Impatience

This morning as I drove to work, I was given "the bird" for not running a late yellow light through a messy and dangerous intersection. Just after I noticed the gesture, I also noticed the lights of the police car behind the offending person. Then tonight I nearly was rear-ended as I tried to parallel park in front of my house, despite having my turning signal and brake lights on.

Both of today's incidences reminded me of something that happened a couple of weeks ago. That morning I woke up to the unmistakable sound of a car bumper crunching. This sound happens all too frequently near my house, as I live on a major commuter street into downtown DC.

The story that morning was the same as it usually is. A commuter driving down a side street, attempting to get across the inbound traffic lane, forgot to check the outbound lane for traffic. (The other variation on this is that the driver on the cross street thinks that the main drag of traffic also has a stop sign, which it doesn't. Shortly after the accident I'm describing, the city finally installed signs reminding drivers of this fact.)

In this case, the damage was limited to the cars of the two drivers who collided. In the past, I've seen wrought-iron fences and trees taken out. There's one corner a couple of blocks down, with a traffic light mind you, where the fence has been hit several times. The worst case of property damage that I've seen was the house that had it's front corner knocked askew. I've not witnessed anybody being gravely injured so far, but I know it could happen and worry that it will.

I reverse commute. Even with the lighter traffic load, there are places where I too become frustrated (like the dangerous intersection mentioned at the top of this post). When I see accidents like the one, it reminds me to slow down and be more careful. It's not worth the risk to me or my car to save an extra minute because I'm impatient.