This past weekend, I was lucky enough to vacation in the U.P. of Michigan with my kids and sister-in-law and her kids. It was a great trip, but the double digit hours on the road, gave me plenty of contact with stupid drivers. In my perfect world, there would be a point system with drivers. Drivers around you would be allowed to decide if you get points deducted or awarded. I'm sure it could all be done electronically. If you lose too many, you are no longer allowed to drive because even though the police haven't taken away your license, you are obviously a hazard on the road. You could earn points back by being a courteous driver. Sounds fair, I think. Until then, I just have to do it in my mind. Here are a few of my mental points deducted and awarded. (Please keep in mind, that most of the driving was on roads that had only 1 or 2 lanes of traffic in each directions.)
Points Deducted From:
1. Left Lane Slow Driver: The left lane is for PASSING people in the right lane. NOT the other way around. If you want to drive slower than the 50 cars behind you, get over to the right.
2. Left Lane Driver Driving the SAME speed as the right lane: Again, refer to #1. You are now succeeding in blocking BOTH lanes of traffic. In fact, I think you are WORSE than #1 because we can't even pass you on the right.
3. Drivers who Pass Me and then drive slower than I was in the first place: Seriously? Feel free to pass me, but if you are going to pass me, you'd better have a pace that's faster than mine.
4. Left Lane Slow Driver until I try to pass on the right: Really? NOW you speed up? And just enough to block me out so that I can't pass you? Jerk.
5. Clueless Drivers: This one has to do with the fact that my sister-in-law's car died on the top of an off-ramp in the left turn lane. The doors were open, the hood was up, the hazard lights were on, we were standing outside of the car, and drivers STILL pulled up behind us to wait to turn left! Even when we waved them over, they were confused. It took a State Police car with lights and orange cones to finally stop the stupidity.
Bonus Points Awarded to:
1. Drivers who passed in the left lane and then moved back to the right lane.
2. Left Lane Drivers who saw faster traffic approaching behind them and moved over to the right.
3. Drivers who passed me and continued to drive faster than me.
4. Good Drivers that didn't make me feel like running them off of the road.
=J
Now it's your turn to vent!
I spent last week in Michigan too. I think we both might have been better off dealing with our vacations if we read each other's posts beforehand (re: Post Vaca Wrap Up). Of course I'm assuming you could benefit from the things I learned about my crazy kiddos and you are teaching me about obvious driving mistakes that only idiot drivers make. So come to think of it, I could have benefited from your blog and you maybe a little less from mine :)
ReplyDeleteI've seen some of the lane hoggers say that they hog the fast lane on purpose in order to slow down traffic since according to them everyone is speeding. What they are doing is dangerous because they are forcing everyone to pass them on the right.
ReplyDeleteLand Rover - Can't stand that! My grandfather used to drive slowly in the left lane and say "Oh, everyone's in a hurry, huh!" Then once they passed him he'd speed up angrily saying "Oh, you don't want to eat my dirt, but you want me to eat yours!" People need more than a driver's test to drive.
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