Driving, to me, is a sport. I'm a believer in a rear-wheel drive, manual transmission automobile with enough power to get you both in and out of trouble in a hurry. The problem is I'm not on the Autobahn in Germany, where everyone knows how to drive. It's as simple as this... slow drivers to the right, passing to the left. Every time I see a driver in the U.S. applying this simple principle, it's like a breath of fresh spring air. I bask in it. I even give the thank you wave as I pass. It's just a beautiful thing. The other 99.35% of the time, I am trying to "thread the needle" at speeds clearly not posted. I find myself regularly driving 20 to 30 miles over the speed limit in certain areas (not school zones. I'm not a monster.). To and from work, I am attempting land speed records.
I have not yet fully accepted the fact that I must exist in a country where people don't really know how to drive well. Not to offend my fellow Americans, but people are oblivious here. They change lanes without looking (or signaling). They text message and do their hair. They create their own traffic laws and turn right from the left lane. Plus, they have zero spatial perception and judgment. Every day, I see someone in a compact car in the left lane, slam on their brakes when a bus starts moving next to them in the right lane. Sure, the bus is going to crush you and you have four feet of room to your right. Please. You'll cause more accidents by doing that than you will by simply maintaining speed, keeping some distance on you right and driving past the bus. Oh yeah, get off of your iPhone.
Granted, I consider myself a very good driver. I have never been in an accident, and I've attended numerous performance driving schools and clinics to develop safe driving skills under high speed and emergency situations. I even trained in high speed situations during my training with the CIA. I can legitimize my penchant for speed all day long.
But that's really not my point. I have to accept the fact that no amount of swerving and dodging will get me to my intended location that much faster and that even though I haven't gotten in an accident, I still could cause one by scaring someone who doesn't know a camshaft from a camcorder. Okay, so it's a lot of fun for me to drive at 9/10ths and I like to keep my skills up by pretending the two Priuses, the Saturn and the Buick land barge in front of me are slalom cones. Plus, I look forward to driving my car every day. But what I must do starting this year is to start driving like a I'm a fat, sedated water buffalo--with no particular place to be at any particular time. When I drive, I need to drop my blood pressure, prepare for the fact that I may soon have little tykes in the back seat of my beloved sports coupe and wipe a tear from my eye as 2011 will mark the year that I stopped paying homage to Michael Schumacher by driving with an undisputed lack of gusto.
Resolution #3: I will drive at, or close to, the speed limit on a daily basis, unless I am A) driving my pregnant wife to the hospital (when she's actually pregnant); B) trying to catch up to a Ferrari on Lake Shore Drive; or C) late for dinner.
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