Hello Again, Sydney

One Sydney-sider's experiences moving back to Sydney after a long absence overseas.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

People are strange, when you're a driver

Away for Easter meant that I borrowed a friend's car and got to see how the other three-quarters live. I came away thinking that in a city where so many people drive, it necessarily shapes their perspective and behaviour.

For starters you really do see things in a new way when you're driving. The view from the Cahill expressway is far superior to the view of it and I don't think I ever totally got the Anzac bridge until I drove over it. Even parts of the M4 are quite attractive in their way. It stands to reason that a lot of the built environment - especially advertising - caters to drivers, but I'd hadn't thought about this until I sat behind the wheel. I had a feeling of suddenly being part of a favoured (or more lucrative?) demographic.

Then this morning, back on the bus, I noticed one of those LED traffic signs flashing the message "PROTEST MARCH 11AM, COLLEGE ST". Well that's pretty dumb, I thought, if they don't even tell you what the march is about, who will bother going? Then I clicked that the sign was aimed at the drivers, who are (we assume) only interested in the march to the extent that it disturbs traffic.

In terms of behaviour, have you noticed the way drivers' conversations home in on a couple of themes?

1. The person who cut me off/didn't let me in/didn't take off from the lights fast enough. This topic is introduced by the phrase "Look at this guy."

2. The price of petrol. When this topic comes up, the driver will start reciting figures like a cracked numerologist. After a bit of head scratching you'll see them staring at the big numbers outside a petrol station. "118!" they say, to which the correct response is, "no way!"

As a passenger I've always marvelled at how people can be reduced to such tedium, but suddenly it was me saying these things, getting tushy with the idiot behind me and cursing when I missed out on a cheap tank of petrol.

On a deeper level (oh dear), I reckon this kind of irritation has to affect the way people behave all round. During a normal drive to/from work there are so many moments of conflict that never get resolved. You'll rarely get a chance to tell that inconsiderate driver how you feel. And then you're also subject to the malevolent vicissitudes of a market you cannot understand. That's gotta have an impact.

I present as evidence my experience crossing Parramatta Road on the way to work.



This is one of the most hardened vehicular arteries of the city and not even a car windscreen can save it from looking ugly. There is this a walkway further along (which gives new meaning to the expression 'rat race') but usually I cross frogger style.



So the other day I cut it a bit fine and one driver actually accelerated and almost hit me. I won't bang on about it - we've all experienced little unkindnesses in our days and know what it's like - but when I got to the curb and looked at the car speeding off I could imagine the driver felt totally justified. If he had a passenger he probably said "look at this guy" before ramming his foot to the floor, and I'm sure many motorists out there would give him a pat on the back for trying to run me down. But isn't it weird that in Bogota - a supposedly more dangerous city, with homicide rates much higher than Sydney's - you don't get these hissy-fits of hostility?

Follow the rules motherfucker, and if you don't I'll run you over. That's the driving credo in Sydney, and I'm not sure you can switch it off with the engine.

2 Comments:

At 2:41 pm, Blogger sandman1 said...

Heh heh. George Carlin said something like this in one of his concerts once, in the context of his job "pointing out all the assholes on the road": "You can tell by the shape of that guy's head he's an asshole!" He also said anyone driving slower than him is an asshole, and anyone driving faster is a maniac! Funny, but kind of true too...

As an avid driving enthusiast but also the sort who wonders about nearly everything, I share your sense of wonder at a driver-oriented society, especially in light of cars being only a century old or so. Can it really be that my modern life is so hugely different than everyone who ever lived before 1900? Add in my work (computers) and time I spend on other modern inventions (recorded music, television) and maybe you could say before 1950.

You're right that there's something distinctly different about social interactions between people in cars and people not in cars. Comparing how people act walking on the sidewalk to in traffic for example. I notice it accutely when I recognize someone I know in another car -- I definitely drive differently around them if I know them.

 
At 9:58 pm, Blogger Mark said...

That line about the shape of the guy's head is great. Totally arbitrary most of the time, isn't it? We used to assume drivers wearing hats were all idiots for some reason.

 

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