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Character isn't so much about what you believe, as it is about how you train. People will say they believe anything, but it's what we actually practice that makes a difference.

Behold, then - and fear - the way many Albuquerqueans train during the morning rush hours, at the turnoff from I-40 eastbound to I-25 northbound. It's just like pushing a superset at the gym, except that instead of strengthening their delts, abs and hamstrings, a lot of motorists are exercising their inner sociopaths.

The turnoff is the biggest oversight of the Big I reconstruction project.

It's a major route used by underserved West-Side drivers to get to the jobs, stores and fun centers in northeast Albuquerque. It's also just a single lane - along which drivers routinely back way up, waiting to make the turn. Worse, other drivers - legitimately - have to merge into the lane from Interstate on-ramps or cross it to get to I-40 eastbound or I-25 southbound.

It's chaotic. It's also an opportunity to practice cheating, road rage and other beloved narcissisms, day after day. Given the chance to do something bad, some knucklehead always will take it. Unfortunately, a lot of knuckleheads live here.

So dirtbags and decent motorists who make the turn have a clear, ethical choice every workday.

They can either queue up, at the earliest opportunity, for the turnoff and slog along in line with the rest of the long-suffering, law-abiding folk. Or they can save themselves a little agro by driving along I-40 eastbound and taking cuts, merging into the lane at the last possible moment - which they do, repeatedly, with relish.

The worst offenders speed all the way to the no-man's land at the front of the line, turn abruptly right without signaling, stir up clouds of dust and gravel and shriek into the tiniest spaces between cars - sucks for you. Slightly less-aggressive offenders will cut into spaces that open a few yards shy of the front, without signaling - or they signal, pretending to want to make a right, but roll past open spaces looking for a better deal farther down the road.

Decent drivers are left to watch bad behavior rewarded and good behavior punished - bad examples, both.

It's one thing for the city to endure its many crummy drivers. It's quite another to open public training courses where they can practice, day after day, being bad with declining guilt. Surely that practice makes it easier to cut other, ethical corners.

Not much can be done, physically, to repair the situation, given the configuration. Oddly, though, I don't mind driving through this ethical gym. You can train to be responsible, generous and mellow there, too. Many do.

However, I'd like to see the incentives raised for the good choices - just to make the contest a little more fair.

It would be incredibly dangerous for police officers to set up near the turn. But I can't think of a better stretch for a network of red-light cameras.