Chill Out, People.

I have a relatively long commute, and road rage seems to be getting all too common. This morning I found it before even leaving my neighborhood! The road which leaves our little development bends sharply left just before T-ing into a much busier street. Toward the end of this bend, a right-hand turning lane branches off of the main lane, so there are 2 lanes at the stop. Because of the bend in the road, it’s easy to lane change by simply not turning the wheel as hard through the bend. I’m sure most folks do this. Actually following the painted lines exactly makes for a more awkward lane change.

Well, I’m going through the bend, approaching the stop to turn right, and as I start entering the turn lane, I notice in my rear view mirror another car coming up quickly and it starts moving right as soon as there’s pavement to do so. I realize this person will actually try to scoot by me if I don’t get all the way over soon. So I do. As I stop I notice the woman in the car come up behind me and give me the universal hands-in-the-air WTF symbol. I return it. I mean, WTF, I’m just trying to make a right hand turn. Nothing wrong with that!

Well, we both turn right onto a busier road with a 40 mph speed limit, but people commonly go much faster. I get up to about 45-50 mph, and this woman starts really tailgating me! You can probably guess my reaction. My speed becomes proportional to the distance between our cars. The closer she gets to my bumper, the slower I go. And she gets VERY close. Pretty soon I’m going 35-40 and I set my cruise control. She continues to tailgate me for the next 2 miles. This is not a happy person.

I, on the other hand, manage to stay unemotional about it. Probably because I’m listening to a late 1960s vintage Yes album, with Jon Anderson’s voice flitting about within my head. Peace, love, man!

Eventually this road T’s into another road, again with a turn lane opening up on the right. I stay left so I can turn left. She takes the right lane when it opens up and zooms by me. As expected, she gives me a very dirty look as she goes by. I blow her a kiss! Once ahead of me she swerves into the left lane, and then, about 50 feet before the stop sign, she stops her car! I end up stopping more abruptly than I expected to. She delays there only long enough for her, “So there!” or somesuch statement to be made, and then she quickly resumes driving. She turns left and goes flying through Kemptown (a 30 mph zone) at something approaching 60 mph. I hope she didn’t kill anyone getting where she was going.

Our society’s really getting f’d up. Too many people getting way too stressed. Chill out, people.