The Split Second-In Consideration of Others and Taking that Moment to Consider Others

Again, I am pushing the book, The Split Second:  In Consideration of Others or Look Up from the Phone and How to Deal with Rudeness in Others, and I am now working on the publicity part of it and this is not easy particularly since I have an unknown author at the time. I have recently discovered blogging and I think it is kind of fun even though this is a concept that has been around a while. 

I was driving early this morning in the wonderful city of Pasadena going to an early breakfast.  Even at 6:00 am on a Saturday morning, another driver could not wait to make that right turn on a red signal for him, a green one for me when I had the right of way; he did not.  When my family moved to Great Los Angeles in 1968, I could not drive yet but it was quite the phenomenon that one could “turn right on red.”  This driving statute has been adopted by most states now but I remember in the interim that when I was driving a rental car in another state, I had to remember and think through if the state I was in at the time allowed “turning right on red.”  Now too many drivers are making that right turn and they need to wait until passing traffic has moved beyond that given signal.  This can be dangerous, and it shows a total restlessness and inability to wait and take a turn.  “Rush, rush, rush!,”  “I’m in a hurry,”  “I got started late this morning for whatever reason and I may be late.”

I am retired now so I am not so much in a rush to get to destinations while driving. I must be fair about that one. But rushing and performing idiotic feats on the road are, again, dangerous and downright stupid. The driver who drove right in front of me making a right turn on red caused me to slam on the brakes, honk the horn and get a bit incensed. I am glad I can laugh about it now that he was able to get through the next intersection as the light turned yellow and I had to stop to wait for the next green light. However, I would be lying tremendously if I mentioned here that I have never done what the driver did to me this morning. Part of writing this book is that I need to tell myself to wait and take a moment to think my next move. 

Later, I will discuss how drivers on the freeway who are about to miss their exit while driving in one of the two left lanes decide to make an almost horizontal tract to the exit and so make driving for others on the freeway quite dangerous.  My reaction to the times I have done that is to say to myself, “Woops, I missed it,” and then take the next exit and return to where I intended to go in the first place.  This is what same call the “scenic drive.”   It’s about being considerate and safe to others and it takes only a moment to think it through.