Diversity Traffic

Since our nation celebrated the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday Monday, I have had several conversations on diversity, -isms, race, inequality, and justice this week.

One of the best descriptions of the real way to divide the population was not found in a religious text, political paper, or even public policy statement, but in a book about driving. Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says About Us) was a book I picked up after hearing an interview on NPR. I don’t read many books on “design, technology and science,” but I was hooked. The author, Tom Vanderbilt, says early in the book that there are two kinds of people: early mergers and late mergers. The first set of drivers sees a sign announcing that the left lane will end and dutifully gets into the right lane. The late mergers stay in the ending lane until they reach the actual end of the lane and work in ahead of the line by any means possible.

Traffic science is complex, but the value judgement is that the early mergers are committed to waiting in line, taking their turn and following procedure, while the late mergers are tagged as greedy, hurried folks who just want to get ahead in any way possible. The value judgement is that some drivers are committed to the common good even when that means self-sacrifice and that others that are all in with self-interest.

There is really no “right” answer for when to merge, and at times both behaviors have their merits. Traffic engineers reveal all sorts of data-supported truths that do not match the perceptions of drivers…note I said “perceptions.” For instance, EZ-Pass lanes cause more accidents (people dart more). And who knew that an ambulance with lights and sirens speeding through traffic is safer than the same ambulance driving without a patient in regular traffic (the driver focuses more with the crisis)? Contrary to the myth about women drivers, twice as many men are killed in traffic accidents every year. (You can speculate on that reason yourself.)

I have remembered this analogy for several years now. I am still a committed early merger because I am, for better and for worse, a rule follower. But I can no longer be self-righteous about any direct effect on the common good. It turns out that to be the best driver you can be, you need to pay attention, avoid distractions, get enough rest, avoid alcohol and other substances, and take as few risks as possible. That there are really more than two categories of late mergers and early mergers…and beer drinking, divorced doctors are a very high risk group regardless of when they move over.

When we talk about race, diversity and injustice, too often we divide people into two categories; when in reality there are many categories, and we all have many lenses. All of us have agendas and character flaws. We all have perceptions that are flat out wrong, and we want to be right more often than we want to listen. We all err on the side of proving the other wrong rather than risking our own perceptions. In traffic it turns out that the safer the cars become, the more risks the drivers take. In talking about race and diversity, the more systemic oppression becomes and the more generations of assumptions that compound, the more risk we need to take.

There are no “right” answers for systemic racism but only constant vigilance over our roles and how we allow culture, religion, and economics sustain it. Please take a risk to confront assumptions you make about others and enter into relationships with grace. Be about the work of ending injustice which is more about relationships and truth than perceptions and value judgements.

Blessed are the peacemakers, Amen.  Peace, Stephanie