Driving up to Toms River, NJ and back yesterday made me think, “You know….traffic is a true reflection of the challenges we face in society today."

Think about it. How many of these situations have you experienced?

• Three traffic lanes are merging into one a mile ahead, and while most drivers are moving into the lane merge, here comes the guy flying down the soon-to-be-ended lane past everyone, fully expecting to ease in right up at the front of the merge…because obviously he is above all this merging nonsense.

• You’re in the right lane preparing to get off at the next exit. Some speedster in his sports car comes flying up behind you with his brights on and tailgates you because he wants to get past all the traffic only going ten miles above the speed limit in the left lanes and you’re ruining his fun.

• Traffic in the passing lane is backed-up 25 cars deep because someone decided to act out their need to have attention by moving into the fast lane and driving 5 miles below the speed limit.

• You’re keeping a safe distance of a few car lengths from the guy ahead of you in heavy traffic when the guy in the next lane moves into your buffer space, cutting you off and leaving no room to avoid a chain reaction fender-bender if anyone suddenly hits their brakes.

• Traffic is crawling bumper-to-bumper and the guy next to you puts on his directional and starts turning right into you to make a lane change, because once you turn on your signal you have the right of way and the fact that there’s no room to make the maneuver doesn’t matter…everyone is supposed to part for him like the Red Sea.

• You are proceeding cautiously within the appropriate speed limit through an intersection and a pedestrian steps out right in front of you making you jolt in your seat and dig your nails into your steering wheel as you avoid hitting them and catch your breath and re-start your heart…because pedestrians have the right of way…right?

• You’re coming to an off-ramp, decelerating to exit the interstate, when instead of allowing you to exit safely before he merges onto the highway behind you, some guy hits the gas to pass you on the ramp on your right and then merge into traffic in front of you, leaving you precious little room and time to safely make your exit.

• You’re driving along on cruise control when a driver flies past you, moves into your lane in front of you, and slows down so that you have to come off of cruise, accelerate, and go around him again.

• You are driving along in the right lane keeping a safe distance, when a driver in the far left lane suddenly cuts across two lanes in one maneuver, cuts you off and then flies onto the exit off-ramp when he obviously knew he should have gotten over a mile back, one-lane-at-a-time, and avoided causing an accident or a coronary.

• You are sitting on a side street waiting for an oncoming car to pass so you can make a right onto the main road. At the last second the driver turns onto your side street without using his directional. Meanwhile a new pack of cars has come speeding up behind him and it will now be a longer wait until you are able to proceed.

I’m sure you can think of other situations that you have experienced while driving. Perhaps you have been on the short end of these experiences. Perhaps you have been the culprit. Either way. My point is this as we head into the holiday travel season and the 2012 election year: the way people behave in traffic is an allegory for the way people behave in other facets of their lives.

Much like wanting to safely get where we’re going on the highway, we all want a stronger economy, a transparent democracy, and a better life. But what are we willing to do to make it happen? And what are we willing to endure to reach that destination? No one is going to willingly sign up to be run off the road or participate in a seven car pile-up. Yet the things I describe above happen every day behind the wheel. Yes there are laws and unwritten rules of common courtesy and decency that are supposed to minimize these occurances, but they run rampant.

What’s wrong with this picture? And what does it tell us about the gap between what we say we want and how we really operate?

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