It’s Wednesday evening. Tamar, Mark and I are walking down Washington Street, a one-way in Denver, headed for coffee at Pablo’s on 6th Avenue. We hear yelling behind us.
Two cars roll by us side by side and stop at the light at 7th. We hear the driver of the Saturn yelling: “You , I’ll follow you home and kill you!” He screams it two or three times.
We don’t know what the Camry driver did, if he (or she) did anything at all.
The light changes. The Camry turns left. The Saturn continues down Washington. We’re frozen on the sidewalk. We don’t often hear murder threats. We’ve just experienced road rage from 10 feet away.
Tamar and I only ride our bicycles or her scooter or my motorcycle. Mark pedals more than he drives. We like to imagine that most drivers are peaceful folks like us, not homicidal. We have to imagine that, don’t we?
The next morning, I saw a cop in Washington Park. I told him about the guy threatening to “follow you home and kill you.” He shook his head.
“Is it illegal to make threats like that?,” I asked.
“You bet,” he said. “It’s against the law to cause a disturbance or threaten someone. But don’t get involved. If you can jot down the license number and you could describe the driver, call it in and we’ll be right on it.
“If it happens to you,” he continued, “do not drive home. The guy will know where you live. Drive to a public place, a mall or a police station. Most of these guys are satisfied just to yell and gesture. A few try to carry out their threats. No way to tell which guy is which.”
The officer concluded: “Road rage is out of control in Denver.”
That echoes what a Littleton cop told me. He said South Santa Fe Drive is the worst street for road rage in Colorado — four or five incidents a day.
The Littleton Police Department, he said, has two unmarked (but official-looking) white sedans and a white pickup. Huge panels of flashing lights are hidden behind the windshields and back windows. One of them will drive at the speed limit in the right-hand lane. Eventually a car will come up behind. The driver will follow dangerously close and then flash his lights in frustration. He or she passes the police car, 20 miles per hour over the speed limit, flipping “the bird” at the cop. In response, the officer flips on the Vegas Strip light show behind his windshield.
“What are drivers thinking?” I asked the Littleton cop. They’re not, he said. They see straight ahead, not to the sides or behind them. And they’re angry.
Why, I asked the cop in Washington Park, are people so irate?
“Denver’s population,” he said, “has doubled in 20 years. Except for a lane on each side of I-25, the roads are the same.”
Twice the motorized rats in the same old asphalt cage.
People treat others in ways that would’ve been unimaginable just yesterday. We don’t see it in public places so much. But people in cars are acting like spoiled children.
Tamar and I know a young woman who passed her driving test, got her permit, drove once — and then turned in the permit. I’ll pass, she said, and just ride my bike.
Fifteen years later, she’s thinking about a moped or tiny motorized scooter. No license, no plates. You can park on sidewalks. A hundred miles per gallon. They’re everywhere.
I’d say that woman is on the right path. And you?
Please, if you drive, don’t threaten to kill us because we didn’t recognize your ownership of that lane, that street, that parking space. Remember to breathe.
If you walk or use public transit or ride a bicycle or motorbike, Tamar, Mark and I thank you.
Maynard Hershon lives on Capitol Hill. He writes opinion pieces for bicycle and motorcycle magazines.
