Monday, 1/8

I have, on occasion, talked about things I see or details I notice when I'm out walking here and there. Well, today I wanna talk about one of those things I see. Specifically, I wanna talk about one thing I see all the time--

Acceleratorists.

Pardon the made-up word “acceleratorist”, but I couldn't think of anything else to describe the people I see several times a day except “acceleratorist”. These are the drivers I see speeding up to a stop sign or a stop light, hammering their brakes before coming to a complete stop, then flooring it when they start again, continuing the cycle at the next stop light or stop sign.

“Acceleratorists”. It's what you get when you have a fetish for accelerator pedal. And that's how I came up with the word.

Now, I know I'm not a normal person, especially when it comes to driving, but I don't get what acceleratorists are doing. Why would I want to speed up to a stop sign, come to a complete stop, then speed up as fast as possible from a dead stop, only to come to a complete stop again in a few blocks when coming to another stop? I'm kind of sure it's not good on your car, I KNOW for sure it causes you to burn through gas a lot quicker than a smooth, steady acceleration, and I'm guessing that you save very few, if any, seconds in your day by doing it.

I just don't get it.

Ever since I've noticed people doing this, I've tried to see if there's a certain “type” that becomes an acceleratorist. But much to my surprise, I haven't been able to. It seems like every demographic subset is represented. I've seen men do it, I've seen women do it, I've seen people in small cars do it, and I've seen people in pickup trucks do it. I've seen people do it in the morning, during the day, and at night. There doesn't seem to be any defining characteristic to an acceleratorist.

They just seem to be everywhere.

Like I said before, I'm in no position to judge acceleratorists. I don't drive (much), and I have no idea why they're doing what they're doing. After all, they may have a good reason for it. All I know is that, on those rare occasions when I do drive, I don't drive like that. Of course, that's just me.

You know—the me who see things, and finds things, while I'm walking everywhere instead of driving.

(jim@wmqt.com)