Pet Peeves Part I

Everyone has them. Some people bear them quietly, with patience and long suffering. Others blog about them and put them on public display for the entire Internet world to see.

...Anyway, so I've decided to instigate my own little series, Pet Peeves (original, I know). We'll see how long it lasts. Really, I've only got one on my mind today, so here it is:

I Hate Rubberneckers

Everyone knows that DC traffic is notoriously horrific. "How do you turn 495 into a parking lot? Sprinkle some water on it." Driving plans must be made before 5 am, and afternoon rush hour starts around 3:30.

Countless studies have been made regarding traffic patterns and how to ease congestion. Theories abound of the 'butterly effect,' where one car's unassuming brake lights cause the car behind to step on their brakes for caution, and so forth until the flow of automobiles has completely halted. Knowing this, my irritation at screeching to an utter and complete halt from 75 mph is only aggravated by the knowledge that the quagmire was most likely fomented by something thoroughly minor.

As such, my rage abounds when we finally hit the critical point of traffic flow, only to see that my life's wasted hour or more is something akin to a pulled over car with lights flashing, or someone calmly standing on the side of the road.

First of all, what is the innate carnal desire of mankind to gawp at the sufferings of their fellow man? I once was closely following a van approaching a green stoplight, when an ambulance pulled into the corner 7-11, whereupon the van skidded to a stop in the middle of the intersection and the driver craned her neck out her window to see what would transpire. Woman, what are you hoping to see?

Secondly, if traffic must inevitably be upheld due to a gruesome accident, and everyone is inevitably slowing to ogle, then by golly, by the time I pass ground zero, it had better be worth something way better than flashing hazard lights. I want to see blood! I want to see carnage! I want to see body bags and crumpled fenders and crushed metal and chalk lines!

I was driving down to Vegas once to visit a posse member when all motion ceased on I-15 somewhere around Cedar City. As the entire area is a flat desert with one lone road, upon exiting my halted car to investigate, the plume of thick black smoke billowing fifty feet high approximately a mile ahead was quite visible. After an hour or so of milling, the wreckage was presumably cleared and we were free to continue along the only north-south highway in the entire state of Utah (options, people, it's called options). As I passed the scene of destruction, the only remains of the billowing smoke was a black, hollowed shell of what I imagined to be a semi-truck, identifiable only by the charred outlines of two front seats and a spindly pencil circle of a steering wheel. Now that was almost worth my time.

So now that you've slogged through mine, it's my turn to ask you: What's YOUR Pet Peeve Part I???