Traffic!

Traffic!  Who can write on traffic?  After this past week, I can, believe me.  I’ll start close to home.  I had an appointment yesterday that I really needed to be on time for.  Leaving the house about on time, I was making my merry way down our canyon road when, lo, and behold, in the middle of the road with no room to go around on either side, was an SUV, parked.  Since there was a cow sort of on the road on one side, with her calf on the other, I assumed they were looking at them.  And looking at them.  And looking at them.  Their rear license plate cover indicated they were from Santa Monica.  After several minutes I started to get out of my vehicle to chase the cow off of the road, when I guess they must have seen me in their rear view mirror, because they finally got in gear (or whatever SUV’s do these days) and slowly moved on.  In the middle of the road all the way to the end where the canyon road meets the highway.  Apparently they never learned to move over and let the vehicle behind them go around.  Common courtesy, my Uncle Carl said, who basically taught me how to drive. 

Now when I was learning to drive, and I will admit it was some time ago, he taught that before one pulled out in front of another vehicle, you looked past that one to see if anyone else was coming right behind.  If not, then it was only polite not to pull out.  Out of simple courtesy one waited for that vehicle to pass by.  And definitely not OK to pull out in front of someone and then go slower than the vehicle you had pulled in front of.  Again, common courtesy.  This week, several times vehicles would come from side roads onto the highway, pulling right in front of me when there was no one behind me.  The idiot who made the U-turn right in front of me, having to waste gasoline as he punched it to get through with the U before I T-boned him, could have waited some 5 seconds for me to pass since there was no one behind me.

Although as anyone who knows me knows, I believe the bicyclists are the worst offenders.  Of course they have the right to ride in their lanes, but to insist on a two-lane highway that the vehicles must swerve around them to keep the 3 feet of separation, when the bicyclist is riding right next to the line while looking down at the road, is courting disaster.  There has been many a time when there is no way that 3 feet could have been maintained when a good-sized truck was coming in the other direction.  One simply has to slow down, let the truck get by before passing the bicyclist, or multiple bicyclists abreast.  They may have the right, but they also need to learn that common courtesy, with a touch of common sense, is that if they tangle with a vehicle going 55 miles an hour or more, they will not win.  They must have a death wish. 

My Uncle Carl was right.  Common sense and common courtesy are just as essential as knowing the answers to all of the questions on the driving test for a driver’s license.  I’m very grateful I don’t have to go anywhere today that involves getting into my vehicle and dealing with thoughtless and rude drivers and/or bicyclists.