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Under the Sun Cynthia Oi |
Rupture of traffic laws
begins with petty breachTHERE'S not a driver in Hawaii who doesn't have at least a tale or two -- or maybe two dozen -- about the reckless behavior of other motorists. Most often the incidents involve speeding and racing, cutting into lanes and running red lights.
These episodes have become so common they are hardly worth noting anymore. But just when you think you've seen the worst, another crazy event drops your jaw.
It was a dark and stormy day, the late afternoon so dim that the traffic signals at the intersection burned neon bright as a Las Vegas marquee. Out of the blue, a gray compact sedan roared up behind a truck in the lane on the left. The fellow behind the wheel seemed unaware that the light was red. Why he thought the rest of us had stopped, I can't begin to guess.
Lucky for the truck's owner, the gray compact managed to stop in time, but not before producing that hair-prickling, tooth-rattling shriek of brakes that usually precedes the boom of metal on metal. End of story? Nope.
Undaunted, gray-compact guy shoved the gears in reverse, swerved backward into the oncoming lanes, then screeched around my trusty Toyota and the two cars to the right. On to the shoulder of the road it accelerated, squiggling through the parking lot of a restaurant and dodging past a damp and astonished pedestrian. Finally free of us troublesome obstacles, the driver aimed across the intersection and hightailed down the boulevard, just before the light went to green.
We caught up with him at the next traffic signal. He'd gained maybe six seconds.
As I pulled up next to him I looked straight ahead, not wanting to make eye contact with someone who was obviously demented. But the truck driver, who had come this close to being banged, edged up tight to the gray compact's bumper. Last I saw of them, they were playing the intimidation game down Kalakaua Avenue.
Later that week, at another red light, the driver of an SUV executed another disturbing act of impatience. (Chill, SUV-ers, don't get all defensive. I'm merely describing the type of vehicle, not criticizing them as gas-greedy, environmentally evil modes of transportation.)
The intersection is a busy one with walk signals and cycles of left turn arrows for the five streets that feed through it. The wait can run as long as two to three minutes. The driver apparently felt that was too long and decided 'nuff already, tapped on her horn toot-toot and drove on through.
I don't know where the attitude comes from, but it seems that this risky business of disregard is escalating. Even at four-way stops -- the most marvelous stations of fairness and cooperation, where consideration and deliberation are essential to avoid collisions -- some drivers play fast and loose with road rules.
Is it the rush of modern life, a psychological press prompted by heavy traffic? Is it an outlook that each of us is the center of the universe, a special being who is allowed to ignore laws set up for the riff-raff who just keep getting in the way?
All of us, at some time or another, slip above the speed limit, park in tow-away zones (I'll only be gone a minute!) and squeeze a no-right-on-red turn at the last nanosecond of yellow. Having beat the rap for small-time misdeeds perhaps emboldens the petty scofflaw to push harder at the edges.
Talk at the Legislature of reviving van cams decanted streams of invective from people who remembered them as knocks on driver rights and they were because of a host of bureaucratic bungles. Still, there's no arguing that Hawaii's roads have become more treacherous and drivers more heedless of pedestrians and one another.
What I've seen lately aren't yet the true examples of road rage where motorists battle over real or perceived transgressions. They're more like peevish scuffles. Short of stricter law enforcement or a return of common sense, however, they will swell.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Cynthia Oi has been on the staff of the Star-Bulletin since 1976. She can be reached at: coi@starbulletin.com.