When the Fuck Did Everyone Get So Mad?

When the fuck did we get this mad?

I am baffled, genuinely baffled, by the amount of emotional driving I witness every goddamned day. People aren’t just driving cars anymore, they’re piloting their feelings. Hurt feelings. Impatient feelings. Main-character syndrome feelings.

Every intersection in Santa Fe has the same cast of assholes:

-          There’s always one or two who blast through the light after it turns red because apparently red is now more of a suggestion.

-          One or two more from the perpendicular street who turn right directly into oncoming traffic because they think they have time.

-          And at least one who almost rear-ends stopped traffic because they’re fucking with their phone, their makeup, their radio, or their GPS—anything except the task of operating the two-ton weapon they’re sitting in.

And here’s the part that breaks my brain: If you point out that they almost killed someone, they get mad at you.

Oh, I point it out. Every single time. Bring it, motherfucker.

Why is everyone so goddamn angry on the road? It makes no sense.

You’re sitting in a climate-controlled, padded safety box. You’ve got music. Podcasts. Sometimes literal television. Your car has sensors, cameras, alarms, lane assist, collision avoidance, blind-spot warnings … half of these vehicles have basically replaced the responsibility of driving with a gentle series of beeps.

Your car can parallel park itself.

You don’t even have to drive anymore.

The experience of driving has been almost completely removed from transportation. So what, exactly, are you pissed about?

You’re traveling from point A (probably your home) to point B (work or the store) twenty times faster than walking. You’re safer than any human in history has ever been while moving at speed.

And yet here we are, screaming, flipping people off, rage-accelerating like toddlers having a meltdown because someone else exists.

I guess that’s the natural outcome of building a toddler fucking nation.

No accountability. Unlimited entitlement. Infinite offense.

So let me make a humble request.

Can automotive engineers please bring the experience of driving back to the car? Can we make people responsible again for keeping it between the lines, paying attention, and actually operating the machine?

And hey, while we’re at it, can cops maybe start giving tickets when people fuck it up?

Pretty please?

Because life has gotten too easy, and people have forgotten how to live. They’ve forgotten consequence. They’ve forgotten awareness. They’ve forgotten that the road isn’t a group therapy session for their unresolved bullshit.

But hey, they’ve mastered screaming nonsense at stoplights from the safety of a locked steel box.

Oh, and cops? One more thing. Maybe look the other way when someone gets popped in the mouth because they absolutely had it coming.

…Nope. That’s another blog. My bad.

Bottom line: let people do more driving, and make cars do less. Engineers, you’ve got work to do.

Humanity depends on it.