Bad Driving aka “Let’s Piss People Off Again”
July 25th, 2007 at 5:03 pm by Mark
Tags: asshats, bad-drivers, humor, knoxville, responsibility, sarcasm, tennessee, women
I’ve talked a couple of times about our local Knoxville culture getting screwed up by a bunch of asshats moving here and trying to rebuild it in their own image … From basic skills of “being intentionally rude and uncaring” to “being a good neighbors.”
When I say that they don’t know how to be “good neighbors,” it’s not about the people next door who keep to themselves— it’s about having a sense of community and civic responsibility. East Tennessee’s had that until recent years.
In this area, people drive pretty well, whereas in my travels, I’ve often complained about the way people drive.
Here, they’re slightly aggressive, and mostly polite. They tend to pay attention, and allow people their space. They don’t try and run you down when you’re coming on an interstate entrance ramp. They don’t stop in the middle of the road for no reason. The light is green, they go. The light is red, they stop. They don’t pull out in front of people for no reason. And they pretty much obey the traffic laws.
But people who move here? Yeah, not so much…
Cathy, over at Domestic Psychology, got on the same train of thought …
This week, I pulled up to the white line behind which you are expected to stop at a red light. I came to a stop and looked closely at the car beside me which crossed all four tires across the line before stopping. When the light turned green, I looked at the beyond the line driver’s plates and saw that they were Indiana plates. I was letting the information slide to the back of my mind as I pulled to another red light and another car did the exact same thing. This time I was far enough back to see that the eager driver had Illinois plates. Twice in 5 minutes on Kingston Pike, a very heavily trafficked street I saw cars doing what I consider against the law and both times they had out of town plates. So, I thought about this the rest of the way to my destination. Number one thought was that I was getting tired of catching every single red light. Number two thought was that maybe other states don’t have lines at intersections like Tennessee does. My third thought was that there must be something wrong with drivers in states that start with the letter “I”. Number four thought, which I seriously considered the longest, was that Tennessee drivers are just more considerate and law abiding drivers.
Due to my comments about that, which Cathy chose to include on her blog entry … I will now list the “Women Can’t Drive” States:
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Both Dakotas
- Michigan
- Minnesota
It could be because of the whole “We have farms! Be a housewife!” thing, and many women are worried about driving after being stigmatized for years. It could also be because of a lack of Driver’s Education in those states (which is amusing considering that Michigan actually produces quite a few automobiles). It could also be because city-type areas are much further away from each other “up north” than they are in the East Tennessee area, and people don’t know what the Hell to do when they keep seeing red light after red light, entrance ramp after entrance ramp, car after car… By the way, if you don’t have enough knowledge about driving, you are prone to accident. Good thing, you can lean on Sacramento, CA Car Accident Lawyers for they are dedicated in solving every accident cases no matter what the situation is. Strangely, these are also the “Driving Without a License” States…
In the 6th century, Pope Gregory the Great named the seven deadly as follows: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Vengeance, Envy, and Pride. 
People can deny their corrupt human nature all they want. But it’s there inside all of us. It just depends on if one has the overwhelming urge to act on it. 
