From Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream:
In the suburbs, time normally spent in the physical public realm is now spent in the automobile, which is a private space as well as a potentially sociopathic device. The average American, when placed behind the wheel of a car, ceases to be a citizen and becomes instead a motorist. As a motorist, you cannot get to know your your neighbor, because the prevailing relationship is competitive. You are competing for asphalt, and if you so much as hesitate or make a wrong move, your neighbor immediately punishes you, by honking the horn, taking your space, running into you, or committing some other antisocial act, the most egregious of which have been well documented. Like drinking, driving has become a well-worn excuse for all sorts of rudeness and aggression – “It couldn’t be helped; he cut me off.” The social contract is voided. Why this is so is worthy of further study. Suffice to say that only rarely do two pedestrians gesture violently at each other as they pass.
When I read the passage, I couldn’t help but think of this:
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