Queues
One of the great things about having a blog is getting to get something off your chest. Today, I want to write about queues.
In the last weeks, I have found myself out driving around San Diego county a lot more and I have a question about drivers on multi-lane highways. Why do so many drivers camp in the left lane? My closest access road to civilization is a 4-lane expressway. This is defined as a highway with traffic lights, but limited retail access. So, when I get up to the first major traffic light, there will be 10-20 cars lined up at the light–all sitting in the left lane. In the right 2 lanes (the expressway expands at that point), there will be 1 or 2 cars in each of those lanes.
What does that say about the mentality of these drivers? That they believe they are all fast drivers and need to be in the fast lane? Since they will barely or rarely get to speed limit by the next stoppage, they cannot possibly believe themselves to be fast drivers.
Ego-centric/narcissistic, I guess.
I remember years ago, I used to commute 50 miles to Irvine, CA and I learned quickly that you could drive faster going up the furthest right lane than you could in the most left lane (I-5 between San Diego and Los Angeles).
Another pet peeve of mine is the idiot who sits in the left lane, barely doing the speed limit, and, when someone attempts to pass on the right, the idiot speeds up. I had a sales rep who used to do that-yep he was an idiot. As the passenger, I quickly tired of seeing the middle finger of every driver attempting to pass him and told him he could either drive faster, get out of the left lane, or let me drive. Letting me drive was usually not an option as most of my sales reps did not care for my driving.
I guess I’ll never understand the mentality of those drivers.
Another odd behavior is observed when queuing to board an airplane. I cherish my frequent flyer card with American Airlines that says I have spent way too much time in their aircraft. But it allows me to board immediately after First Class. I’ve earned that little perk. However, when you are standing near the gate to board, it amazes me as to how many people will come and take a position just in front of you, no matter how close to the gate agent you are. I guess they believe there is only one person in their boarding call and it is them or their gold card allows for earlier boarding than mine. Must be multiple levels of gold fliers.
My golfing buddies do the same thing. Our only rule about honors on the tee box is never go ahead of a birdie (or eagle). It’s a karma thing. Yet when I move into position to be next on the tee, it surprises me that one of them will position himself ahead of me so that he can hit next.
I don’t really mind most of this (except the traffic idiots who severely inhibit all of our abilities to get somewhere), but I will always wonder what rattles around in the pea brain of people…
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