Keller @ Large: Ugliness Behind The Wheel
BOSTON (CBS) - This is one sweet time of year to be a New Englander, isn't it?
When the weather is fine and the days are long, we can finally relax and give our manic, hostile persona a rest for awhile while we go to the beach, the woods and the mountains.
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A rest, that is, until we get in the car to drive home.
I though I would avoid the worst of the insanity by hitting the westbound Turnpike by 11 a.m. Sunday, and while I hardly hit any slowdowns, it was still a white-knuckle ride thanks to those trademark moves of the Massachusetts driver, weaving and tailgating.
Actually, "weaving" doesn't adequately describe what I saw.
Every ten minutes or so, another driver would decide that they were playing a video game in which the risk of high-speed lane-changing within inches of other cars is merely that you have to start the game over, instead of destruction and fiery death.
On nearly every move, the weavers on the Pike also became tailgaters. At one point, I saw ten cars booking it in the passing lane in a tight little line, all within a few feet of each other.
One wrong move, and they all would have been statistics.
What makes people behave this way at 11 a.m. on a Sunday?
It wasn't the frustration of being stuck in bad traffic, we were moving along just fine. It can't be blamed on the weather. And of course, I saw some of the same loons who risked it all to pass me stuck in the traffic slowdown at the Charlton barracks.
Yes, it was a beautiful day along the Pike Sunday.
Too bad there was also so much ugliness behind the wheel.
Listen to Jon's commentary: