Put yourself into the driver’s seat of your car. While you drive do you observe the other drivers? The ones that drive too fast or the ones that drive too slow. The elderly drivers today seem to make overly cautious moves down the road, causing road rage. The younger drivers get too impatient and speed around the cars in a hurry to get home or to a friends. You know you can get hurt anytime, but driving seems to become even more dangerous when drivers have slower reaction times and can get confused.
You’re 16 years old and driving in your new used car. Imagine, the window is so wide open that anyone in a square block radius can hear the Black Eyed Peas, Chris Brown, or Pink Martini flowing out like... music from a radio. You feel very lucky to have a new car. Your friends drive rundown grandparent cars that seem to be older than the bricks in the old warehouse. They speed out of town to avoid the eyes, while you meander through looking for attention. You’re cruising through the lame streets of your small town and realize something. You are in the nicest car on the most abandoned street in town. It would be rude not to speed. No cops, no pedestrians, hell...no cars! As you accelerate you feel the wind in your hair and the salespeople are staring. You see another car entering the roadway, a Plymouth (old persons car). They’ve moved into your lane and you’re approaching the slow moving vehicle, fast. While distracted and annoyed with the lethargic citizen before you, you decide to switch lanes without a turn signal and speed ahead. The little old woman is glaring you down and mouthing words. Old people drive too slow, they hold up traffic. Unknown to your distracted eyes and mind, there is a police officer about 10 yards behind you at the Hot Tub and Spa Repair shop. The sirens are on and the officer is approaching fast. Pulling over, you wonder why he didn’t ticket the old kook who was driving so languidly.
The old woman is driving the ’59 Plymouth. She treasures her car and the way she drives. But, she sees that young inexperienced people these days are quite impatient with her driving methods. Her favorite utterance to declare as they drive by is, “Young wipper-snappers drive twice the speeds I used to. I never would speed past an elder of mine. How incorrigible.”-With an added shake of her tiny, withered fist. She remembers driving this same street in the same car 50 years ago. The only thing about the street and neighborhood that has stayed the same is the asphalt beneath the car. The businesses are different, so commercial. The people seem more interested in their little devices than in family and friends. She can barely see over the steering wheel but she still reminisces about her teenage life here.
The kids were so polite, “Yes sir. Yes ma’am. You look nice today miss. The trash is out and the dog is clean as a whistle, sir.”
Now all she gets from a youthful young man is a, “May I help you with your bags?” She thinks: Hell no, my frail arms and small stature were made to lift big bags of processed junk that will kill me faster than the arthritis and kidney stones. While she proceeds to her car, leading the boy to her chunk of metal.
She only drives slowly because she doesn’t want to hurt anyone. She doesn’t want the last ride she takes to end in hitting a dog or speeding through the local school zone. Just the idea of having a ticket end up on her record is embarrassing. Her grandchildren will be driving soon and they don’t need to worry about their grandmother getting hurt. They shouldn’t think all old drivers are dangerous to their safety. She won’t give up on driving until she knows it’s time; meaning the time she no longer feels safe behind the wheel. And these young people are not helping to make her feel safe. Especially when they fly around her, she realizes why she is driving slowly. She does so, so that she won’t become that dangerous menace to society. But she also wants to drive at a faster speed to get home safely and see those grand-kids she so hopes will drive better than her. Being an older driver is harder mentally than physically.
As a middle-aged man, both aforementioned parties annoy me. Both are ridiculous at times. They worry me too, when driving my kids to school or soccer practice. The young drivers have no concern for anyone but themselves. I’ve seen many things while driving, many of which scare my wife and I. The kids will be 15 at the end of the month. This means, to any parent, the time to say goodbye to driving your kids in the safety of your car, and letting them venture into the real world. I just hope that they see the problems with speeding, and with going absentmindedly slow. They should correct themselves and never get into trouble. All parents hope that they are sending their kids out safely into the world. Obviously, it really is a life lesson: Speed or not speed?
Once again you’re the teenager. The officer is walking up to your car with a certain power in his hands. It’s no big deal though; it’s just a fine of a couple hundred dollars. That’ll be paid off in no time and then I’ll be free again. All this runs through your mind before the officer gets to the window. You are embarrassed this happened, obviously, but don’t care about the effect this could’ve had.
The officer berates you: What if there was a car in the blind spot? What if the old lady also changed lanes? Would you have had control? And if an ambulance was rushing through? Would you have noticed it? So what, I’m young and fast.
You listen with half your brain, while the rest is thinking about texting everyone with all the details of your run-in with the law. He hands you the ticket and lets you on your way, but not without a mean cowl. He looks at you with distaste and hopelessness. You seem to think, He’s crazy. I’m outta here. As you’re driving away you pull out your phone and text your classmates, filling them in on the events of the day. You tell them about how ridiculous it was to get called out by the “man” but the little old lady got nothing.
Switching back to the old woman, she’s glad the kid was pulled over and taught a lesson. The young people these days show what the rest will be like, and it’s very worrisome to her. But she also worries herself, especially when she can’t remember where she was going after being peeved with the boy. She’s driving down the road and cannot remember the destination. She knows that she came from the grocery store, but that’s it. All these questions are running through her mind: Where was I going? What if I hadn’t remembered which way to go in the lane? What if I went the wrong way, towards that kid? What if I crossed another lane, would I have been hit? Would I remember what to do in a dicey situation?
While the old woman thinks these actions through she slows down more. She gets more confused and disoriented. And, before she knows it, she’s run a red light. Although, it’s more like walked a red light. Which is still illegal, but more “her speed”. The police officer has seen her too, but the worst part of it? So has a school bus full of kids who were approaching that intersection she crossed illegally. All those kids have seen an older person endanger their lives, and they now have a mental image of elderly drivers. They see the woman being approached by the police officer. She stands outside her Plymouth, feeling all eyes on her waning skin and scrunched frame. She really could’ve hurt someone. She is now a danger to the pedestrians in the crosswalk; she is now a danger to the other drivers in the intersection; she is now a danger to her passengers, her grand-kids. The old lady is just as dangerous as the speeding heathen before her.
Driver’s young and old can be dangerous, but it’s all our biases that effect us the most. Young drivers automatically get angered with the slow driver before them. They draw the conclusion that they must be older because they are slow. But then again those of you older drivers seem to think all young people speed. Yes, both points can be correct, but when it comes to who is more dangerous; there shouldn’t be a contest. Driver’s young and old can be dangerous, so think your moves through and don’t drive unsafely.
By: Logan Geissler, Unitarian Universalist Church of Salem
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