Entries in U-Turn (1)
The Good, the Bad, and, well, the Rest of Us
DLA Labs received a comment to last week's post from the folks at AboveAverageDriver.com, a site that lets readers file reports excoriating poor driving and lauding the good. (Good drivers come up short with only 5 "commendations" in the past three months while bad drivers got more than 20 comeuppances in the past three weeks alone.)
Of interest, of course, to the research staff here at DLA was the incidence of Massachusetts driver reports. Massachusetts drivers were the second most reported violators over the past 30 days...but a poor second place showing it was: only five reports with first place finisher Illinois sweeping the field with 37 reports.
Source: AboveAverageDriver.com
But nothing stumps the DLA research team for long. Researchers here have long suspected that ass-like driving behavior is something of a defacto standard and, it seems, the standard to which most drivers aspire. Hence, most native assachusetts drivers would be at a loss if asked to identify a single act of ass-like driving behavior. In fact, it is theorized that quite the converse would be true: Massachusetts drivers would be more likely to identify as ass-like anyone who did NOT behave in a manner similar to the rest of the drivers since, clearly, such drivers are impeding traffic, creating a hazard, and, basically, causing a nuisance.
One grey-templed DLA staffer recalled an early example of this phenomenon in an article by Caskie Stinnett, the late travel writer, editor of Holiday magazine, founder of Leisure magazine, and all-round grumbler and intolerant. Mr. Stinnett related an incident he witnessed on Storrow Drive in Boston while driving with a "native" Boston driver in which car in front of them carefully signalled and suddenly performed a U-turn, jumping the median strip, and speeding off in the opposite direction. Stunned and speechless, Mr. Stinnett turned to his friend who, shaking his head in wonder, said: "Gosh...I'd NEVER have the nerve to try that!"
It takes one to know one, I guess.
JWD
in Storrow Drive, U-Turn, Boston driving, Above Average Driver
|
Post a Comment