Male Chauvinism Hits the Road

Like anyone who lives in a major (or even minor) metropolis, I have to contend with traffic, and hate every living moment of it. It's not just the volume, which is out of hand in most cities. I suspect that even those cities with good public transportation, which Seattle--where I live--totally lacks, have traffic to contend with. But it's not just the traffic. It's the people driving in it.

According to my own highly unscientific survey, a good ten percent of all drivers out there totally suck. And by that I mean they are not just bad drivers. I mean they are evil. Aggressively, belligerently evil. Or at least stupid, thoughtless, arrogant, obnoxious, repulsive--make your own list of adjectives. I am talking about drivers who do things like cutting you off without using a turn signal. Or crossing three lanes in front of you at high speed. You could make your own list of the offenses. It's bad enough not signalling before changing lanes or making a turn. Much as that annoys me that's the least of it.

Here's the thing. Again, according to my survey, 99.9% of the drivers behaving this way are men. Young men, for the most part. Men in pickup trucks, in large part. But also men in black Lexuses. Or older black cars. Aggressive male drivers seem to prefer black cars. That's so they can drive after dusk or before dawn with the lights off so you can't see them coming. Or being total dicks on the road.

Women simply do not drive that way. Drive while texting? Definitely. But drive like an evil asshole? Virtually never. Here's where the chauvinism comes in: more than half of the remaining 90% of the drivers on the road being women, women are the most frequent targets--and victims--of this aggression. And they take it, over and over again. Because what else can they do?

And where, one may ask, are the police, in all this? Oh wait, most of them are men, who probably drive the same way, off duty (if not on duty). I have watched single occupant vehicles dominate the car pool lanes for years, unimpeded. I have never, ever, seen anyone pulled over for doing that. And again, it is almost, if not virtually always, men who seem to consider themselves above the law.

In a perfect world no one would be an asshole on the freeway. Correction: no one would even be driving on the freeway because public transportation would be so prevalent, and viable, it would be the only sensible way to go. At least in or around the city. Most European cities are actually like this. Most have downtown areas that allow no traffic at all. Or, like London, you have to pay a stiff fee if you really want to drive downtown. London has had a good underground system since about 1840. Seattle doesn't even have an above-ground system. One feeble small train from downtown to the airport. That's it. It's embarrassing.

But back to sexism on the freeway. What worries me is that women are finally going to decide hey, if men can be assholes, so can we. The only thing that prevents this, I think, is that this kind of aggression is simply not in their nature. Maybe there's another alternative. In a perfect world men have to take a psych exam before being allowed to drive. And the fine for being an asshole would be a year's beer money. I think Sweden has a law like that, actually.

Having a few more cops on the road might help too.

Note: please check out my new book RED TIDE. Available now.