A longstanding peeve first, not at you, but which a phrase you used ironically happened to trigger. What is it the bumper sticker says, Practice acts of random kindness and senseless beauty."? Something like that. Have always hated that line. It cedes far too much to meanness and ugliness, by saying that kindness is random and beauty is senseless. What would be wrong with acts of deliberate kindness and meaningful beauty? Wouldn't that be better, really.

Okay, now for the story. True story.

Monsoon season in Santa Fe. Five o'clockish, the off-work rush just as a huge cloudburst hit, flooding the streets. Like an idiot, I'd chosen that very moment to run somewhere, I forget where in my car. The storm was so violent you couldn't see. We were all stuck in place. When it cleared a little, it developed that all the traffic lights in the area were out. I sighed a sigh at my foolishness. I was sure to be stuck in traffic a long time.

Pulled up at the intersection of St. Michael's and St. Francis, the one with the overpass. No traffic signals. Long lines of traffic from four intersecting directions.

Total chaos, right? No. What happened is the drivers from each direction took turns. About as many cars would go as would have gone on that light, and then the lane that would have gone next would go next. About as many cars from it would go as would have gone with the light, and so on, the right-of-way rotating through all the directions by comment consent.

All this with no communication other than perhaps waves or nods (though I didn't see any).

See why I'm telling this story in regard to traffic? Self-organizing behavior. Each individual driver understood the situation and understood what sort of behavior would be necessary to make the situation work. The behavior had a template, the dynamic structure provided by the lights, but it helped that the template was reasonable, obvious, that everyone could see its utility at a glance.

My point is that in making plans for traffic flow, it would be wise to learn how to encourage (and allow for) the emergence of such highly functional behavior.

This literally happened 2 days ago. I am driving down a 2 lane freeway, going 5mph higher than the speed limit (the 'flow' of traffic at the time). I am in the right lane. The car in front of me is going the speed limit, so I decide to pass him. I look in the rearview mirror, and see a car behind me in the left lane. The trailing car does not appear to be speeding up, so I decide it's safe to change lanes. I put on the turn signal, big mistake. The trailing car immediately speeds up, trying to cut me off from behind. Of course, the car couldn't make it, and had to step on the breaks to avoid hitting me.

At this point, I notice that the driver is a woman, with a young boy in the passenger seat, couldn't be more than 8 years old, and 2 more kids in the back seat. She also is noticeably agitated, and starts digging in her purse. I didn't think any more of this, and once I pass the slow car, I yield back to the right lane. She of course speeds up again, and passes me. No big deal. But then, the little boy rolls down the window and throws something at my car! I didn't notice what it was, but it hit my car with a loud thud, I think it must have been some change, or something with that sort of weight/size.

I couldn't believe this! Here is a woman, driving an old model civic, with 3 kids in the car, and she not only exhibits bad driving behavior, but is teaching her kid that it's okay to retaliate against drivers who does things they don't like?! What if I was a gangbanger, would she still have done the same? What if I was mentally unstable, and armed? She was willing to risk her life, and the lives of the 3 young kids in her car, just so she can gain a car length's worth of road position?

I truly agree that it's more about the driving behavior, than any other reason for traffic. It's things like this that causes congestion, and horrific accidents.

First - That Americans are pod people.

Well, yeah. A culture that atomizes society to seemingly independent individuals has a very large problem with the Tragedy of the Commons. As a NYer and a former bike messenger, I could see the immediate difference between a city dweller and a commuter or tourist.

Taxis and liveries were no problem, despite what most people say. Cars with NJ plates were, because if they WERE paying attention - something you can't always assume - it was to the traffic signals, not the actual traffic. Hence,

Second - I agree with ELYDOG that Zen driving is an interesting facet.

At least, when traffic is slow enough and diverse enough that eye contact is regularly made through several modes of transit: Pedestrians, bikes, cars, trucks, buses. Manhattan's traffic only manages to move at all for this reason alone.

As a biker, I think Manhattan's far easier to deal with than Brooklyn, despite Brooklyn's larger mileage of bike lanes, mainly because Manhattan's traffic is slower and drivers actually have to deal with bikers more often, thus are more vetted to the concept.

Arcarsenal, that was really an impressive post and I admire your maturity and sense of self-awareness. I hope it leads to other areas of enlightenment for you.

I wish more people in Los Angeles had your epiphany. A number of drivers here feel that sense of entitlement. "I look better than you and drive a better car, so I get to go ahead of you." This is LA, where looks and money create the landscape. Think of the look on Paris Hilton's face, and that's the face of the person cutting in front of you in traffic.

I much preferred driving in the SF-Bay Area where your vehicle does not define who you are as a person. Some people don't even own a vehicle, so a car is not a status symbol. Also, I've found that drivers up north are more predictable. I understand why they are slowing down and speeding up. In LA, it's a whole drive of WHYs. Why is the slowest driver in the fast lane? Why does this person merge into my lane when his lane is perfectly clear? Why is he putting on the brakes when no one is in front of him? It's usually because they are on the phone. I haven't noticed these bad habits alleviating even after the law was passed about cell phone usage.

Sometimes, it's all you can do to make it home in one, non-dented piece.