People need to learn to drive!

I don’t know if it’s because I was extra-tired & cranky this morning but it seemed like everybody forgot the basic safety rules of the road today. Let’s start with the bicyclist who cut me off. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for sharing the road and I know cycling myself, but I also know it’s suicidal to cut off a car with my bike. But that’s exactly what this lady did. Without even looking she rode right out into the street, cut right in front of me (forcing me to slam on the breaks to avoid running her over. Then instead of getting over to the side road like a cyclist should; she just kept going right in front of me just slowly enough so we both got to the stop light as it turned red.

After getting past Ms. BikingWithADeathWish, I headed down towards to the interstate and into heavier & heavier rain. I got about halfway down the highway when I got stuck behind some giant, red Ford pickup. I don’t know what was going through this driver’s mind but I do know it had nothing to do with his driving this morning. Slow to stop at reds, slower to start at greens and an almost total lack of acceleration on the ramp leading up to the interstate. Then after finally getting on the interstate, I was able to get past Mr. ImDrunkAtSevenAm and on with motoring up the interstate to get to work.

Most of the way up wasn’t too bad, though the rain did get pretty unpleasant at one point. On the other hand the rain was also nice & soothing; unfortunately, I was tired and did not need any soothing this morning. *sigh* Anyway, I finally made it into town and was working my way past downtown through three-lane traffic with the rain pounding down. And what do I see before me as the traffic hits the 55 MPH zone? Why wouldn’t you know it, it’s another giant, red Ford pickup! This one had a few more of the extras installed and was an even worse driver. I first noticed him tailgating a vehicle in the lane to my right, but then I got my own taste of his brand of “driving”. When I was only about 2 maybe 3 feet back from this idiot; he suddenly decides to cut over into my lane (without signally) and go on to cut over to the far lane where he could pound down the gas pedal as he headed into the slower section of the interstate.

That pretty much covers the worst offenders on this morning’s commute. Now I just have to look forward to the insanity of driving home tonight. Wheeeee!

Update: Actually, it turns out I got to witness some extra fun insanity driving over lunch. I realized at lunch time 3 things:

  1. I was totally out of the trail mix emergency rations I keep at my desk.
  2. I’d packed a small lunch today.
  3. I was really hungry.

So I made a quick trip down over to a nearby Target to pick up one of their containers of trail mix1. Then I drove back to the office but I didn’t even make it out of the parking lot before I had encountered both idiots.

Idiot #1 decided to start walking in front of me on wet pavement after I’d started moving forward from the stop sign. If I’d been driving our old car, that pedestrian would have been road pizza.

I had just about made it out of the parking lot when idiot #2 showed up. Oddly enough, it was another red pickup truck; though I’m not sure if it was a ford. In any case, I was heading for the back/side road access as it leads to a stoplight making it much easier to get back to my office. That’s when this idiot came tearing into the parking lot without slowing down at all and tried to turn to follow the curve of the “road” in the Target lot leading to the parking area. The main problem with this “plan” of theirs is we’ve been getting rain all day today and the pavement was wet slick. The idiot lost control of his pickup and went into a slide/skid/spin/whatever that missed hitting me by mere inches. He didn’t quite pull off a full 360° and he did pull away shortly so I figured besides being terminally stupid; he’d be ok.

But I really have to wonder, what the frak is up with people who drive red pickups? I mean that’s 3 of them in 1 day that all were driving recklessly!

1 They’ve got several flavors sold under their house brand, “Archer Farms”. And every one I’ve tried is good stuff.

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