Asshole Driving:

I have come to a conclusion in my extensive driving around the Chicago suburbs. The asshole drivers fall into two categories: the very rich and the very poor. Now, when I say asshole drivers, I don't mean bad drivers, people who swerve and don't check their blind spots and yack on the phone until they almost miss their turns. No, I'm talking about the people who think they are the most important people on the road. People who drive along the shoulder in traffic, who cut in front of the line of people waiting at a busy merge who generally behave like there's no one else on the road who matters at all. These people are almost always driving either a six-month-old Lexus SUV or a beater 1984 Buick. (I know, I'm making assumptions about people's income based on their cars and that the most popular car on Martha's Vineyard is a mid-90s Volvo station wagon. Or whatever. Maybe it's more that the ostentatiously rich and the ostentatiously poor are the jerky drivers).

My theory? I think not being an asshole on the road is part of some sort of social contract. You know, the whole no cutting in line thing that we are all taught in pre-school. No being a jerk to strangers unless they are working in customer service. So then most of middle America, much as they may be jerks in their private lives, are well-behaved drivers. Whereas those raised outside of this social contract, be they the very rich or the very poor, have no taught compunctions about jumping in line.

Having said that, at Midway Airport, which should contain mostly middle class people, two different people cut in line in front of me (by which I mean were standing behind me and pushed their way to in front of me), though one was abashed enough to stop when I called him on it (I'm not really that brave, but I had a couple of people backing me up). So maybe this armchair sociology is all bunk.