Driving, or to be precise, riding, in Germany is terrifying sometimes. You forget after time the speed you can drive at until the utter danger is presented to you and you think ‘Oh my goodness, this could be it’.
I usually get sweaty hands and clench my jaw. But something else I do is press my foot down to the brake, well the imaginary brake. It is one of my worst nightmares, and I have had it, to be in a car (driving) and unable to stop it, despite using the brake. So when I feel like the brake needs to be pressed, my food instantly presses the imaginary one.
I do not mind driving, however, the speed is so scary. It would be alright in a world where only we existed, or even in a world where people were all like us. OR in a world where people stayed on the right, because that is where a huge problem lies. In Germany people are better about it, but it would make my life a lot better if they were a lot better at it.
So please, stay on the right unless you are passing.
I mean you can never prepare yourself for an unexpected death. But in those moments you become acutely aware of the fact that you are in a metal box on wheels, just like the feeling I get when we land a plane (metal long box with smaller wheels a lot like a paper airplane).
I do not know how to end this post. The speed is fine and tons of people do it, I mean this is the country for speed.
I guess what scares me is not speed, but is the unpredictability of people. They do stupid things and you cannot stop it and all you can do is try to react quickly enough. Speed did not kill people, other people killed them. In essence.
So perhaps this fear is not a fear of cars, or speed, but more a metaphor for life, and how scary people (and their unpredictability) can be.