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This is Why I Want an Armored Personnel Carrier for my Commute
We've had a weird winter (it's going around). It was cold for our area, and pretty dry, until February. Then the rains started. March was crazy wet. Then we had some intense storms this month, including one that set a lightning record for the area.
Maybe it's the thunderstorms and masses of lightning, but during the last couple weeks I have seen more stupidity on the roads than in the last three months or more. Every day I have seen people driving like they're playing Gran Turismo, usually two or three on my commute, including using shoulders for passing.
And the drivers are getting a lot more aggressive at my usual crosswalks. I hang back and wait for a break in the traffic, but I've still ended up playing chicken several times.
Today three cyclists and two pedestrians got in on the stupidity. One cyclist just rode out of a driveway, cutting me off. The second made a left turn in front of a minivan that forced the minivan to slam on its brakes. The third started to walk his bike through a crosswalk, then jumped on and rode it across and cut off two cars when he made an unexpected turn.
The pedestrians were in my parking garage. Both of them decided that walking down the middle of the lane in dark clothes in a poorly lit garage being entered by sun-blinded drivers was a reasonable choice. They're lucky I had my headlights on.
And the topper: Just as I'm finishing my left turn at a major intersection (two highways), an ambulance starts its siren. I see it in the right turn lane to my right, waiting to get onto the street I'm turning onto. I complete the turn and immediately pull off onto the shoulder and wait. So do most of the cars. Except, of course, the one. There's always one. She decides that the ambulance should just go around her, as she's in the left lane. This might have been okay IF she had pulled over and stopped, but, of course, she didn't. She kept driving. The ambulance stayed behind her, lights and sirens running, until she finally pulled over and stopped.
This was just on my way to work. I am so not looking forward to the trip home.
Maybe it's the thunderstorms and masses of lightning, but during the last couple weeks I have seen more stupidity on the roads than in the last three months or more. Every day I have seen people driving like they're playing Gran Turismo, usually two or three on my commute, including using shoulders for passing.
And the drivers are getting a lot more aggressive at my usual crosswalks. I hang back and wait for a break in the traffic, but I've still ended up playing chicken several times.
Today three cyclists and two pedestrians got in on the stupidity. One cyclist just rode out of a driveway, cutting me off. The second made a left turn in front of a minivan that forced the minivan to slam on its brakes. The third started to walk his bike through a crosswalk, then jumped on and rode it across and cut off two cars when he made an unexpected turn.
The pedestrians were in my parking garage. Both of them decided that walking down the middle of the lane in dark clothes in a poorly lit garage being entered by sun-blinded drivers was a reasonable choice. They're lucky I had my headlights on.
And the topper: Just as I'm finishing my left turn at a major intersection (two highways), an ambulance starts its siren. I see it in the right turn lane to my right, waiting to get onto the street I'm turning onto. I complete the turn and immediately pull off onto the shoulder and wait. So do most of the cars. Except, of course, the one. There's always one. She decides that the ambulance should just go around her, as she's in the left lane. This might have been okay IF she had pulled over and stopped, but, of course, she didn't. She kept driving. The ambulance stayed behind her, lights and sirens running, until she finally pulled over and stopped.
This was just on my way to work. I am so not looking forward to the trip home.
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