That which we learn from storm...

[K. Darien Freeheart]

Okay, I'm shamelessly ripping this from my blog, because I wrote quite a bit about it there and didn't wanna write it over again. It's a bit wordy, but so am I. 

***

Yesterday afternoon my wife sent me an instant message that said "It's looking like a hurricane here! It's dark as night and really windy, be prepared, it's moving your way." For clarity sake, my wife works 50 miles east of where I work, and we both work about 50 miles south of where we live, forming a triangle.

As the storm rolled past her and over me, I didn't think too much of it having experienced storms all of my life. The people around me tend to overreact to storm, however, and there was commotion and bustle which got me out of work, so I'm not exactly complaining.

Come that evening, I decided to get pizza from an out-of-the-way pizza place. It's a place that makes wonderful calzone style sub sandwiches. The chain is from Michigan, where I grew up, but they have franchises around the region. There are a few stores, located several hundred miles away from each other, that have "migrated"; typically as someone from Michigan moved into other areas and missed the chain.

The store is located about 10 or 12 miles southeast of the highway I take on my commute home, so going there tends to be a "special" occasion. Nothing was particularly special about last night, but I was feeling in a good mood and wanted a ham and cheese sub, so I went for it. Traffic to the highway was pretty bad because of the storm and on the George Washington parkway I passed no less than three cars that had been crushed when a downed tree fell onto bumper-to-bumper traffic.

As I was exiting the highway towards the pizza place, I noticed it was unusually dark. For a few seconds I attributed it to the tail-end of the thunderstorm but as I drove closer into the city I realized the area had no electricity. This was more and more apparent as it moved from a single apartment complex to storefront after dark storefront.

There's some kind of strange, primative feeling that settled over me then, a stark reminded that electricity hasn't always existed. I suddenly realized that every movie I've watched about "colonial times" included the odd, persistent "glow" that everything surrounding a major metropolitan area takes. The same luminescence that gives the night sky an orange-red glow. Some call it "light pollution" but that's similar in my mind to calling the Mona Lisa "color pollution". People like light, and it has a purpose.

Anyway, as I'm driving closer and closer to some central streets in Gaithersburg, I realized something else. My drive was very smooth, which is not normally the case in metro cities.

And then I noticed why.

With no electricity, there were no streetlights.

Now, I'm normally a safe driver, having logged hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of miles (a former professional driver) with no accidents at all. I took my drivers test in over a foot of snow, so it's not always been the greatest conditions either. I'm well aware that other drivers aren't as comfortable behind the wheel as I am.

Another thing to help set the scene is that many American have busy lives, and more so when you get into the city. Gaithersburg is not exactly a "large" city, but in the metro DC area the end of one city is the beginning of another. It could be considered the outer rim of "Washington DC" which means it's decidedly "busy" in it's own right. Gaithersburg residents are busy Americans, which means a large number of them "eat out" at night – what we say when we buy a meal prepared by someone else, usually a restaurant. When the electricity goes out, most people don't have a way to cook food if they have food at all. Normally, you'd get in the car and drive to a local place that has food, but the power was out for a <b>lot</b> of people. This was, after all, a large storm.

So we're talking a large, fairly urban area full of people who must leave the city and go to a city "a few cities" away in order to eat dinner. This means a lot of people were on the road at that moment, most all heading in my general direction; towards the highway.

The notion of rainy, nighttime roads, several thousand cars and no traffic control devices is enough to send chills down my wife's spine, but it was perhaps one of the greatest affirmations of human capacity, and indeed a serious validation of my voluntaryist perspective.

Without the artificial means many people are used to blindly obeying, traffic was moving more efficiently than it normally does. There were no people sitting idle at red lights because the light was red. People with no light pulled to the line, came to a stop, evaluated if they could make the turn safely, and did if they could.

Three lane roads that meet at a 4-way stop worked well too. Rather than sitting in your middle lane as the empty lane next to you had a green arrow, people going in any direction came to a stop, evaluated the situation and acted. In some cases, I noticed a flash of headlights to communicate with other drivers or a wave of the hand to say "Go ahead".

Free of the lights and signs most people are so accustomed to, there was still order. Free of arbitrary rules, human thought and evaluation created efficiency.

There are very few things more powerful than what I saw last night – because my eyes were open to it I've experienced one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. It was moving in a way that putting words to can't quite describe.

There is no better testament to human capability than seeing order arise when everyone in that situation is obviously treading unfamiliar ground.

What does it take to get this? It takes something jarring before people "wake up". Watching normal drivers on any given day I see people too confidant, those who will speed through an intersection knowing "the other guy" "has" to stop. Too many people who drive aggressively because they "know" they have the "right of way". It takes a removal of "all the rules" to remind people that they are responsible for themselves. It takes darkness and uncertainty before they really become aware that they're in control of a ton of metal and enough energy to move that ton of metal at 60 miles per hour. To really make them aware that a press of their foot can send, or stop, their vehicle towards other people doing the same.

It takes people who refuse to blindly follow the direction of a sign, a light or a line. It takes people using critical thinking skills and being responsible. It takes a little bit of uncertainty, concern and respect for other people.

The benefits of this were efficiency. I looked up Gaithersburg on Wikipedia and I see that the metro area has roughly 5 million people in it. I recall that UPS, the parcel delivery company, saved millions of dollars by routing their deliveries to remove left turns.

How much oil might have been saved if all of those 5 million people idled at a red light for 2 seconds less every time they drove to or from work? How much might have been saved if the power went out like that three of four times a year?

When I advocate voluntaryism, I'm often met with fears of chaos. I'm met with fears of chaos at the hands of other human beings. For the longest time, I've held my views with a bit of skepticism – belief with no concrete proof. Until last night. Today, I awoke for the first time confidant and sure that humanity has the capacity to operate without having some government put signs and lights directing their lives every few hundred yards. Today I awoke knowing that human beings, myself and those around me, could operate responsibly. Today I saw on a the "chaos" that the skeptical fear and use government to shield themselves from.

I am vindicated and reaffirmed by yesterday. The only damage to travelers I saw yesterday were victims of trees, not lack of regulation.

[Kat Kanning]

Great story!  Can I print that?

[margomaps]

Eeeww!!  You live in Maryland??   

Seriously though, I enjoyed reading that.  I hope you move to NH soon though, and I hope you and your wife don't end up working 50 miles from your home! 

[Pat K]

 

[KBCraig]

Free of the lights and signs most people are so accustomed to, there was still order. Free of arbitrary rules, human thought and evaluation created efficiency.

For the exact opposite experience, I suggest driving in Rome. The rules are many, and complex, and enforced as well as the harried Polizia can manage (after taking their cut). The result is the traffic version of what most people wrongly think of as anarchy.

I've experienced just what Kevin (the other Kevin) described. Not just in traffic, but also delivery of goods, services, and charity. Starting Christmas Eve of 2000, we experienced a massive ice storm throughout this four-state area. Millions were with no power for days, up to 4 weeks in some areas. Even here in my nice suburban subdivision, I had no electricity for 14 days. Many of us worked our regular jobs, then another 8-10 hours clearing limbs and brush for our friends and neighbors and anyone else who needed help. I had gas hot water, so I could enjoy hot showers. Others were all-electric, including their well pumps, so they took sponge baths from melted snow.

Refrigeration wasn't a problem for a few days. This is a small urban area, but folks here mostly come from country roots. They still garden, hunt, fish, and preserve food. And they take care of their neighbors. Freezers and pantries were opened, propane and and wood stoves were fired up, and people were fed.

And the traffic flowed smoothly. 

Kevin

[K. Darien Freeheart]

Great story!  Can I print that?

Thank you, I'd be honored! (And guilty... I haven't donated the Nh Free Press yet... I'll correct that later today.)

Eeeww!!  You live in Maryland??

Yes. I'm not to happy with that arrangement either.

I hope you move to NH soon though

Working on it. A year from today is totally possible, so I'm scrounging where I can, doing what I can to move that date forward. I'd ideally love to be there by the end of this year but I'm not the only one calling shots around here. 

I hope you and your wife don't end up working 50 miles from your home!

I read somewhere that NH has the highest number of printing facilities per capita than any other geo/political region in the world. If that's true, my wife couldn't be more at home. Seldom does a person know in middle school what their "passion" in life is... My wife's is printing. Go figure.

[Ron Helwig]

In Minnesota, where the on-ramps in the Twin Cities are controlled by traffic lights monitored at a central station, one of the state reps managed to get a study done.

For two weeks they turned off the lights at selected on-ramps. The first couple of days were a bit messier than usual. After that it got much better. IIRC they had to stop the study before the time was up because it was too embarrassing. Eventually, they "adjusted" the system, changing the frequency of green lights at some on-ramps. They just couldn't come to accept that the system wasn't needed so they "tweaked" it and claimed that the study had "improved" their knowledge and control.