Pedestrian Viewpoint

My primary source of exercise in the summer comes from walking. On the average weekday I tend to walk 6-8 miles a day, to and from work and another walk through town at lunch.

Along the way I see a lot of things I’d never notice if I was driving all that time. One guy sitting at a table in front of a cafe at all hours of the day, every day always eating something and talking to someone. A woman in the morning who hustles to work carrying three different bags of varying colors, wearing headphones and always looking hurried and unhappy. Another woman who rides her motorcycle to and from work each day, particularly noticeable to me because of the bright pink helmet she wears. I can always tell how early or late I am based on how far along I am when she passes me. The 9/11 conspiracy guy in front of the post office, draped in long streamers of fliers.

About once a week in the morning I see a friend of mine who works from home and travels all over the world, usually walking casually through town with a coffee in his hand, chilling out after a trip. We usually exchange brief greetings as I hurry past.

Occasionally there are things that stand out from the routine. The old man who’d parked too close to the curb so that his passenger door had scraped the parking meter. A pair of shoes abandoned in front of the furniture shop, giving the impression that someone had been knocked out of them. The woman sleeping on a stoop in front of her apartment door, wearing a set of oversized sweat clothes, with a cigarette hanging from her bottom lip. The police talking to a group of people on the other side of the street, sorting out a fight or a shoplifting.

All these fragments of a New England town that I see pieces of each day.

What has been striking me the most lately, however, is the rudeness of the drivers. As a driver I’ve certainly experienced it: being honked at for no apparent reason, having someone cut in front of me or tailgate me, people who don’t use their turn-signals or are driving absurdly slow or dangerously fast.

As a pedestrian, it's far more obvious. People stopping in the middle of the street to drop someone off or pick someone up, heedless of the people behind them who are forced to slam on their brakes and wait for them. Drivers honking at each other for perceived slights or offenses. Cutting each other off, rushing past people trying to cross the street, shouting out the window, making obscene gestures, repeated acts of cruelty and no consideration.

I don’t typically think much of people in general as it is, and I’ve certainly been annoyed by people as a driver myself but I’m kind of astonished at seeing how rude people are when they're isolated in their cars. Almost every time one driver honks at another it's without real cause, just an expression of anger and impatience.

Drivers can be real bastards.