My oldest son and I didn't travel too far outside Utah during a recent trip before he made an observation.
"Utah drivers aren't the worst in the country, after all."
We were on the long stretch of highway that separates Las Vegas from Los Angeles, a droning desert that brings to mind motion pictures about people dying of thirst after some misguided adventure in search of gold. Baker, Calif., "The gateway to Death Valley," shimmered and floated in heat waves on the horizon. The highway was under construction. A huge, raised concrete median separated our two lanes from the ones heading back toward Nevada.
My son, who was driving, hugged the right lane at 70 mph out of self-defense while drivers in the left lane zoomed past at 90 or 100 mph, only inches from the concrete barrier.
The posted speed limit was 60.
Driving here took nerves of steel, which, coincidentally, is the title of an annual survey of rude and aggressive driving habits compiled by The Steel Alliance, a coalition of 110 companies and organizations affiliated with the steel industry. It's an annual report with the self-serving goal of emphasizing how important it is to have a good steel frame to protect you from the perils of the road, but the results are worth noting.
This was the first year the survey included Salt Lake City among its 20 metropolitan areas. We didn't do so well.
That's a bit of an understatement, actually. This area, known for its easy-going lifestyles and quiet streets, scored an overall grade of D in terms of safety and came in 10th in terms of rudeness.
The survey concluded that 59 percent of Salt Lakers drive at least 10 mph over the speed limit and 62 percent drive desperately through yellow lights. One in five of us waits until the last possible second to merge into traffic.
In addition, a third of Salt Lake drivers honk at other drivers, 17 percent tailgate and 13 percent will speed up behind a car and flash their high beams as a signal to get out of the way.
But the place we were heading, Los Angeles, scored even worse. Nearly half the people there talk on a cell phone, without a headset, while negotiating freeway traffic, while 14 percent read a book or a magazine and a whopping 62 percent eat a Whopper or some other meal. The report refers to this as "multi-tasking." As long as we're using computer analogies, it sounds to me more like trying to multi-task with a high-speed processor É while sitting outside in a rain storm with the computer's cover off. This isn't driving, it's Russian Roulette.
The survey is not scientific. Its findings are based on random telephone interviews with licensed drivers in each city. But it strikes a chord with everyone who has sat behind a wheel. We don't really know which cities contain the rudest drivers. We can't say from this survey whether Salt Lake City really ranks 10th. But we all have personal anecdotes to offer in the debate. And the ones we in Utah have to offer sound quite similar to the ones offered everywhere else.
Charlotte ranked the best overall in terms of rudeness and safety. That prompted this from Don Hudson, a columnist with the Charlotte Observer:
"We cut through neighborhoods to save time. We treat highway work zones like a challenge. And when Gov. Mike Easley came to the region two weeks ago, he borrowed Jimmie Johnson's race car and wrecked it at a speed over 120 mph. É Safe? I'm not buying."
No one who rolls on asphalt day after day will confess to feeling totally safe. But that isn't the most troubling aspect of this, or any of a number of similar surveys. The most troubling aspect is that we each recognize a part of ourselves in the results. Without showing hands, how many of us have gone 10 mph over the speed limit, or waited until the last minute to merge? How many of us are decent, caring souls in person but become monsters behind the wheel who treat other cars as passionless lumps of steel?
This isn't a problem unique to the present generation. I'm sure it didn't take long after Henry Ford's first assembly-line products rolled out of the factory until drivers were cutting each other off and honking.
But the problem is getting worse, and we ought to be concerned. Not long after arriving safely in Los Angeles, I found a story in the L.A. Times about how collisions had tripled along the Las Vegas route since construction began. The culprit was speed. But at its root, the problem is best described as one of selfishness. Like bigoted Archie Bunkers, we are too busy looking out for No. 1.
An estimated 44,000 people will die on the nation's highways this year. That's much more than from terrorism, SARS or any other plague we obsess over. We ought to be paying more attention.
Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com.