Courteous To Whom?

On a short 8-minute drive to work today, I saw two applications of courteousness that left me scratching the bald spot of my head. For those that don't know me, that's the top-most portion.

First, a long stop light had piled up two lanes of waiting vehicles for a couple minutes. A trash truck arrives at a driveway in the middle of the lines just as the light turns. I knew what was going to happen, and it did: the vehicle just short of the driveway lets the truck in. How nice. Except the inconvenience to a host of vehicles in both lanes (since the truck couldn't turn just into the near lane). The flow of traffic was disrupted and some of the vehicles that had "did their time" did not get through the stop light. The good of the one outweighed the good of the many... The trash truck could have pulled out after waiting only 20 seconds. And it would not have been stopped at the light, as it was turning right before the light. The "courteous" person had a negative effect on several drivers, and provided only a slight benefit to one.

I know, if we were all more courteous, this would be a better place, but it's not an absolute. This beneficiary of this kind act didn't need it: not struggling, not infirm or elderly, or an emergency vehicle. Have you ever sat behind the courteous person at a 4-way stop and wonder how the person ever gets anywhere? Two cars from each of the other directions go and you are still honking to get the courteous person to consider YOU. That's the best part of courtesy for these people: only those in front of you are worthy of it.

The second situation was a vehicle stopped suddenly to allow another vehicle to merge in. Unfortunately, another vehicle was speeding up to get through an amber light at the intersection right behind the courteous driver. The trailing vehicle had to lock 'em up to avoid rear-ending the nice driver. Sure, the trailing driver should not have sped through the intersection, but this highlights that we have responsibilities to all around us, not just the ones we see ahead of us. There are times to be courteous, and there are times to do the predictable thing for public safety purposes.

Grrrr....