Topic: Dailies

Road Respect

by

Leo Crocker Rogers

There is a saying: "Have respect for the road." In common parlance, this means to obey the laws of the road, to be polite, give way to another, think ahead. In other words, make things safe when you are driving even if you have to compensate for the ignorance and carelessness of others. It is an excellent plan.

I watched this plan in action this past weekend. I was traveling more than usual and often at peak freeway times to the Sky Harbor International Airport. The Airport is under construction so one feels like a miniature golf ball trying to find one’s way to the cup by dodging windmill blades, avoiding incorrect ramps, and refraining from bumping the temporary barricades that are intended to make the traffic path safe. At night, at Sky Harbor, it is exactly like playing miniature golf with a headlamp on the face of your club. All you see is what is immediately in front of you. Too, when one makes a mistake and goes down or up an incorrect ramp, it takes a lot of time wind one’s way back to a desired location. And here is the kicker, there were 1,000 other drivers playing the same miniature golf hole I was playing at the same time. The highways and airport routes were as jammed as they could possibly be. It was great!!! When entering and exiting the airport, there were multiple roads from which to choose. While traveling at a good clip, by the time one could focus on the correct guiding sign, the exit or entrance could pass by, but I, like others, responded in time to safely, but with the help of other drivers, to scoot to the correct road. Often, drivers were trapped in the incorrect lane, and this meant they would missed their passenger pick up; they were in the wrong lane had to go around the airport terminals again and again, just to have the opportunity to meet their passenger. And yet, time after time after time drivers were polite, gave way to each other, honked and waved ‘go ahead’, and in general made up for other’s mistakes. Drivers allowed me to recover from my mistakes as I did for them, as in the midst of a 1,000 people playing miniature golf on the same hole at the same time and in the dark and all the while everyone keeping track of their own ball without colliding with other players.

There was harmony. Harmony of huge busses, tons of them. Harmony of limousines, herds of them. Harmony of cabs and hotel vans, flocks of them. And harmony of us all who seldom play the airport game and yet need to be on time for our guests to be delivered to or picked up from the airport. What an honor to be among such wonderful drivers in Phoenix, Arizona.

Now, to honor the road in another way. All roads have weak places in them, sort of like foibles in people. And, after many tires pounding on the road, like circumstances pounding on people or people pounding on people, the road develops a crack. There is such an instance in my Dobson Ranch neighborhood. As more and more cars hit the crack, the crack expands and exposes a small pot hole, sort of like exposing a weakness in a person’s personality. Then what happens? Well one of two things. One thing can be that every motorist that drives that road hits the pot hole and exclaims, "Darn it!" because it damages their tires, shocks, and other suspension parts. And too, the hole becomes larger and deeper, until someone does blow a tire and possibly hurts someone. The other thing can be that every motorist who drives that road avoids the crack or small pot hole saying, ‘Good job, missed that one.’ In this case, their car is not damaged and the hole does not expand. The idea is to honor the road, have respect for its strength to get us where we need to go and not to hurt the road where it is weak. People have cracks and pot holes too. We all should honor people as we should honor the road by avoiding making a small problem a large problem. We should not impinge upon them at their weak points. We should work around their pot holes until they are repaired. We should honor people as much as we honor the road.

This weekend was not only a joy in that all my associates and I enjoyed each other’s friendly company, but we also reveled in the kindness of those we did not know, their driving on the freeways and at Sky Harbor.

Respect. It is all about respect.