Road rage in old-time Phoenix


All of my adult life cars have been safe and secure places. That is, solid construction, windows that rolled up, doors that locked. It's what I call the "Lion Country Safari Effect" - once someone is inside of a vehicle they're safe. The car that I learned to drive on, a '73 Ford Torino, would have been safe to drive through a bunch of angry lions, and possibly could have taken some hits from a rhino. And all of this safety has created an interesting effect, which is that people feel safe to act inside of these vehicles in a way that they would probably never do so outside of them.

I've seen a lot of road rage in my life. By the time I got to Phoenix, in 1977, it was already pretty common for people to express their displeasure with other drivers, from the safety of their vehicle, with the windows rolled up, and the doors locked. The "one finger salute" was common, and I still see a lot of it nowadays, if you can see through deeply tinted windows in the very safe and solid vehicles common in Phoenix. And so naturally now I'm thinking about road rage in old-time Phoenix.

Let's time-travel back to 1912, and see some road rage in Phoenix. I'll drive. We're in the latest model Ford. Let's see, where's the clutch? OK, here we go.

I've been driving for a while now and I think I know the hand signals. You hold out your hand to indicate a left turn, you hold your hand up to indicate a right turn, and you hold your hand down to indicate stop, right? Oops, I should have done a different signal there!

What is that person over there doing? He's shaking his fist and shouting at me. Of course he's not using the "one finger salute" - that would have made no sense in 1912, but I can tell he's mad, real mad. Hang on a second, I'll stop here and get out and see what the problem is.

As a courtesy, I take off my hat, and mumble some apologies about the bad turn I made back there. But he's already gone, took off like a scared jackrabbit!

As you can tell by the pic up there, cars weren't really "Lion Country Safari" safe in 1912. Speaking for myself, I may not be the biggest man in town, but I'm a man, about six feet tall (which is how most guys who are 5' 10" describe themselves), kinda wide at the shoulder and narrow at the hip, and have always driven small sports cars. I've known a lot of people who have actually believed that they were their vehicle, and when they got out, they looked like Yosemite Sam, a belligerent little character from cartoons I used to watch as a kid. My best guess about road rage in old-time Phoenix is that there would have been a lot less of it, considering that someone could just reach into your car, and lift you up by your collar.

Thank you for not having road rage today!
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