Yet Another Driving Entry

It's been quite a while since my last driving entry ::huge grin:: but I have to comment on something that happened.

I really dislike (with a passion) tail-gaters.  I do.  In the state in which I live, you're supposed to give one car-length of distance between you and the vehicle ahead of you per each 10 mph of speed.  So if you're going 35mph, you should give three-and-a-half car lengths of distance.  If you're going 45, it would be 4.5.  If you're going 65, it would be 6.5. 

Today, a woman (you'll find out later how I know it was a woman) was tail-gating me so close that I coudn't see her headlamps.  I gave a few brake-checks, but she didn't get the idea. 

Then, we came to a stoplight.  I went into the straight and right-turn lane, and she went into the left turn lane only.  The light was red.  This is a small intersection, so the Civil Engineers who designed it put the white line (that you're supposed to stop behind) behind the 'straight' lane.  They do that so if any tractor-trailers, motorhomes, campers, RV's, bus's, etcetera, will be able to turn left without crunching a car.

Said woman pulled up next to me ... way over the white line.  As misfortune would have it, a semi was trying to turn left onto our road.  He hit the air horn, but she didn't move.  I hit my horn and motioned to her to roll her window down.

She did.  I pointed at the big rig and said "Ma'am, he needs you to back up so he can turn, please.  That's what that white line back there was for."

At that point, I got such a nasty look that I'm surprised I didn't have heart failure on the spot.  It was one of those looks.  She backed up, the semi turned ... and the driver gave her one of those salutes.  You know ... the finger.

I've written about bad drivers before, but this was the SECOND TIME IN THREE DAYS that a situation like this happened. 

Folks, if you have a white line in the road at a stoplight or stopsign, it's there for a reason.  It's because the Civil Engineer who designed the intersection put it there so that all vehicles could turn.  Please stay behind them.