Washington, DC - a maddening place to live
I’ve lived in the DC metro for almost 3 months, and once thing that is continually reinforced is how much ego people who live here have, really an over inflated sense of self-importance. The best way to typify this is though the driving culture. I’ve driven in several cities and countries - France is by far the nicest driving culture I’ve experienced - and DC is just chaotic, underscored by this egotistic sense that everyone seems to have that they, and they alone, are the most important and entitled people on the road. I’ve been in the vehicle with a white, male DC driver who believed it was their duty to “teach others’ lessons” - scary as that sounds.
The first is, around 8:30pm, I was getting out of an Uber in the loading zone in front of my apartment building. This seemed to be terribly inconvenient for a lone white, male driver. He proceeded to honk loudly and long - as DC drivers are want to do. He has his window down, and I say calmly: “It’s alright; you’re okay. No one is hurting you.” He proceeds to give me the “up yours” sign, put his tongue entirely outside of his mouth, and shake it vigorously at me.
The second is, high noon, at a marked pedestrian crossing right above my apartment window, I witness 2 pedestrians crossing well within a safe distance of a car, that proceeds to speed up, and honk at them - not like a little beep, HOOOOONNNNKKK. It is a legal requirement for cars to stop for pedestrians at the marked crossing; there’s even signs directing so. But get this! After the car honks at the pedestrians, the white guy in the crossing RUNS AT the car and spits on it... Had I not observed this with mine own eyes, I might not have believed it.
These people, in and out of their cars, are driven by such a sense of self-importance, it is an absolutely maddening place to live.
