Angry Driver

     I will start off by saying that I’m not a perfect driver. There is not one person that can say that about themselves. I am, however, beyond fed up and angry. When did we get to a point when the rules of the road became optional? I will admit my biggest flaw with driving is I like to drive fast. I will also say that amongst the list of things I could be doing that I would consider to be bad driving that driving fast is low on that list.

     I might be driving fast but I still signal when switching lanes and while turning BEFORE any movement of my car takes place and well BEFORE I’m slowing down to make a turn. I very rarely cross a solid white line while driving through curves on freeways. At this point I’m convinced people aren’t even aware it’s an offense worthy of a ticket. I stop at all flashing red lights. It’s the law. I come to complete stops at stop signs, wait the appropriate amount of time, and respect the RIGHT of way. If I’m making a turn where multiple lanes are making the same turn I get into the proper lane to complete the proper turn. I don’t get all the way over to the right so I can turn faster to make the wide turn to cut off the person in the next lane. I use proper judgment when making turns out of businesses and parking lots so that an oncoming car does not have to slow down because I should have just waited to make my turn. There are probably more examples, but I hope you’re getting the idea.

     The one and most glaring fundamental flaw with my driving, that I am fully aware of, is my road rage. I am a defensive and aggressive driver who does not trust anyone on the road, but will also not allow willingly for wrong to be done upon myself while driving. I do not allow cars to bully themselves in front of my car because they tried to pass every car they could before they had to get over. I will cut someone off who cut me off. I do not respond well to people who tailgate considering that the situation arises because I can’t drive through the car in front of me nor can I drive through cars to the side of me if I happen to be boxed in. And I only tailgate when a car is in the left and not respecting the fast lane or they refuse to switch lanes when there is space to get over because they want to be stubborn and sit in the left going 72 mph. Again there are more examples, but I’ll save them for future rants.

     The joy that comes with night driving is that there aren’t very many people on the road and therefore not many idiots. However, there will occasionally be that one idiot on the road at night and tonight was that night.

    I’m driving home on the freeway a little after 3am. What’s nice about this night is I can see the stretch in front of me and it's perfectly clear of other cars. I was only maxing out at 75 cause it's Labor Day weekend and I'd rather not get a ticket. I spent the majority of my ride in the right lane because there was no one out on the road that I had to worry about slowing me down. My exit actually gets off from the left lane so I appropriately make my way over to the left lane while signaling despite the fact that the closest car behind me is about a mile back because that is what you are supposed to do.

     As I'm approaching the exit just prior to mine, I can see one other car entering the freeway about 100 yards further down the road. The other car has their left turn signal on and appears to be slowly merging into the right lane. Naturally, my car is closing the gap because the car in front has still not reached the speed limit. This car keeps their signal on and drifts into the middle lane, as my car is still continuing to close the gap. As I'm continuing to drive the same speed and still closing the gap, this one other car still has on their left turn signal. Of course when there's about a two car length separating us, this jackass just keeps drifting over into my lane while their turn signal is still on from their initial entrance to the freeway. Now I'm in a situation where I have to slow down or go into the center lane to pass this jackass.

       Really? REALLY?!? One other car on the road and it just had to get in front of me maxing out at 65 in the left lane. The douche seriously couldn't wait until my car passed before they finally got over to the left after they'd been jumping lanes? I guess any car behind this particular asshole doesn't matter even if that other car is clearly driving faster. There is also no excuse to make for this asshole because you can definitely see the headlights of a car approaching from behind at night.

    Clearly I'm pissed now because the one other car on the road got in front of me and I either have to slow down below the speed limit or get into a different lane. I decided to switch lanes while flashing my brights at this jackass. I then proceeded to cut back over closely in front of this car to the left lane, while appropriately using my turn signal, because I still need to get off of the freeway and I want to indicate to them that they are an asshole.  The other car flashed me as I continued to drive the speed I had always been driving, and I just let my middle finger do the talking while our gap continued to increase.