Last week, I had the pleasure of spending some time in the Smokie Mountains with my family. While the destination was a great week of hiking, and enjoying the many views and sceneries, the journey there was also full of memories.
Long distance road trips provide a time to connect with those inside your vehicle as well as providing some opportunities for interaction with those sharing the roadways. It was those external interactions that gave me the idea for this week’s article.
There is an old saying that you can learn a lot about a person just by the way they carry themselves or the way they act. The same can be said about our driving and what personality traits we are demonstrating by the way we interact with fellow motorists. This is also much like the message we send our children in that first impressions mean everything. So here are a few of my observations and the impressions that may be interpreted by other motorists.
There were numerous incidents where vehicles were traveling at highway speeds with extremely limited distance between them and the vehicle they were following. This would tell me that these drivers are by nature very impatient and likely aggressive. Similarly, there were drivers that decided to hang out in the left lane of an interstate highway incumbering the movement of those around them. This tells me that these folks are ambivalent to those around them and lack consideration and courtesy. Then you have those who overtake you at speeds which are not only greater than the posted speed, but greatly beyond reason and logic. This would tell me that these people are just overall reckless and have little respect for not only their lives but those around them. These were just some of my interstate observations, but the theme is the same even when in local traffic within the cities and towns.
The use or lack of directional signals is a direct reflection of our own personal communication skills. The need to play music from vehicles or motorcycles at volume levels which could be not only heard but felt, tells me that these folks are merely living in their own self preserving reality ignorant to the disruption they are causing.
On the positive side, when you allow for safe distances between vehicles, you are demonstrating patience and respect. When you see vehicles attempting to merge or gain access from a side street and you give them space, that shows a great deal of empathy and consideration.
The point to all of this is that each of us aspire to be decent respectful human beings, but what we aspire to means noting if our actions are in direct contradiction to the person we are trying be. Many times, we will never get to know fellow motorists on a personal level, but that should not remove us from the obligation to demonstrate the same positive character strengths we show to those closest to us in our personal relationships. Our vehicles and the way we operate those vehicles are in fact a direct extension of who we are.
