong democratic socialist message there).
Perhaps the reason DB has "backed the wrong horse" and now finds anything else to write about is that he is still hoping to be among the Pharisees, the moneyed elite.
2
I don't think you are mean spirited at all, just stating the facts in frankly the most polite terms of anyone here. Bravo. I will be looking for your comments to learn from you. I think you wrote your comment how Jesus may have.
1
the bus is the best when Jesus gets on board.
1
If the Pope can make Americans into better drivers, he truly will have performed a miracle and will qualify for sainthood! I have commuted up and down the Turnpike for 16 years--funny, but I have never seen the Popemobile on it--anyway, I can tell you that it's filled with sociopaths. My feeling is that Americans are not really taught how to drive, but are taught only the rudiments necessary to pass the driving test and get a driver's license. As a result, as David Brooks suggests, they treat driving as a competition, in which the other drivers--that is, their fellow citizens and perhaps even their neighbors--do not matter. They blow their horn and use obscene gestures to express their impatience. They swerve from lane to lane to gain one carlength. They text and talk on the phone while tailgating me at 70 mph. These may not be mortal sins, although they could cause a fatal accident. So I am glad to hear the Pope address this issue. If he succeeds, maybe I'll even start going to church.
28
Mr. Brooks juxtaposes well our behavior in driving and our ethos in living. I will not repeat what the column says because I happen to agree with this metaphorical piece. But I will attempt to answer the leading question: How would Jesus drive? Well, if he were a city guy, he wouldn't. No Uber or taxi either. He would take the bus, our Bay Area Bart, or the NY subway. He would mix with us common folks, stand for the aged, the pregnant, the disabled, the lady, or the mom with her kids. Or he would walk, same if he were a country boy. He would not rush, or push another out of the way; but he may just sneak a jay walk. After all, he is human, too. He would use this opportunity to observe his neighborhoods, who needs help, and what needs improvement, a true community activist.
if he were rich, which I would doubt, but if he were, no private jets or limos like yours' truly. No, he would take a train or Grey Hound to travel interstate. He'd be too busy helping others to travel abroad. That money he would have left over? Well, it would go to health care, environmental control, organizations for the poor, the immigrant, the refugee. This is how, I think, Jesus would drive.
22
He would not rush, or push another out of the way; but he may just sneak a jay walk.
----------------------
He did die at 33. Pedestrians who don't observe the right of way cannot blame motorists who do. If you're walking against the light when drivers are attempting to turn left because the signal allows them to do so, you are the problem.
1
I love your Jesus, Kathy.
I wanna drive just like Him.
Hate when someone drives up my tail and flashes ME to move out of their way. I do, but I usually give them ‘the finger’. I might not in the future to be ‘an artisan of the common good’.
3
Actually The Messiah is trending in the year 2018, more than Je Sus. So, what car would the Messiah drive? Riddle: What is faster than a ray of light? Brilliance. Brilliance, is what the Messiah drives.
Just be grateful Trump doesn't drive.
8
How would Jesus drive?
Over 2,000 years ago in the Land of Israel, good chance that he would have walked or at best taken a donkey.
Horses were for Romans, not Jews.
As for the pope, if you have ever tried to cross the street in Rome, then you know why this was the topic of his sermon.
17
Hitch hiking
In short, humans driving cars is a dangerous and deadly activity that kills40 thousand Americans every year:
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general-statistics/fatalityfacts/state...
The sooner human driver are replaced by driver less cars and trains the better it would be for everyone...
6
The sooner human driver are replaced by driver less cars and trains the better it would be for everyone...
------------------------
So says someone who doesn't have faith in herself/himself, and doesn't respect those who do, and know how to drive properly. Do you believe in pre-destination in spiritual matters too? I don't.
1
If I judged people by how they drive, I'd conclude the world is going to the dark fires below so fast that I won't have time to drive home.
5
Thank you Mr. Brooks for a thoughtful commentary that I would imagine even extreme partisans on opposite sides could find much to agree with.
As we learn more about the negative effects stress can have on our bodies, we should be motivated to make our own driving a less stressful experience. While we can't usually control other drivers' actions, we can control how we respond to those actions. I suspect Jesus would be granting forgiveness instead of giving the finger.
6
On a good day, Jesus would have shared the road - just like he taught the 5,000 to share their bread and fish. On a bad day, Jesus might tear up the middle lane, cut people off, pass on the right - just like he tore into the Temple and took out the money changers. After all, Jesus was human.... Maybe if we pray first, before engaging in road rage..... Food for thought.
5
"...just like he tore into the Temple and took out the money changers."
You say this, like it was a bad thing.
Don't you understand what Jesus was doing in preventing the obstacles that men/mannon were attempting to set up in His Father's house, keeping the Lord from all his people? There is no need for an animal sacrifice, Christ himself gave his flesh and blood to assure all of us of that. Non believers: take heed.
1
Lovely column, Mr. Brooks, thank you. Here in Hawaii we show our aloha by giving each other a shaka sign in thanks for courtesies. It cuts down on the road rage.
10
I had my best lesson in driving ethics a number of years ago from a wonderful Mexican mechanic in Cuernavaca, where he skillfully replaced the head gasket on my aging Mitsubishi, a car he had never worked on before. (I subsequently drove the car back to Columbus, Ohio without losing a drop of oil.) As we were out for a test drive in the car, I noticed that he slowed down to let a pedestrian cross the street safely. I commented that Mexican drivers don't usually do things like that. He expressed his philosophy memorably: "People first, then cars."
108
Driving is indeed a social and moral action today. Fortunately, self-driving automobiles will soon be here. A generation or two from now, no one will drive, and all of these moral issue will vanish.
Until recently, books were expensive and rare. Children in third-world countries and poor children in the U.S. could not get them. Society had a moral obligation to build libraries and bring books to people -- an obligation it often failed to meet. Now, with the Internet, they are thousands of times cheaper to distribute. Any child with a cell phone in Africa can read public domain textbooks from the best universities. There are free websites with superb video lectures.
What was once a moral issue was solved by technical means. That is what will happen to the moral issues of driving, and eventually some other present day quandaries such as expensive health care. When robots replace doctors in the distant future, and CAT-scan machines are long out of patent and manufactured cheaply by robots, health care will cost practically nothing.
4
Fortunately, self-driving automobiles will soon be here. A generation or two from now, no one will drive, and all of these moral issue will vanish.
------------------
Keep on dreamin', Jed.
They told us that making everyone buy into health insurance would keep everyone healthy too, but some still choose to take responsibility into our own hands... Freedom in America will never die out. Too many people will refuse what are being sold as technological advances that cost them their health.
1
I do not understand your message. How would self-driving automobiles cost you your health? This is like saying that push-button elevators (without human operators) cost you your health.
Self driving cars will not diminish your freedom. We have stopped using many other obsolete modes of transportation. Americans no longer ride horses on city streets. We don't walk or ride bicycles on interstate highways. We don't use steam locomotives or ship with sails. No one complains that such changes diminish our freedom. We don't even notice, or remember what it was like when people rode horses in cities. Self-driving cars will inevitably replace human-driven ones, because they will be more convenient, cheaper and far safer. Eventually, no one will remember what it was like when people drove cars, and no one will want to go back to that.
You made a lot of great points David. I was recently appalled to find several otherwise well adjusted people in my social media circle asking, on Facebook, how they could get out of the camera tickets they received speeding in a school zones! That kind of brought it all together for me. There are two places where some humans lose any sense of citizenship and manners: social media and the road.
82
I can't presume to tell His Holiness about morality, but I do know something about shoveling snow from sidewalks. It is the true test of civic duty and compassion for one's fellow men and women. You can claim all sorts of ethical convictions and political beliefs from liberal to conservative. But after a few inches of new fallen snow have whitened your sidewalk, the real test of your world view and social responsibility becomes visible. The evidence proves that here are two types of people: those who shovel and those who don't. All the rest is rhetoric and humbug. And yes, Jesus would shovel his walk and his neighbor's as well. It's going to be a long winter...
1
David Brooks, it's the drivers like you reconstituting your consciousness of culture at 45mph in the center lane who cause most of the world's traffic snarls.
Just sayin'...
6
And yet it's the rageful drivers in the left and right lanes screaming and swerving at one another who cause the most deaths.
2
Driving is so...20th century.Beam me up, Scotty.
4
And those who text while driving...?
2
America likes to think of itself as a Christian nation. But "Love thy neighbor" goes right out the window the moment most Americans get behind the wheel. You don't love your neighbor by endangering him or her by driving distracted, looking at your cellphone. You drive at a reasonable speed that permits YOU to prevent an accident when your NEIGHBOR makes a mistake. You don't pass on the right through their biggest blind spot. Nor do you aggravate your neighbor by hogging the fast lane. You use it to pass then move over. You don't make 5 unnecessary lane changes in under a mile attempting to get home 2 carlengths ahead of others, because during ONE of those lane changes, you'll one day cut off a motorcycle you didn't see. You don't use an oversize truck to intimidate the owners of smaller vehicles. Oh yes, you can do all of these things, just don't call yourself a Christian.
254
It sadly extends, for a lot of people, to whenever the leave the house! A lot of people in public places, whether the sidewalk, in stores, Lord knows on airplanes, behave as if they are the only ones around who can stand, stop, do whatever THEY want, the rest of the world be damned. Plus so many, not out of spite or meanness seem utterly unaware of their surroundings, thus they are startled when you say "excuse me" when they're, for example, blocking the aisle in the supermarket. It always reminds me of some scene in a Nat Geo animal program where predators pick off some inattentive antelope at the watering hole!
3
I'm not sure that "America" really likes to think of itself as a Christian nation, at least not any more. America is much more diverse than it was in the 50's and 60's, and also much more agnostic. I'm sure you did not think of it in that way, but calling America a Christian nation is actually somewhat offensive to a large number of Americans now.
Of course the ultimate common good and practice of self sacrifice is to not drive at all.
22
I don't have a car, I ride my bicycle around. It doesn't feel like self-sacrifice - part of the reason is to get away from the kind of driving behavior described in this article. On a bicycle, you're usually to the side of the car traffic, not taking part in it.
And I like SEEING the world. When I start out, there's a feeling of Ahhhh ... as I breathe deep, look up and see the sky and everything around me. I feel like part of nature.
And it becomes an aerobic workout after awhile. I'm also staying in shape while I'm getting around.
It does get a bit difficult when the cold gets intense. More than about 5 miles below 10 F might make me too cold. Although I'm sure I could do that with better gear.
I picture Jesus riding a bicycle, not driving a car.
114
Yes. He would advocate for bike lanes and, when possible, walk and talk.
Without a doubt! In the Christ Church Cathedral in Stanley, Falkland Islands there is a stained glass window of a nun, Mary Eleanor Watson, on a bicycle. It's tucked on a side wall, but very memorable.
I grew up and learned to drive in rural Kansas. My husband grew up and learned to drive in the suburbs of Washington DC. We met and married in Denver. Neither of us can stand the other's driving. He scares me. I annoy him because I'm not trying to make every light or get ahead of everybody else on the road. Being in the car together is very tense. I've threatened to never ride with him again -- we'll just take two cars. (Haven't actually done this.)
I'd like to show him this article and say "Hah! I'm right!" but Jesus probably wouldn't do that.
165
Margret, you are not alone. Overtime I take a road trip with my husband I threaten "never again" and on the worst occasions a divorce. And he's the son of a minister! But he is at his most unChristian on the road, especially around big trucks! Testosterone is probably to blame.
I followed through on the two cars idea with my husband and without drama. It helped our relationship in more ways than one. And I've taught my children that passengers are not prisoners of the driver of any car or bus they are in. If someone is driving in unsafe ways, I've counseled them to ask for a restroom stop at a fast food restaurant, and then, once out of the car, say they have to go home immediately and then call a cab/friend/relative. They have each used this technique to stay safe.
5
"...total sleazoids at the top of our society: Trump, Bannon, Ailes, Weinstein, Cosby, etc." I agree that all are totally sleazy, each in their own special way, but is Cosby really at the top of our society? Because he used to be a popular sitcom actor decades ago? You are really stretching credulity in your fifth nominee here.
At one point, not so many years ago, Cosby had the highest Q score (which measures both familiarity and high regard) in the country.
1
I did not know Jesus had a license.
2
His influence has clearly affected people I talked to today. People are listening.
1
You might think that people living in a culture that emphasizes individualism would treat driving as a competitive sport. Americans learn early, however, the etiquette of waiting in line, and this process of socialization seems to influence their driving habits. Given the frustrations associated with driving in traffic, most Americans display a remarkable patience and a tendency to obey the rules. (Cab drivers in Chicago, and perhaps elsewhere, by contrast, frequently drive like maniacs.)
Individualism can encourage scorn for the welfare of others, but it can also promote a sense of responsibility. Individual freedom cannot survive in an environment in which no one takes responsibility for his own behavior. As David indicates, driving patterns vary from city to city, but in a country where the automobile remains the preferred means of transportation, a consistent strategy of aggressive confrontation with other drivers would destroy the system.
5
Would Jesus really drive an automobile? Automobiles waste finite resources, & contribute to climate change & the destruction of the environment. The unending demand for oil distorts our economy, our politics, & has led our country to unforgiveable acts of violence & imperialism. In the US, over 100 people a day are killed by automobiles, and thousands each day are seriously injured--proving the grim & insane impracticality of such a transportation system. Both collective & individual selfishness are built into the private automobile. Like the internet, the shell of anonymity & isolation in which our cars put us encourages rudeness & self-centered behavior.
Not that we necessarily have any choice. We have, at enormous expense, designed our society to accomodate the private automobile, and so, for most of us, its use is required to work & live. My point is this: we are not just individuals, we are part of a society, and the way we structure our society defines our moral boundaries & possibilities. The idea of driving a car in a polite & civilized manner rather misses the point--a bit like the idea of fighting a war in a polite & civilized manner. I think Jesus would more likely take the subway, or a bicycle. And maybe even lobby for more spending on public transit.
5
How would Jesus drive? He'd be buckled in, sober, obey the speed limits and traffic laws. He'd be careful of pedestrians and cyclists, courteous to all on the road. He would use his turn signals. And when he parked it would be between the lines, and not taking up two spaces. Drive like Jesus.
53
A "good" driver, imho, is one who neither gives nor takes offense but courteously shares the road, especially with those most vulnerable --- motorcyclists, bicyclists, elderly drivers, pedestrians, and kids who run out from between parked cars. He would not speed through neighborhoods or school zones, yet He might do "a few over" out on the open road. After all, He's got a message to deliver, something about "Loving others as much as I love driving this little sports car." Close???
4
I love your post more and more. I get depressed reading NYT everyday, its like seeing the dark side of the force rising everyday. People seem to forget that we leave in a society, me, you all of us together, its not me against everybody, no me against the state. Health care is that, tax is that, driving on the road is that.
It is everybody's duty to care.
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Having grown in the NYC area I was justly proud of my well trained aggressive but I believe safe driving style. After moving to the Seattle area many years ago I had my knuckles quickly hit for my NYC driving style. They never gave me a ticket because I had in fact not broken any traffic laws. Years later on returning to NYC I found myself severely handicapped driving around the city as a friendly rube who drove with Seattle style politeness.
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Jesus would ride a bike because He knows that surrounding yourself with 4k lbs of metal gives one the same feeling of invincibility and invisibility that the internet provides and that leads to irresponsible acts of selfishness, cruelty and insulation from the whole of society. It's not just how you drive, it's what you drive. On a recent trip to Europe I was amazed at the small, ecologically friendly cars and scooters that were the norm. Compared to the behemoths and trucks, hauling nothing but the driver's egos in America, the Europeans don't seem to have the same concerns about the size of their buttons.
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They call them "Yank Tanks" and I wish we could buy some of those smaller models over here.
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I don't think Jesus would ride a bike or walk in this weather we are having here in northern NJ. I walk where I can, and I like my bike. I agree he probably wouldn't have a car; he'd hitch along with one or another of his disciples, just as he spent his ministry couch-surfing.
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I've always believed that a man's confidence in his manliness is inversely proportional to the size of his vehicle and how loud the exhaust is. Those guys in the jacked-up earsplitting pickups are trying, desperately, to compensate for something.
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So - I don't know how related this is, but I'm kind of hooked on an on-line game right now called Elvenar. It's out of Sweden, and in the game you are constantly rewarded for cooperative behavior. You get ahead by helping others. You can't get past a certain point in the game without joining and contributing to a fellowship, where the most cooperative people benefit the most.
I wonder about cause and effect with the traffic examples you've given. Is it easier to live in the less aggressive cities? Do people feel more rewarded by cooperative behavior there? Or - if people have just had a pleasant drive home where other drivers waved to them, are they more likely to, say, give to charity that evening, or treat their spouse courteously?
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David, et al.-- I agree, microKindness is the way to go today and tomorrow.
Little reminders that we understand and can easily help one another. Quick benefit an example: I helped a woman carry her baby carraige down the NYC subway stairs. At the end, someone walking by said, "That was nice of you." I replied, "Actually, helping made me feel good."
As a social scientist, the dopamine did kick in my brain, and everyone felt good: the woman with the carriage, the bystander watching us, and me, too. MicroKindness really is a feel good drug. Thanks David, again, for all you do and for being my teacher! JD
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"Virtue is its own reward." Still true, and how good you feel when you've done something nice for someone - especially a stranger.
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We live near a small city, San Miguel de Allende, beloved of Mexicans and Americans as well. There is discourtesy, but very little. It takes drivers from other areas a few days to adjust, but the courtesy in the small, crowded streets is contagious.
Francis and Brooks are right: We the people, we're in charge, more than laws or officials.
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Because of rainfall the streets in Seattle, Portland, and Honolulu are often (perhaps even usually) wet. Could this help to account for the more cautious approach to driving?
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No. I grew up in Seattle and learned to drive there. Wet streets are normal (flooded streets are not), and require no particular adjustment.
However, now that so many people have moved to Seattle from elsewhere, they often bring their "OMG it's raining" style of driving with them. When I go back to visit now, I make a game of trying to guess where each problem driver is from.
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Jesus would use public transportation.
That aside, excellent column. The personal automobile has an uncanny ability to make itself seem indispensable while turning its occupant into a lesser person.
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Driving, for benefit of the common good, may be the best argument I've heard against driverless cars.
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Jesus would not drive. He would take public transportation, bicycle or walk. Jesus would make that choice because he would understand that driving is a selfish choice which adds more CO2 to the atmosphere and thereby worsens climate change.
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Excellent use of driving as metaphor for everything. Thank you for a lovely, thought-provoking column. (Any insight on Chicago drivers? My experience is that they drive like NYC wannabes!)
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The worst place for accidents in my experience is South Carolina on the coast. Too many wealthy retirees who think they are more important than anyone else. Up here in Maine, everyone stops for people in crosswalks (its the law) unless they are visiting from New York, Boston Or Texas. And the best thing is having fellow citizens who slow down and wave you in when you are waiting at a side street to merge.
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A whole article on driving behavior, and not a peep on signaling: a clear indication that the person writing about driving doesn't actually know what the problem is.
The problem is almost never what the other person is trying to do. It's: can you understand what they are trying to do. Signalling provides this.
A whole article about driving behavior, and not a peep about driver education: a clear indication that the person writing about driving doesn't actually know what the problem is.
The problem is not what the other person is trying to do. It's: do you even know what the laws are. I have had interactions with police where I realize even THEY do not know what the laws are.
Sigh.
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I don't care how Jesus would drive, Mr. Brooks. It's irrelevant' moot. But I know one thing: if he saw a stranded motorist, or a woman alone, stalled, he would get out and help. He would change a tire. He would give directions. If he had a cellphone, he would call a garage or the insurance company. He would offer a ride. It's simple kindness, Mr. Brooks, something that is in very short supply, not only in America, but also in our extended global village.
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Clearly he would car pool if the situation was appropriate. When stopped at a light, I'm sure he'd give his spare change to the person with a homeless sign.
Drinking and driving would be out of the question. Ditto for tweeting or using a cell phone for other reasons where distraction might occur. Strapping a dog to the roof of his car...NAH!!!
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When stopped at a light, I'm sure he'd give his spare change to the person with a homeless sign.
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No, Jesus wasn't a sucker. Real homeless people don't beg at intersections. Donate to a homeless shelter or social services instead of paying people who scam you as a job, or use mentally ill people to make them cash begging from cars in high-traffic areas.
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Luckily for us all. the current president is driven everywhere. Keep him in the back seat.
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In driving, it would seem that we encounter a very kinetic application of the 80/20 rule (Pareto principle). Twenty percent of the drivers account for 80% of the problems.
Then, of course, there are the worst-of-the-worst, probably < 5%, who are either drunk, distracted, dimwitted and/or full-blown sociopaths. Even though I am generally speaking a very liberal person, when I encounter some of these drivers--as I often do--on California freeways, I find myself wishing that they'd be sent to Jesus for remedial driving instruction.
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Jesus today would NOT drive. HE would take public transportation, or hitchhike.
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or bicycle :)
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Slowly? At donkey speed?
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When I was young, I drove cautiously, but was always in a hurry as DC is always 'race pace' - you can't be slow or you'd be run off the road. And now with it being Trump's home, I'm anxious to leave. But now that I'm old and rarely drive anymore, I take life so much slower and it's become more enjoyable as a result. So I would have to say Jesus would enjoy taking a ride with me now. I'm a courteous driver and when others are not, I just ignore them and have more time to hope they get where they want to go without problems. Life is no longer a race and it feels good.
As a matter of fact, my husband and I are moving soon from outside the beltway of DC in VA to a small quaint little city on the eastern shore which is his birth place in Pocomoke, MD. I have to say Jesus would love the slow ride because he'd be able to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Pope Francis would love it as well and is welcomed to ride along anytime.
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This was a great piece. A great reminder and a way to feel less distraught about whose in charge -- we all are actually.
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Jesus would walk and take public transit.
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Perhaps on water?
How would Jesus drive?
Probably on water.
And he'd turn wine into hi-test.
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"the most accident-prone drivers live in Boston; Baltimore; Worcester, Mass.; Washington, D.C.; and Springfield, Mass. (Way to go, Massachusetts!)"
I was a Boston commuter for 20 years. And yes we are the most aggressive drivers, and it isn't just the men. My wife always required a car with a V8. Said she needed the extra horsepower to get out of tight places! Whatever that means.
Friend at works gets a call from wife. Said she was rear ended. What happened? I was coming up to a light and it turned yellow, so I stopped. The other driver hit me. Husband. What did you stop for??
I live in Atlanta now and continue with my Boston driving skills and still have a wicked accent! Hard to break habits, particularly when your pushing 75.
9
How Would Jesus Drive?
Possibly in an ambulance serving his people.
2
Perhaps Jesus would drive as the Japanese because he drove a Honda although he didn't talk about it. "For I did not speak of my own accord." John 12:49
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That is clever and funny!
5
Maybe he didn't talk about his own accord because he didn't have anything nice to say about it, a good thing.... so instead of complaining about it, talking about its faults.... that's why he chose not to speak.
1
Brilliant Marshal sensei
5
One can imagine that trump doesn't drive so that he can scowl at all of us losers, tweet away his rude rants and keep his middle finger extended for just about anybody in his cross hairs.
Yes we dawdle here in Seattle, just another reason why I like it.
12
This column is something that resonated with me. Driving here in Minneapolis St. Paul is an exceedingly unpleasant experience. Nobody follows any of the rules of the road and everyone seems bankrupt of courtesy. You cannot change lanes to get off the freeway here without someone giving you the finger or speeding up to keep you from changing lanes. It is quite simply evidence of the breakdown of society.
29
I live on the Minneapolis side of the Twin Cities but have also lived in St Paul. In 45 years here I have not shared your experience. Those who have problems seem either to be driving much faster or much slower than the prevailing traffic (assuming they are not impaired). My pet peeve is slower drivers who park in the left lane, which is something Minnesotans are known for. There is a lot more traffic here than was the case 25 years ago, and you have to compensate. One way is to change lanes when you can rather than when you must.
4
I disagree. I lived in Minneapolis and St. Paul for a long time and if anything Minnesotans are way too polite when driving. You get in traffic as someone waves everyone in front of them.
California, Chicago, and the east coast are dramatically ruder.
Were drivers all mini Don Trumps
I'd be even more in the dumps
Self centered, disdainful,
Life would be more painful,
An unending kick in our rumps.
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@Larry Eisenberg: Perfection because it's true! Thank you sir.
4
Well, actually, I noticed that drivers got even more aggressive after Trump was elected. But then again, I live in Phoenix. I’m not surprised it made the list of most aggressive cities. Probably would make the list of biggest vehicles, too.
1
Sarah, that's because folks around here think of driving as trying to herd cattle in a stampede. Hailing originally from NYC, and having driven trucks and a cab there for a while after 'Nam, I'm not really phased by it, though it is annoying and sometimes dangerous. I think Trump's election has empowered and "vindicated" a lot of folks with grudges and given them justification for expressing their discontent. There are some days it feels like the bumper cars at coney island. I spend a lot of time off road in the desert, so my daily drive is lifted, a bit loud, large wheels, traces of dirt and mud here and there and a strategically placed NRA sticker on the rear window. A number of folks see this as an invitation to drag race, for some reason, but I rarely suffer the tribulations that drivers of smaller, newer or cleaner cars might. When I do, I politely tip my cowboy hat and wave them on, I'm in no hurry to get anywhere (unless they have a Chihuahua in their lap). I used to love motorcycles, but I wouldn't dare try it here, their accident and fatality rates are astronomical. Though approaching 70, I consider myself a responsible and sane driver. I console myself with "at least it's not Florida".
1
Interesting driving metaphor, but the original question was the most pertinent: what would Jesus drive?
Taking Pope Francis' cues, we should be behind the wheels of those vehicles which would be the least polluting and the most fuel efficient.
How people treat our shared and only planet is the bigger test of character.
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