Shared Space

I have lived in places with tight road ways and in places with lots of space.

The roads in my current neighborhood are narrow and curvy with the added challenge of steep hills.  Most of the drivers have trouble understanding that they have more room on the right and tend to drive more in the middle this shared space.  I have learned that the cars traveling up the hill have the right of way or the courtesy way over the driver coming down the hill.  Why is that you might ask?  It dates to a time when horses were the primary mode of transportation.  A horse moving down the hill can stop and start up again with less effort.  A horse climbing the hill has to stop, adjust to the weight of the carriage, and struggle to start up again after losing momentum.

Why, you might ask, is he writing about this?

I was wanting to understand the difference in human interaction at play between my previous farming community and my present community.

While living in a small farming community dominated by narrow roads, I found the interaction between drivers was easier to negotiate and far more pleasant.   Uniformly, the experience of driving  in that farming community was a pleasant recognition as we drove past each other.  There was a wave to the oncoming driver, flashed our lights in acknowledgment or in some other way recognized that they were another human sharing the road.  A recognition that they were existing in the same shared space.

In my new tighter community circumstance, I find a universal lack of recognition and even a certain amount belligerence as we drive by each  other in our shared space.  Antagonism if, god forbid, they would have to stop or make room for me to pass by.  It is the mistaken belief that the road is theirs and accommodation is never needed?  If even there was such feeling it is the lack of any acknowledgment which is curious.   Most drivers look straight ahead ignoring the possibility of human interaction.  There is no eye contact.  On the offhand chance they do look my way, it is a look of disapproval.  Should I be so audacious as to be using the road at the same time?  Perhaps it is the expectation that I should  drive my car over the embankment to provide them a little more space.

No matter where you are, what you do, or who you believe in, we are still humans occupying the same shared space.  Seems at this  time we need to find a way to share that space with courtesy and perhaps even a friendly smile.

Can we find some space for compassion, warmth and consideration in a world of narcissism, rapacity, and avarice?  Seems to me a little wave and a smile would be an easy bar to achieve as I drive by on our narrow curvy roads.