Insert Witty Title Here
I find it very easy to slip into “road-rage” mode. It’s something I have to consciously work at preventing most of the time when I drive, which is a shame, because I love to drive—even when I have no particular destination. I’ve always loved the feeling of freedom I get while zipping down the road with my music blasting in my ears.
But there are SO MANY bad drivers out there with me. Women in huge-ass SUVs and have absolutely no idea to maneuver them--sorry, ladies, but it's true.
People who talk incessantly on their cellphones or Bluetooths while they’re driving.
People who don’t use turn signals (oh, that’s right—I’m clairvoyant!).
Perhaps the most teeth-grindingly irritating people I encounter regularly on the roads are the sheep drivers. That term (coined by me at this very moment!) refers to people who just drive blindly, following everyone else without thinking or questioning, and who lack any sort of common sense.
There were a bunch of them on the road just this morning, in fact. Today, the weather in the Philly area is pretty crappy; we’ve gotten battered for the past twenty-four hours first by snow, then freezing rain, then rain. The temperatures have been low, so all of the precipitation has frozen on the streets. Consequently, most schools in my area were closed for the day. If you were to turn on the TV or radio even for a minute this morning, every local media outlet trumpeted the school closings.
But the flashing yellow school-zone lights outside the schools were running anyway, since they are on a timer during the morning rush-hour.
For my non-American readers, those flashing lights mean that drivers must slow their speed to 15 mph in a designated area along a road in front of a school. There’s also usually an adult who volunteers as a crossing-guard in the general vicinity, giving all drivers the old stink-eye if they don’t comply with the speed limit. Some of the crossing guards even hold a pad of paper and pen to take down the license plate numbers of those drivers who fail to slow down.
Anyway, the whole school-zone speed limit thing is a totally pointless law in my mind, since most children in the suburbs take buses to school and are dropped off right at the doors of the building. It’s not like there are ever any children frolicking about on the sidewalk next to the road. When I drive past those schools in the morning, I never even lay eyes on a single child! But I digress…that’s another rant of mine for another post.
On my daily commute, I have to (unfortunately) pass through three different school zones. And every single person in front of me this morning, WITHOUT FAIL, slowed down to 15 mph through all three zones, despite the fact that all three schools were clearly closed—no signs of human activity in any of the darkened buildings, not a single vehicle in any of the parking lots. But the yellow lights were a-flashin’, so. They. Must. Obey.
Sheep, I’m telling ya! No common sense or critical thinking skills whatsoever.
Damn, that pisses me off.
Labels: bitching, opinions, Philly burbs, sheer idiocy, winter
