I love movie quotes.  The expressiveness and relatable nature of quotes allows simple connectivity to numerous people.  Regardless of background, movies are a universal entertainment medium and thus afford an easy discussion fulcrum.  So, as segue to the purpose of this article, I offer this quote.

“The world had went and got itself in a big damn hurry.”

This was in response to encountering fast-moving automobiles and a frenetic pace of life that he had not experienced as a result of having spent forty years in a state penitentiary.   In observing the flow of everyday life, specifically relating to traffic flow, I can absolutely agree with this statement.

Nary a day goes by when I fail to witness multiple cars skittering through red traffic lights, clearly obstructing those coming from the other road in attempts to make their turns.  Haven’t you also seen the two and three car sequences making turns in front of you whist the light directly in your vision is lit a vivid emerald?

What about the half, in reality, completely continuous at the stop sign, turn where the person refused to come to a complete stop and thus cost themselves an extra five seconds?  Perhaps you’ve encountered the driver who, seeing you were at the head of several other vehicles, pulled out in front of you from their stop sign, causing you to slam on your brakes and nearly forcing the bonnet of the nearest vehicle into your vehicles posterior.

Perhaps you’ve had the pleasure of spearing a car making a right at a red into your path, and you’ve no way to adjust or slow your course?  Perhaps you have had the near impact scenario when your light is green, and the person that you assume will observe the red simply fails to do so?

Given that I could have misperceptions regarding traffic safety, I turn to another movie quote.  Maybe aspiring to this type of logic is what causes these scofflaw behaviors.  Perhaps ignorance is to blame for navigational faux pas.

In the movie Starman a discussion occurs regarding driving behavior where Jeff Bridges character has just blown through a yellow light at extraordinary speeds.

Jenny: Okay? Are you crazy? You almost got us killed! You said you watched me, you said you knew the rules! 
Starman: I do know the rules. 
Jenny: Oh, for your information pal, that was a yellow light back there! 
Starman: I watched you very carefully. Red light stop, green light go, yellow light go very fast.

This might be a bit more obscure of a reference than that from the  Shawshank Redemption, but the point of the dialogue is still valid.  Jenny had previously exhibited the “go really fast” behavior at a yellow light.  Jeff Bridges’s character is chastised for emulating a behavior that Jenny had performed unnecessarily. He is not aware of the violation, though Jenny knows that she was simply hasty and set a bad example.

The takeaway is simple.  We are in too much of a hurry.

Is it likely that three cars in a row at that red light are en route to the delivery room?  Did the vehicle that pulled out in front of you have to rush to an undercover police emergency?  Are all those cars, blowing through red lights, firefighters needing to reach their station and truck to save the day?  Is the gas-guzzling behemoth lumbering at the periphery of your vision in a hurry to save a life at the hospital, necessitating the rolling stop at the cross-section you were about to intersect?  Does his action validate stranding you with a shattered rear bumper and your crash compatriot, the one with the infant in the back seat, a destroyed front-end?

Is an extra thirty seconds worthy of discourtesy to your fellow-man?  Is your time that much more precious than your brother or sister close by?

Sadly it seems that it is just so.

Lets just reflect on how these indicators were intended.

Green = Go forward

Yellow = Slow down

Red = Stop

Red = Relax

Red = Breathe deeply, you’re not going anywhere.  And thats entirely ok.

Red = Think about Jonathan Kabat-Zinn and his “Where ever you go, there you are.”

Let’s not be in such a hurry to launch ourselves from the moments we have, especially to our detriment.

Humbly yours,

J