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I’ve now been on the road in Israel for a few months, something I was fairly certain I would never do. And I’ve been through the ringer.
I’ve tried parking in places way too small, while dozens of cars are honking behind me.
I’ve gotten trapped in an intersection after the light changes, forcing me out into no man’s land while enduring the arrogant and angry stares of all passersby, acting as if it’s never happened to them before.
And I’ve gotten caught in standstill traffic for an hour because an accident occurred and in all the melee and confusion, no one thought it might be a good idea to try to regulate the cars coming through on the side where the accident happened.
The Adventure of the Road
Yes, every minute is an adventure when you drive in this crazy country. Anything can happen, and usually does. There’s not a single moment where you get to relax and enjoy the experience. Your senses need to be turned up nice and high, or before you know it, you’ll be a statistic on the side of the road.
It’s not fun. But if observed carefully, the Israel motor vehicle adventure can be a fine way to observe human behavior, and learn a little more about what makes some humans better than others.
In some ways, the horrendous driving is a microcosm of some of the worst character traits I see here. If you do any of these things, it’s worth thinking long and hard about what it means about you.
Selfishness, the Checkpoint Way
The first is like this:
There are three lanes of cars lining up at a checkpoint in Gush Etzion. Everything is inching along at a snail’s pace. Several dozen cars are patiently hanging out in their lanes.
Then, from out of nowhere another vehicle appears right at the front of the line, trying to push their way into the mess of cars without the annoying wait the rest of us need to endure. At some point someone lets them in, not because of desire to help another but because the car has inserted itself so forcefully that not doing so might risk a nasty scratch on their vehicle.
This embodies the negative character trait of selfishness.
What kind of person thinks they’re so damn important they get to bypass everyone else, and everyone else’s discomfort, just so they can save some time and go first?
That’s the kind of person who might rip you off in a store because you have money in your pocket and they want it. They might treat you like hell in a government office, because they like to be moody and rude to those around them, and are uninterested in the possibility they might ruin someone else’s day.
Don’t be like these people. It sucks to wait behind a long line of cars. But it’s right. It’s fair. You’re not more important than everybody else. Just be patient and you’ll eventually make it to the other side. Yes, it will take a long time. Better to be trapped behind a dozen cars than to be an awful human being.
Patience, the Uncommon Virtue
And whereas selfishness is a lousy character trait, patience is and will always be a virtue.
The classic situation in Israel is the light turns green, and someone behind you is already slamming on their horn. Sure, it’s annoying. But it’s not the end of the world. And after a while, you can learn to just laugh it off.
Slightly less common is when the light turns green, but someone is blocking the path from the other direction and now the cars can’t move. If done knowingly, it’s a pretty lousy thing to do. And another example of the aforementioned selfishness.
But sometimes accidents happen, and you find yourself very uncomfortably stuck in an intersection after the light changes.
Regardless of the cause, for the moment I’m focused on the three dozen cars that will respond to the situation by blaring their horns. Incessantly. What do they expect to happen? Will their horn magically make the car float up and away and no longer block the road? Will it send a poignant message to the offender that they’ve hurt others and cost them an abundance of time?
Nope. All it will do is create noise. Somewhere on that street is a nurse sleeping after a nightshift. Or a newborn baby. And because you can’t stomach not letting off your anger through your horn, no one gets to rest that day.
The Weaving Menace
But there’s an even worse person in the mix. Because whereas the horn is annoying and potentially detrimental to someone’s rest, the weaver is a menace, and can cause real damage.
The weaver–one who is zipping down the road way too fast, switching lanes left and right to get in front of any car he can– is the real enemy of the Israel driving experience, combining the aforementioned impatience and selfishness, with a reckless nature that keeps the roads both stressful and extremely unsafe.
There was one day fairly recently in which I watched a weaver zig zag through the roads like life had no consequences, all to get that sweet, sweet advantage of being in front of just one more vehicle.
At best this type of driving will ultimately save the driver just a few minutes here and there on a crowded street. At worst it will do nothing for them at all. I saw that same driver, that imp who blazed his way through the streets without a care in the world, sitting right in front of me at a red light. His bobbing and weaving didn’t even work in the long run. He ended up ahead of some cars… and moments later was right beside them once again.
But it’s even worse than that!
Your Needs Don’t Come First
That road had accidents every day. One of those accidents caused me well over an hour of standstill traffic. When I finally passed it, there was broken pieces of multiple vehicles all over the road.
Accidents like that don’t usually happen when the drivers collectively choose to drive safely. They happen when someone puts their own needs above those of the community, and drives dangerously because it suits their wishes.
But that day it didn’t work. That day they caused themselves extreme delay, and others excessive misery. And they did it to multiple others as well. And on top of that, caused an aggregate of several days of wasted time, when you consider the length of the delay and the amount of cars it impacted.
Your inane need to be in front of another car caused pain and hardship to yourself and countless other people.
Don’t be like this guy.
Don’t be like any of these people!
