Mesmerism

My commute to work lasted only fifteen minutes longer than usual on Tuesday, which is not bad for a rainy day.  I generally take the same route to work, through town instead of on the highway.  The CSX tracks limit my opportunities to cut north to avoid traffic jams so I’ve gotten accustomed to where the pain points will be when traffic builds up. 

I can usually estimate how many cycles of the light it will take for me to cross an intersection based on how far away I am from it when stopped.  However, when it rains, this estimate is much longer than on a normal day.

Some might suggest that this is because drivers are being more careful due to the conditions.  Would that it were true!  One only needs to look at any traffic app on a rainy day and count the number of incidents.  Insurance company statistics bear out that more accidents happen on rainy days than dry.  No, cautious drivers are not the cause of the delays.  This is something altogether different.

I was stopped at a red light, westbound on Memorial drive.    After sitting through a couple of reds, I felt that this next green was the one where I would get through.  The light turned green and traffic started moving.  It took some time for the pickup truck ahead of me to start moving.  Obviously everyone can’t start moving the instant the light turns green.  Also, right turners ahead of us would slow down progress more than someone going straight.  But I saw three cars which were eastbound take a left in front of this truck.  This guy left enough space between himself and the car in front of him to allow this to happen.  This could not have happened if this driver were paying attention. Needless to say we both missed the light.  Since the north-south artery of Moreland Ave. is the more major thoroughfare there, it gets a significantly longer green than the east-west of Memorial.  This driver’s gaffe cost me several minutes.

Why wasn’t this dude paying attention?  Was he texting?  Was he fiddling with his radio?  Was he reading a book?  Why wasn’t this driver paying attention to driving?

I continued on toward the next hotspot, Memorial and Boulevard.  At this intersection I saw something interesting, something that really opened my eyes.

The left turn light always gets the green before those going straight get to go.  I watched a woman, eastbound turning north, sit through much of the green turn light before starting.  She wasn’t texting.  She wasn’t playing with her radio.  She wasn’t talking to someone else in the car.  I could see no visible distractions.  She was looking forward through the windshield as she should have been.    Yet, she seemed transfixed.

I could see it in her face.  “Oh, the light just turned green.  Green…green…green…there’s something I used to do when the light turned green.”  Then, she started driving.

It finally made sense.  Drivers aren’t more careful, nor are they not paying attention during the rain.  No, drivers are being mesmerized during the rain.

What is the cause?  It could be the weather itself.  The soft light of a cloudy day combined with the sounds of the rain may lull you to sleep.  Perhaps it is your car itself.  The perfectly regular motions of your windshield wipers across your windshield may be to blame.  There is a reason why hypnotists choose to use a pocket watch to hypnotize a subject.  It’s not the watch itself that does the work; it is the regular and repeating periodic motion of a pendulum that lulls people into a suggestable state.

Now that we have an hypothesis about the problem and some possible causes, what can we do prevent or at least minimize its effects?  In the case that it is someone else who is mesmerized, the solution is simple: use your horn.  Every car in America comes equipped with a horn.  When you blow your horn, it’s your way of gently saying, “Hey, shit-cock!  Pay fucking attention while you are behind the god-damned wheel!”

But what can one do to mitigate mesmerism to one’s self?  Well, I suggest a multi-pronged approach.  First of all: coffee.  Make sure you’ve had your coffee, or whatever your morning stimulant of choice, prior to driving on a rainy morning.  This will help you to stay awake and alert during your morning commute.  To combat the rhythms of your wipers, I suggest overwhelming them with music.  You can’t just use any songs, though.  So much of music uses a constant rhythm and repeating passages that they will do nothing to counteract hypnotism.  In fact, it might enhance the effects.  Instead I would suggest trying something with odd rhythms and multiple, sometimes jarring, time signature changes.  For someone not used to this type of music I would suggest something entry-level like a Tool album or Mr. Bungle’s Disco Volante.  For the more advanced and adventurous listener, try something busy and discordant  like Cleric, Behold…The Arctopus, or anything by John Zorn.

Consider my suggestions the next time you have a rainy day commute and let’s all work together to get to work on time.