Photo credit: Road rage, Wikimedia Commons
Counting the Aggression on the Garden State Parkway
I’ve discussed road rage driving in the past. But on the Garden State Parkway this week, it was so obvious as to take even a casual observer’s breath away. A footnote first: That road, between the New York Thruway, 87, and the New Jersey Turnpike, is always packed. My car’s GPS-enabled screen continues to advise alternate routes, but who wants a long ride made longer? A relative tells me to drive the road at an odd and late hour, but it’s getting a little late in life to drive at 2:00 a.m. So I drive this road from hell.
That road from hell, besides being packed and in some places packed eight lanes across, seems to invite the road ragers. These drivers, of both sexes, cross the bumpers and front ends of cars as if the road is an open speedway. Their lane swooping tactics continue throughout the length of the highway. Speeding on highways and back roads has gone on for about 45 years, or when Ronald Reagan came to office as president. New Jersey is obviously not the only example of speeding and other driving offenses. These assaults happen around the globe. We live in an aggressive society, and no matter what anyone preaches about peace and love, this viciousness on the road reflects the society in general rather than any particular party at whatever level or place of government, or a particular geographical setting. On backroads, it’s more of bumper hugging and intimidation up close and personal; on roads like the Garden State, it’s pervasive and everywhere. A guess is that my latest drive on that road sent my blood pressure through the roof, and in this case, the roof of my car. Even with all of the safety devices my car has, including anti-collision warnings on its computer and crash-warning sounds and graphics, driving in general has become a great hassle and particularly, on the Garden State Parkway, a disaster! When speed and cutting cars off are not enough, driving by at high speed on the right lane and the deadly dangers of toll booths on the Garden State accomplish the rest.
Bullying and violence are ever-present. With a bully-in-chief, endorsed by millions, it’s no surprise that bullies feel validated behind the wheel. We see wars, even genocide, supported at the highest places of power in governments, so why not behind the wheel? There’s absolutely no sense of community left in the US, with few exceptions, so roads have become the open hunting spaces for rage.
Gun violence did not begin with Trump, just as pedophilia did not, even with his cozying up to Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein, to mention the late child molester, enabled a bona fide duopoly of predatory sexual abuse on an international scale, and although a symptom of a failed society, it is but one along with the rage on our roads, war, and guns everywhere.
As a kid, I loved visiting relatives in New Jersey and that was decades before roads in general became places of rage.