Driving behaviors mirrors social behaviors?

I work in Sandy Springs, which is now its own city annexed from Atlanta. It's essentially considered a fringe city as it sits on the border of Atlanta city lines with Interstate 285 acting as a very obvious line. More often than not, the intersection points of I-285 to I-75, 85 and GA-400 in North Atlanta area is the target of many commuters' ires, as it is apparently one of the worst traffics in the US.

I try to leave a bit early, just leaving 5 or 10 minutes later can make a difference of about half an hour sometimes. On a good day, I can make the commute back home, about 12 mi or so, in about 20-25 mins. At other times, especially on rush hour Fridays, just covering the 0.25 mi or so from where I work to get on to GA-400S can take close t0 half an hour.

What makes it so bad is not that there are that many cars on the road. I can cover the topic of whether one should drive or not in another post, but to put it simply, bad public transportation in Atlanta doesn't help as an alternative. I've driven in many other parts of the country, but I don't think I've seen bad drivers make the traffic this bad in other cities across the country. I mean, Atlanta (and perhaps Georgia drivers in general?) are terrible. Terrible awareness of the road, poor judgment on lane changes, not using the proper traffic etiquettes, etc. I could go on and on.

I myself am very surprised and should consider myself fortunate that I've not gotten into an accident so far considering how many close calls I've encountered. I learnt how to drive in the suburbs of greater Chicago, but I didn't really drive in Atlanta during my college years (more so due to lack of a vehicle), but I started driving regularly when I moved to Western Massachusetts when I started working after graduation. Perhaps it was because of that, the 'MAsshole' got into me as I had to learn how to change lanes properly among aggressive drivers. That meant actually having to use my turning lights in advance (and even then, drivers will close the gap just so that you won't get to change lanes) and timing your lane change so as to not make those behind you slow down unnecessarily and such. It became even more crucial when it was snowing and the roads were slippery, having to leave enough gap in between cars in case your car slid on the snow and taking precautions to clear the snow off your car so that solidified ice chunks won't fall off or worse, fly off, into someone else's car. It was all the basic things you learn, it's not just your safety, but also those around you as well.

I'm sure I'm overgeneralizing some of the stuff I see around in Atlanta, but it's alarming (and honestly amusing at times) how other drivers seemingly think they can get away with ridiculous moves on the road. My biggest pet peeve on the road is someone coming in front of you without any notice. The point of turning lights is to notify the drivers around you that you are trying to change lanes. Preferably you should give them as much time, 2-3 seconds is good enough, but as I said, longer the better. What I see on almost all occasions is the driver changing lanes as soon as the turning lights are on as an after the fact indication. This doesn't give enough time for me to react and in turn, forces me to brake suddenly, which is obviously dangerous for me and the car behind me. If the said driver had given me enough warning, I may gradually slow down and leave enough space so that the said driver can change without much problem. If there are solid divider lines, it means don't change lanes. If I sense you trying to change lanes (and especially without turning lights), I'll intentionally close the gap so that drivers won't get to change lanes.

This brings me to the next issue in that drivers here tend to wait until really late to change lanes or to slow down to make an exit and such. Exits are marked clearly way earlier in advance, so it's not like drivers don't know when the exits are coming up. My general rule is to change into the exit lane about a mile before the exit. Or in the case of toll roads, there's ample signs that indicate that a toll booth is coming up and that the leftmost lanes are for those with wireless passes. What should otherwise be a smooth sailing drive on the leftmost lanes ends up being congested because drivers wait until the last 0.2 or even 0.1 mile to change into the cash toll booth lanes and holding the wireless pass drivers off.

Let me go off into the social context of these behaviors. Many a times, drivers' excuses will be that of 'Well, I don't have time to wait sitting in traffic' or 'I've got more important things to do.' Oh the audacity of that! How does one know if their time is more important or valuable than those who are patiently observing the rules of the road? It's not like you know who everyone else is on the road. To assume that your needs are above everyone else just is absurd. The worse ones are those that assumes that just because they drive a 'better' car (be it brand, type, etc) that others must acquiesce to their behavior. How does one assume that just because one affords to drive a sports car or a Benz, that others somehow can't? Other could very well do the same, but chooses not to for various reasons which are not important. It's essentially saying that because you chose to make decisions that are different from the decisions I've made, I've determined that you are lesser because your decision is poor or some other shit like that. Personally, I can afford a Benz or BMW if I want, but I see it as a sunk investment, the depreciation of the vehicle being higher than the utility value I place on driving and frankly I don't care so much about the driving experience, hence, I choose to drive a relatively cheap vehicle, but that's just me. Everyone has their own reasons and needs, but one should never assume that their needs and their decisions are above everyone elses. Some drivers are so selfish that they can't even sit in traffic for 5 more extra minutes? How much real difference can one really make in that 5 minutes or so?

This behavior is interesting precisely because these social behaviors are often reflected in person and not just in driving situations. I can't quite place if it's the X, Y or Millenia generation concept where individual values are placed above others and that it doesn't matter if others have to pay to benefit your decisions. If there are two lanes heading to an exit lane, the patient and obedient drivers will be in the exit lane long before, the supposedly 'superior' drivers will try to circumvent that by zipping past on the other lane and hoping to catch a gap to change lanes much later than sit in traffic. If there is a gap that one can legitimately turn into without causing inconvenience to other drivers, that's perfectly fine if you want to hedge on your chances. However, anyone can tell if that's a genuine possibility by just looking ahead to the road to determine how congested that lane is. If it's congested, chances are tougher and more than likely you're going to have to slow down somewhere to change lanes, holding those that are already on exit lanes to wait longer and possibly making the cars behind you to potentially slow down. It really irks me when cars literally come to a stop because they couldn't change lanes when they wanted to and holds the lane hostage. Worst is when in turning lanes the driver assumes that the lane will move along so that they can be accommodated when trying to beat a red light and ends up sitting in the traffic box or the driver gets to the very end and tries to sneak in to the ramp at the very last chance using whatever extra little space there is.

I apologize, I really needed to vent about this for a while and since I felt like blogging, this seemed like a good topic as I sat waiting to get on the highway.