I live in a section of the city where the streets are set up in a perpendicular grid. On average, the blocks running east-west are about 300 feet long, while those running north-south are about 500 feet long. So either way, the blocks are relatively short.

Also, at each intersection there are either four way stop signs or, for the busier intersections, traffic lights. Thus, for the most part, drivers need to come to a stop every 300 feet when traveling east or west and every 500 feet when traveling north or south.

Additionally, most of the area is residential, with only a few of the major east-west streets being mixed commercial and residential.

So why am I telling you this? I’m hoping that someone out there can explain something to me that I find very perplexing.

Why, when drivers know that every 300 to 500 feet, they will need to come to a full stop, would some of them — a lot of them, actually — stomp on the gas and peel away from a stop sign only to have to slam on the brakes just a few hundred feet down the road at the next intersection?

Why would anyone, particularly with the price of a gallon of gas being what it is (which, where I live, is about $3.35), do that? Do these idiots have money to burn? Is that why they burn rubber?