Elf Sternberg

There's a portion of First Avenue that twists and turns as it follows the topography of Puget Sound, descending from the town of Burien into the marina district. It's two-lane and many drivers take it far too fast. Yesterday, during a dark and rainy afternoon, I saw the consequences: in one of the most twisty parts, an SUV and a Honda Accord had had a brief one-third head-on encounter.

I must have arrived within minutes of the accident; traffic was not yet backed up appreciably. Nobody seemed injured; both cars had airbags and the damage wasn't that great, so my guess is that one car was waiting for a turn. It looked as if the Accord driver had gone over the line and hit the SUV.

Already, several cars had pulled over to render assistance or provide witnesses. Remarkably, several people had already broken open emergency kits from the backs of their cars and deployed flares. Even more remarkably, two men were already directing traffic, controlling access to the one remaining lane back and forth. Neither could see the other around the bend, so they were using cell phones.

As a fully realized rational instance of Homo Economicus, I wondered why. After all, there's nothing in it for these people. They don't get any rational benefit at all from participating. Their economic value isn't improved; nor, really, does their social value increase in any appreciable way. The others are strangers, unlikely to be encountered ever again. These strangers burn resources and decrease their long-term prospects by participating in these acts.

I almost wanted to shout out my window, "Go home! You're just wasting your precious time here!" But then, that would have not been a rational use of my resources. Also, given that those people were clearly not rational themselves, the reaction to my stimuli would also not have been rational or predictable. Best to play it safe, then. Just move along.