Tuesday, February 21, 2006

February And Road Rage

I can't believe it's February. Well, almost March. And the madness continues. Today's rant - Driving. Everyone knows that traffic conditions are out of hand. The congestion only continues to grow. Driving habits continue to devolve. Traveling the highway to work means going well over the speed limit or having someone cut you off and drive you off the road.

Example, yesterday I get onto the highway, merging into the left hand lane. Check the mirror before I start, no one near. Halfway into the lane some idiot come flying past me, half in my lane, half in the other, honking and beeping then cuts me off. Obviously speeding well over the limit, they're pissed at me!

Fifteen minutes later, similar incident. Merging left. Pickup truck a couple hundred yards behind me. Get into the left hand land and all of a sudden this idiot is beeping and swerving behind me because he didn't slow down when he saw me merging. Then he's next to me yelling and screaming that I need to learn how to drive!

I'll admit, I drive over the speed limit. But I'm always careful about my driving. I try to keep a good distance between myself and the car in front of me. I always signal and look before turning. I don't cut anyone off. I've been to driving school twice in the past 20 years. I know the rules. But there's always some idiot, and there seems to be more and more of them now, that is in a hurry and thinks that they're the only ones on the road. And of course, there never seems to be a cop around when it's happening.

Of course there was a cop around the other day when I took a side road I don't usually take. Ticketed me for 44 in a 30. $158.50. Speed trap pulled over 5 other people while I was being ticketed.