I used to live in a country on the other side of the world – actually it was Brazil in the old days.

Brazilian men all thought they were racing drivers, and tried to prove it every day. There was a six-lane expressway through the city, but macho men would only use the fast lane, so the slow lane was usually empty and the last to fill up during traffic jams. Then the slow lane was the fast lane.

And what traffic jams! People pushed into any available space, making extra lanes or even going into the opposing lanes. There was one small street that had unofficial “tidal flow” – in the morning the rush hour traffic occupied all the lanes and made it one way, and in the evening, the same thing happened in the other direction.

The government put up a lot of “No U Turn” signs, but people ignored them. My friend even said: “Those signs are great. Now I don’t have to slow down looking for where to U-turn, I just slam on the brakes when I get to the sign.”

I asked my friend “You must know that pushing into gaps won’t really speed up the journey, it will slow everyone down. Why do you all do it?” “You foreigners don’t understand,” my friend replied. “Of course we would like to get there quickly, but that’s not the most important thing. The important thing is to get there before HIM – the guy sitting in the next car. And if we push into the gap, at least we will beat him.”
Isn’t it an odd world that we live in?