I drive about 8 miles of freeway to go to work. All within the city, with a change in freeways at about the 6 mile mark. I constantly get passed by small cars with young drivers who literally weave in and out of traffic. The weird thing is you can go from one end of town to the other via freeway in about 20-25 minutes so driving like a lunatic really saves you no time at all.
Oh yea, I drive a truck. At about 70-75.
But to me possibly the most dangerous drivers, because they are oblivious to everything going on around them, is the driver who gets in the middle lane and goes 60.
Welcome to Ontario, where all you have to do is ask nicely and we give you a handicapped parking permit! Can’t say anything either, because you may trigger someone suffering from an invisible disease.
I remember watching a documentary about something or other, and there was a short sequence where the camera was driving along with a guy in a giant pick-up truck. The driver was Joe Average. Seemed nice enough, IIRC, from what we saw of him. Not driving like an asshole. They were in normal traffic, in no special hurry, and they slowed down for something routine up ahead, like a traffic light or a merge or something.
And with no hostility, and only a little impatience, the driver looked to switch lanes and said “Beep! Beep! C’mon, big truck coming through!” And he clearly meant it. He was in a big truck, and other drivers should naturally make way for him. I thought it was strange, but maybe some people never get past thinking size confers privilege.
I think many of us were stupid when younger. I certainly had my share of messed up driving, though not necessarily drunk I did race, I cut people off, I tailgated, etc. I have the old accident record to prove my stupidity.
These days, speeding is perhaps my only issue. I drive about 90 minutes commuting each day. It’s hard, very hard, to keep calm, cool and collected every single day in rush hour traffic. It wears at you. Small things can suddenly enrage me for absolutely no reason and I have to talk myself down from it. This certainly isn’t daily, but it happens.
Three things really stand out for me. Rush hour has its own flow and speed. The flow of traffic some days will be quite a bit less than the speed limit, but it will also be greater than the speed limit at times. I go with the flow, meaning I occasionally speed, but never at a breakneck pace, and never trying to get people out of the way.
But the other two issues have gotten much worse of late. People tailgating and people in the far left lane that sit there instead of using it as a passing lane. Both of those can be dangerous.
I was driving home from work yesterday and a guy in a white Dodge Challenger just about ran into me. The speed limit was 30 and I checked the rear view mirror in order to change lanes, when this dude suddenly appeared behind me, raced past me in the right lane, cut me off, and then did a hard left turn into a neighborhood side street. Scared the shit out of me. I thought it might have been a cop since I noticed a spotlight by the driver side mirror. No flashing lights though.
