BlueWolf's Howl

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July 11, 2002

Aggressive Drivers

You�re driving down the highway on your way to work and you notice there�s someone right on your bumper. You move over and the car flies past you and starts riding the next person�s bumper. And this repeats as the driver intimidates his/her way to work. You know them. You�ve seen them. You might have even been �them.� They�re called �aggressive drivers� and they�re on your road.

I didn�t see many aggressive drivers on my recent vacation. But, I do see them on the road to work every morning. What surprises me the most is that they pass by me like I�m standing still. As they fly by, I look at my speedometer and find that I�m doing 80. So just how fast must they be going to pass me like that?

Actually, it�s not the speed that concerns me. It�s the aggression and the arrogance. Just because you can go 90 doesn�t mean you should go 90, and your car�s performance doesn�t entitle you to go 90. It�s not a right. You�re the one breaking the law, not the slowpoke that�s only doing 80.

Some clues for the clueless aggressive drivers:
1. Driving in the right hand lane won�t give you immunity from a speeding ticket when your speed is 30 or more miles over the posted speed limit. So, quit riding the tails of the right lane drivers and get your butt over to the left hand lane where you belong.
2. If you ride up on a car that�s alongside a semi, no matter what you do, you will not force the car to go sideways through the semi to get out of your way. [Also note: your anger will never make the car suddenly disappear, no matter how much you curse.]
3. When you flash your high beams at the driver above, they will probably slow down more. THINK. This is the only way to get you off their ass. They probably started to overtake the semi, the truck driver noticed and sped up, and you trapped it by tailgating. The only way out is to go slower and get behind the semi. YOU are causing them to slow down. A few seconds of patience and they might have found a way to overtake the truck.
4. If you flash the high beams repeatedly in the case above, the car might decide to maintain its current speed and stay in your way out of spite. It�s not fun to get blinded by glaring light. Again, YOU caused this by pissing off someone who�s in front of you.
5. If the road is about to fork in two different directions (Highway A � left lane only; Highway B � right lane only), expect a slow car to be in what you think is your lane. Don�t expect them to change lanes (so you can get to the next bumper) because they don�t want to miss their exit.
6. Just because you flipped the bird at them doesn�t mean that they�re the asshole. [Big Hint: it�s YOU]

And the cops sit in their cars, hiding underneath the overpass as if they�re fishing for speeders. They catch an occasional car or truck that didn�t notice or care. But they miss eliminating the biggest danger on the road. They�d probably triple their tickets if they rode the highway and caught these drivers. And they�d make the roads much safer if they rode those highways in clearly marked police cars. Most drivers get out their halos when they see a clearly marked police car next to them.

Still, I�m sure there would be someone who would get behind the police car and flash their high beams to try to get them out of the way�

Posted by BlueWolf on July 11, 2002 11:28 PM