Entitlement Driving?

trials and tribulations of the D.C. metro

Eastport is a community of probably 5,000 folks who call ourselves the Maritime Republic of Eastport, primarily to celebrate our separateness from Annapolis proper. Early last month there was a ‘war’ (tug of war) across our Compromise Street Bridge which links us with those nasty Annapolitans. As I noted a couple of weeks back that Annapolis dates its founding to 1649 while Eastport, across Spa Creek in an easterly direction, began fifteen years later. Eastport is a charming, if quirky community, originally with a significant African American population. By all indications, the community has never met a zoning law it embraces. The funkiness of the houses is quite something along with a series of what seem extraordinarily deep lots. We are about 30 miles from the nation’s capital so I suppose we are part of the D.C. metro area.

Eastporters live on the peninsula between beautiful Spa Creek and Back Creek to the south. And some relatively narrow streets, even if the pictures don’t do them justice. In short, you are not going too far from here before you hit water or drive back into the maelstrom to the west know as the DC.

I learned to drive in the Virginia suburbs area many eons ago. I have long thought I was an ok driver, though a Montreal-born friend from graduate school once told me she thought I became a completely different person driving here than she had ever imagined I could be. I have always believed Washington’s frustrations, borne of working in the federal bureaucracy, manifested in two ways: obsession with the Washington Redskins (oops, the Commanders but no one except the team owner Danny Snyder seems to care about them much any more) and frustrated driving.

The problem is that COVID anger and the never ending sense of entitlement in this country appears to have moved everyone into a never-seen-before aggressive driving mode. The insanity I see on the roads is flat out terrifying. I was driving into the District last week on Route 50, a dual carriageway serving as a major artery into a city whose roads still seem built for colonial population levels. I have seen people do some pretty dumb things but never had I seen someone swing from the left lane onto the right shoulder to pass everyone, then veer back into the left lane on a stretch where traffic was moving at the speed limit (ok, that means at least 10 miles above the posted limit). The driver was moving so quickly that he rocked a bit as he both tried to drive along the shoulder and pull back onto the road proper. I have seen, as you have, comparably stupid decisions by people who could kill a lot of others with their selfish actions.

I know my argument is based on anecdotes and personal experience but driving is simply far more combative than it was even a couple of years ago. People are just nutso. Many four way stops have become optional for some drivers. Signal lights do not deter drivers from ignoring others all together. A stop seems defined as hesitating rather than coming to a complete stop or perhaps looking to see who is coming. It is truly taking your life into your hands to venture out in the car. Maybe this is just a DC thing that you all don’t face other places but I suspect not. We have become a nation of people demanding what we want now and no laws or other people seem to affect how many of us interact on the roads. Yes, I may overstate it ever so slightly but not much. This driving environment brings the word pugnacious to mind.

School kids await the bus in fear as people whiz along these narrow streets as if they were at Indy. Passing between the many parked cars is a scary experience as everyone is in such a hurry. Sidewalks are a casualty of the zoning issue so one is as likely to be walking in the street as on a sidewalk as these mad folks race up and down these short streets with all the parked cars only making the streets narrower.

Actions have consequences. In Eastport where the streets are narrow and overwhelmingly short, people have had it. Beginning this fall, yellow caution signs began proliferating across our Maritime Republic. Some tell us to slow down while some are more specific and recommend slowing your A@@ down, with an appropriately drawn burro on the sign.

In the spirit of the holidays, I wanted to bring you below my favourite of these signs so far. We noticed it yesterday as we were nearing home after a walk to the bakery. It is proof that to get someone’s attention on important issues, you have to use cleverness.

As far as I know, there is no wake this far from the Creek. But the maritime theme carries forth to get our attention: we are the Maritime Republic of Eastport. And it worked to make me smile and stop to admire the imagination.

Is this slowing people down? Not if this afternoon’s walk was any indication. I was nearing the sign above, walking on the left side of the street because I was walking into the sun and did not want drivers unable to see me on the right. I was in the street right next to people’s property. A black Lexus zipped by me so close I could feel the air moving from the car’s speed. I hope the driver was happy to be doing about 45 miles per hour on a street marked 20 in the remaining 50 yards she had to travel to the four way stop which she did, surprisingly, respect.

We are manifesting our selves in lots of ways these days. Everyone thinks it’s the other person who is being outlandish. I am not foolish enough to assume I am not contributing to this is some way. I am definitely able to say, however, that my daily walks make me wonder what I can do to reassess my own sense of entitlement as I get so frustrated with other folks’ actions. FIN