for. real.

i have been doing a lot of pedestrian action for the last probably 10 years, and that slow style of commute lets me see exactly what the hell car drivers are doing. i thought it was fucked 5+ years ago already, because i would almost get hit by someone (usually once or twice a week) by a driver who was on their phone. just looking one way, gabbing, and about to run over me while i'm in the crosswalk with the signal. or witness a near collision where the cause was someone driving while on their phone. because so many of these people were on the goddamn phone.

now it's everybody.

this story was related to me by someone being super charitable: i had a dumbass family member "get into a fender bender" where they "rear ended someone" and it "totalled the car". Unreliable Narrator Mode Activated.

i said, "sounds like it was their fault if they hit someone from behind." and the story was relayed, "all of a sudden they looked up and cars were stopped and blammo."

because on the fucking phone.

the immediate environment, the climate, the biosphere, the deteriorating geopolitical situation around oil, the fossil capital formations and the political economy that protects it... there are so many reasons to get away from reliance on cars, but seriously self-preservation should be the one that spurs americans to at least try and make different choices. the highways and roads are fucking thunderdome.