Perhaps this is what you get when you live in a metropolitan area like I do: countless streams of traffic going everywhere, with road rage on the increase. I learned to drive at a late age (21) because of fears I had about how other traffic would fare against me. Throughout, I have obeyed the rules of the road and driven defensively. The result has been a very good driving record.
Of late, it's getting to be a chore to drive because of the aforementioned road rage. These incidents are all too real, and I've come close to being involved (last week, for instance). Some of these people I encounter, even if verifiably sober, act like their lane stretches from one end of the roadway to the other.
On the way to the employee parking lot from work at the airport, our bus was pulling out and was overtaking a car marked "Student Driver". The two lanes were merging into one, and with a full burst of speed, the bus driver crossed the white line and passed the student at a higher rate of speed than law would allow. I only wonder what the instructor in the student's car was saying. Not putting all the blame on the driver, but why an instructor would take a raw learner and put him/her smack in the middle of the 11th busiest airport in the country at prime rush hour, I am at a loss. I give the kid guts.
Then on the way to the "internet place", a car nearly cuts me off trying to turn north from west, riding the left turn lane all the way and matching his speed alongside me in the thru lane. This is what scares me more than anything. As much as I would like to abide by the law 100%, I sometimes do use the left turn lane to try merging right. But I stay in one place and wait for a gap to form before I try a manuever. If the person is concerned only with their speed, will they even think of their accuracy?
Many people are leaving their cars at home and bike/walk to work thanks to the gas prices. With today's experience, I would leave the car at home for personal, rather than fiscal, safety and sanity.
