Can We Talk 2

Traffic

I just don't understand people who speed around town. On the long stretch of interstate, it's hard not to speed. But around town, where people are pulling in and out of businesses or side streets without lights, drivers are way too rude and speed oriented.They honk, they pass illegally, they ride your bumper, even when you're over the posted limit yourself.

What good does it do? There's a light ahead, where they are going to stop, like it or not. What good does it do to gas the car, then slam on the brakes? They're going to sit and wait as long as you do. I drive a section of road daily, where it's hard to drive the posted 35. When the school zone sign is flashing, it's 25. I always obey the school zone sign, since I got a ticket in a school zone over a decade ago. (It was Good Friday and school was out, so I figured the sign was in error. The cop didn't realize school was out, but gave me the ticket anyway, then left his post, when he realized the error. The judge disagreed. The flashing sign trumped the school schedule, even if it shouldn't have been on.) But there are always cars flying by me in this school zone.

No one honks on that road, but they do on the road leading to my subdivision. People from the county come up into the city on that road, flying above the limit. My section starts to see a lot of subdivisions and a park, so the speed is posted at a lower level. If you slow down with your turn signal on, some bat out of hell has swooped in on you and is honking because you're turning, and they had to slow down. Almost no one coming from beyond my section ever stays within 10 miles of the limit. That's a shame because there will be more pedestrians and more bikers on the road over the next 12 months, as some new developments are completed.

I just don't understand the rage and the competition on the road, when we all get there about the same time any way due to road conditions, traffic, and lights. Why do you have to be faster than everyone else on the road? Is there a contest, and no one told me? Where does all the anger come from? What happened to good manners? Do they just fade away when one gets behind the wheel of a vehicle? A car horn can be used to cuss someone out, not simply a warning. I sometimes wonder if the worst drivers are still mean face to face on foot. Some how the car becomes an extension of the person, and in its impersonal form, the individual can become as rude and ruthless as desired without conscience and feel justified.