So I took this fencing class in college.

There's a term in fencing: right-of-way. I can't remember the original French term and I can't find it immediately on the web, and since it doesn't really move the story along I'm going to stick with the English.

Anyway, right-of-way works like this: You've got two people fencing at any given time. Only one of them is allowed to score a hit at any time, so in case there are two simultaneous hits registered the judge(s) will determine who had the right-of-way and award them the point.

Now. You get right-of-way by starting your attack. That's pretty much it. If the two of you are standing still on the pitch and one of you lowers the tip of his or her blade and starts moving forward, that person has the right-of-way. The other person is supposed to allow the attack to happen, but is also allowed to parry and riposte - and can score on the riposte. But. If the person on attack doesn't attack, wasting the right-of-way, the person on defense can go ahead and attack anyway, stealing the right-of-way.

So you're probably confused now, wondering what the point is of having right-of-way if the other person can just steal it from you anyway. Which is what brings me to my point.

People around DC seem to drive like a lot of people fence - they take the right-of-way and then they don't do anything with it. Of course, there's no judge out there on the roads to tell you when it's okay to preempt the other person's right-of-way and do your own driving thing. And it's making me batty.

I pass not one but two zebra stripe pedestrian crossings on my way out of the District every morning. The way the law's written, any pedestrian who steps into that crossing has the right-of-way automatically. I usually ignore them because they're doing that urban thing where they don't seem to realize that other people might value their time, and they just sorta stroll leisurely out into the street, oh, somewhere.

So today after blazing past some guy who was on his leisurely stroll in the first crossing, I decided to stop for a guy who seemed to be actually crossing the street in the second one. What did he do? He stopped in the middle of the road and turned around to look the other way entirely, apparently satisfied to be in the middle of a busy street just standing there. Argh.

The driving part wasn't any better, as I saw some guy attempt to signal and change lanes, only to have the minivan in the other lane (with a US Gubmint tag, no less) not give him enough room to get into the lane, but also not speed up to let him get in behind him. The Gubmint van seemed to be willfully blocking this guy from changing lanes. The point? I have no idea. But he did it anyway.

The rest of the drive was more of the same, including the one woman who kept passing me on the right (instead of the left) because, apparently, to pass me on the left would be to admit that she was speeding. So she'd pass me on the right, get stuck, move around behind me, go up and pass somebody else on the right, get stuck, I'd pass her again, lather, rinse, repeat. As I exited I saw her get into the right lane to pass somebody again. All this with not one but two left lanes free.

People are stupid.

(2000-07-07)