Thursday, July 8, 2010

Road Rage

Last Wednesday, at 9:15 am, I was waiting at a stop sign for my chance to turn right after dropping my daughter off at field hockey camp. Granted, I'm a cautious driver, but there was a fair amount of traffic as many other parents had also just dropped their daughters off.

Behind me, a driver honked very aggressively. In the sounding of her horn, she channeled all the rage of the universe. I waved her to go around me. Another honk, more enraged, if possible.

I turned off the car, and got out. From the relative safety of the curb, I observed a woman with silky blonde hair in a shiny, obnoxiously large car. She was wearing workout clothes. Clearly, she was late for kickboxing or spinning, or some other extremely important gym activity. Her face was twisted with fury.

I held up one finger. I wanted to say, "Your actions affect others. It is not all about you and the calories you must burn." But she teared off, leaning on the horn one more time for good measure.

I got back in the car, shaking, and was frazzled for the rest of the day.

9 comments:

  1. That sucks. There are so many idiots out there. I wish I was the only one driving at any given time! And don't even get me started on people talking on cell phones while leaving crowded parking lots. Couldn't they just sit in the car and talk before pulling out?

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  2. People are idiots--what a shining example she must set for her kids :) Blech.

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  3. The worst has to be when people do that when you've stopped for a pedestrian. I'm actually surprised I haven't seen somebody get mowed down yet by an impatient driver.

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  4. That happened to me this morning. We had been stopped for a train for about 10 minutes, and naturally we were all anxious to get going. When I stopped for a confused looking pedestrian (who wasn't in the crosswalk, but I thought maybe she would step out) and waited to see where she was going, the car behind me layed on the horn.

    Wow, thanks, lady, your honking helped me realize that next time, I should risk running people over rather than inconvenience the cars behind me. I'm so sorry I cost you an extra 1.4 seconds this morning. My mistake.

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  5. Ugh. Driving lately makes me glad I don't (usually) have a car. Had a small accident recently where I hit someone (she had made an illegal U-turn in an intersection and didn't pay attention to the obvious signals that I was parallel parking right near the cross and I couldn't see her) and I've seen two people drive the wrong way down our one-way street recently, one of whom was texting. Not to mention the family who always parks in the no parking zone in front of the school, even after the school sent several emails to everyone, put large signs in front and had someone out there telling people to move. They still did it. I'm sure they will do it all next year too. They're more important, you know. Walking 5 meters into the school rather than 2 might kill them. Short story: people are idiots. Good for you for driving well.

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  6. It's stuff like this that really makes me wish my town had adequate public transport. People are nuts.

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  7. It's dangerous to piss off the MiniVan Majority. It's hard to tell the sane normal ones from the clinically insane.

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