Sunday, December 11, 2005

forgetting how to drive

I promised myself I wouldn't spend the Christmas season griping about stuff and I haven't been but yesterday I got a serious reminder that people are forgetting how to drive. I have found there are certain times of year when this happens first the beggining of the school year, second the spring and, for some reason, Christmas time. I guess people are in a hurry to get things done but traffic is heavier than usual and running people over won't get you there any faster.

Yesterday I was driving down our Parkway, which is the main road through town, and this guy in a large red pick-up truck started tailgating me. I was stuck behind two cars driving side by side who were doing the speed limit. Nobody ever does the speed limit on this road. For some reason he thought this would speed things up. Tailgating me is not going to cause the cars in front of me to go faster. All it does is tick me off. I moved over and let him tailgate someone else for a while. I noticed he wasn't getting anywhere and he must have tailgated every car that had the misfortune of being in front of him. Then he started crossing lanes three at time which almost caused a wreck because he was joined by a woman in a Lincoln Navigator who seemed to think she was invinceable. She also started tailgating people and was getting nowhere fast. She did almost have few wrecks though. I'm not exaggarating either. She kept having to slam on her brakes to keep from rearending people. Not because she was tailgating but because she kept speeding up whenever there was a gap in front of her and for some reason didn't grasp the concept that there wasn't space to do this. The last time I saw her she was trying to avoid rearending someone making a right hand turn (she had sped up again) and was trying to come into my lane with me there. I blew the horn and forced her to stay put by braking. What is it about huge vehicles that causes some people to think they should be able to do what they want and the rest of us should just get out of their way? Don't get me wrong I see people in smaller cars drive like this, but they don't usually try it in bumper to bumper traffic because they know they'll get clobbered.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know if its because I'm getting older but I've certainly noticed how terribly some people are driving these days. People run red lights, weave crossing lines, cut you off. Almost all the time they are also talking on the telephone. Everybody but me should be banned from talking on the phone while driving.

Samantha Alice said...

Don almost got killed because two cars wiped out right in front of him on I65. Come to Nashville - but everybody some little antique from the square, we'll have a lovely day walking around, and the traffic is NOT to die for!

Memphis said...

Ah, your very own Loonies On The Path, and not just anywhere, but in the most infamous of cities for aggressive and vicious driving, too! As bad as it is up here in Memphis I have yet to encounter as many aggressive and obnoxious drivers as I used to down there.