I am so done with car/4wheel driving, My first post ever in this thread years ago was also related to driving at that time.
I feel like a total vessel when I am driving. Vessel in a sense that I have to take care of people's stupid mistakes every single time. It feels like other people's stupidity is passing via me, and I feel like a vessel for that. I no longer have mental flexibility left to keep bearing it for years. The society (majority of it) around me is not qualified for driving. Yes, they have driving licenses, just like I have, but this piece of certificate, paper, or whatever the hell you want to call it is totally worthless. Considering how corrupt this society is, if you have linkages in the department, you can get licenses even without a test. Nowadays, it's tough and more strictness have come, but what about those people who already have gotten?
Even if someone is a good driver, when they get license with a test, after that, they are back to their stupidity mode. They only pretend to pass the driving test, only drive good for the sake of passing a test, and when they get it, they become lazy and irresponsible.
Why good drivers have to take special care of other people's mistakes to save their lives along with their own? I refuse to accept this culture. Driving requires ethics and an aura of civil harmony which in my society has none. Every person is so much different in attitude. This society should never have gotten a country of their own, but that's another debate.
The major reason I am writing this post was this mother with a kid. She did a horrible mistake on the road and if my reflexes didn't guide me, I am pretty sure I would have been the murderer if the accident had happened. I would have been in jail because I would be blamed for killing a mom with a child. The press media would have taken my pictures, and no matter what my explanation would be, no one would have believed me. Even if someone would believe me, that incident would have remained with me for the rest of my life.
Now, incidents like that are not rare. I have to deal with stupid mistakes like this daily. I have been driving for so many years, and I haven't gotten a single accident. I am not trying to boast off (and no, this is not me having illusion of driving control), but I got good reflexes from competitive video games. In fact, I owe all my driving skills to Interstate '76 game. If that game didn't exist, I am not sure if I was a good driver. That game was my teacher. I have not learned driving from any human. I did it on my own without anyone's help and I am proud of it.
But that does not mean that I am superior or immune to making a mistake. I may have to make a mistake for the sake of protecting someone's else mistake or else it could have an accident. The thing is at least I have this feeling of responsibility towards others instead of those people who don't have and no longer care for it. It's like they are asking for it to have an accident handed over to them. Whenever I drive, I let my anger stay hidden and try to be the most calm and stoic person. I am not like those people who curse and yell.
Also, I learned on manual transmission/gearing and drove manually for years until automatic transmissions became common and now, I have an automatic transmission vehicle. I can bet more than half of the humanity can't drive on manual transmission including my sister. I still prefer manual transmission because it gives more control.
Technically speaking, if every car on the road had the maximum limit of 40km/h, there should be no fatal accidents even if stupidity ran wild. In other words, colliding at 40km/h is a safe bet. But of course, no one wants that speed (including myself). People want full Need4Speed booster to reach the destination as quick as possible.
Driving in an urban environment is not fancy. It's not like Hollywood movies. When I was a teen, I was enthusiastic about driving. It was a craze and fun at the beginning. Now, it's hell. It's hell because of the environment of other people around me and because I have driven so much, I have gotten sick of it. I didn't get sick of driving outside an urban environment like going on long tours. It's because I can't bear the mistakes of other people anymore. It's nothing fun. It's only fun and fantasizing if you are new.
I wish that I could pay a person to drive for me while I do nothing. But for the sake of the sanity of that person's mental health, and ethicality, I would not do that. I think it's a mental torture. So many people hire drivers here just for the sake of mental peace. I feel so sorry for those drivers who have to go through that hell. All the onus of not getting an accident in the first place because of other people's mistakes is on them. It's horrible. But there is also a sense of trust. For example, sometimes it's almost equally depressing seeing someone else driving and you are thinking, "Oh goodness, this person is going to have an accident right now the way he's driving." So, it's always a double-edged sword whether you drive yourself or you let someone else pay for you to drive.
I heard the news of Klaus Martin Schwab saying no more private ownership of cars. I fully support it even though I am an owner of private vehicles myself. People would call me all sort of names for supporting such an idea, but I hope it happens and it should start from my area. I would even go full extremist by saying that he should abolish all cars from people's lives.
There should be two things happening. Either people become conscious enough that they are incapable of doing mistakes during a driving which is unlikely or cars themselves become intelligent enough and AI takes over. The first one is less likely, so the possibility of the latter is more realistic. No wonder KSA is building a futuristic city with no cars in it. That would be heaven.
Hopefully, this rage post of mine would be my final love letter to the urban 4wheel driving. I would only drive 4-wheels if I would have to go on long routes where there is no urban madness. My sister is also sick of driving now. She had the craze when she started it and I remember how excited she was.
I know this post of mine is extremely lengthy, but I have vowed this time to stay away from 4-wheel driving in urban environment So, I want to let my feelings all out here. I would do a two-wheel driving (motorbike) from now regularly. That would be my mainstream mode of transportation.
About that news, I heard a Fox News lady blasting Europe, Klaus Schwab and saying that US is a big country where people enjoy freedom to drive unlike Europe that relies heavily on mass public transportation system. She may have a point, but I so much disagree with the freedom aspect. I honestly would feel more free playing Steam Deck inside a public transport where I would not have to care about other people's mistakes around me. Imagine if the everyone in the world would have a car, the world can't sustain such a model. The roads would become hell with the population explosion.
The American illusion of freedom of private driving now feels strange to me. Yes, initially, I felt free because I had this immense craze of driving, but as time passed, now I don't feel free anymore in driving. I feel like I am caged. Why I have to apply brakes to stop my car colliding because the person in front was hellbent on using a smartphone and that person suddenly braked because his phone rang, and he picked it and ruined the whole line behind it and was responsible for creating a jam that ruined others experience? How is that freedom? You are literally relying on freedom of other people's stupidity while sacrificing yours. This is not freedom. It's a curse.
Then, there are such selfish people saying if elites quit their own cars first, then they would quit theirs. That's a ridiculous thought. The elites are not the problem. Others are. The same people also say this ridiculous thought of 2% elites controlling the world. That means, only 2% elites are problematic unlike the rest of us who are far bigger problematic percentagewise. In other words, other people are bigger in percentage than the elite and those people are the problems with reference to cars. Now, the counter idea would be that after getting rid of majority of cars, then elites would be able to drive peacefully without a jam. I say good. Let smaller percentage of people (which they call elite) enjoy a peaceful driving instead of madness of majority where it's a hell.
I am willing to have this sacrifice for greater good of others no matter if that percentage is elite or ancient aliens because I have suffered this feeling of protecting others on roads for years. People do all sorts of crazy mistakes on roads which others have to take into consideration. That's why I feel like I have become a vessel of some sort where other people's mistakes would always have to go through via me, and I would have to play this act of responsibility for others too besides myself. For the exact same people who don't have any urge of responsibility or a sense of ethics towards others.
Even though if the mistakes would be theirs, innocent ones would get blamed for that. There are so many people like that whose lives are permanently ruined, but that would not have any effect for those kinds of people who are not willing to feel an iota of responsibility. They are a wasted space on roads, and if they are not willing to feel a sense of responsibility towards others, I should get myself out from the whole ecosystem instead of being a vessel in which only stupidity of others on the road would flow in and out through that. I am out.
