Traffic in Southern Maryland is one of those things that really grinds my gears. The rush hour trip home is usually a total pain in the butt, but it is manageable and the bridge traffic hasn’t been too terrible lately. It will be once they start expanding the bridge (or whatever they plan on doing with it) but it will be for the greater good so it will be worth it. Yesterday was one of those days that reminded me why I think there are a lot of assholes in the world and that most of them are driving in Southern Maryland.
Yesterday we had kind of crappy weather and I think people were panicky to get home before the “big storm” hit. It wasn’t raining or windy on my way home, so there was no impending
danger. Traffic was terribly backed up as soon as I got off of base (yet surprisingly there was no one on base, which is where I usually get all backed up) and I just stayed in the far right lane, knowing I’d be turning in like 3 miles and figured it wasn’t worth the fight through traffic, since none of it was moving anyway. So I inched ahead in the right lane. People kept zooming by in the right turn lane, as I’ve depicted in this lovely paintbrush drawing and I knew better than to assume that they were going to be turning at the next traffic light where the sign says “RIGHT TURN ONLY”. Oh hell no, they were going through them, and creating their own super fast right lane. I watched a Fed Ex truck that was like 10 cars behind me, pull into the right hand turn late, go up about 15 cars in front of me, and pull back into the right lane. Oh, I’m sorry, do you want to get home, or to a delivery? Well guess what? I want to get home to a delivery of a beer in my hand to help make this painful day disappear too, but you don’t see me disobeying all the rules. Am I wrong here? Or am I one of those people who says “you know we’re all in this together, if we stay where we are we’ll get there faster and not have a ton of people cutting in and out, causing us to use our brakes and go slower than we would otherwise.” One lady even zoomed through the right turn only sign into the lane where everyone legally gets into the right lane to turn on the Solomon’s Bridge and she almost got crushed by the big truck in front of me. She was just gabbing on her cell phone driving through the turn only lane at the intersection, figuring “I will do whatever I please.” The crowning glory of it all was when I actually turned onto to the road where the bridge is. The road is notoriously backed up, so you know you’re going to have to wait. I was the second to last car to get through the light, so there was just one person behind me. Oh wait, she wasn’t behind. She was riding parallel in the lane that merges, gabbing on HER cell phone and trying to get in front of me. I look over at her and she looks up at me and I sort of motion to her like “why don’t you get behind, considering there is NO ONE BEHIND ME?” (I would have loved to have just flipped her off and told her to blow me, but I’m not that low brow. Not then at least, I was paying it forward, letting people in, and just being a good citizen. A lot of good that did me.) This biotch wasn’t taking no for an answer. There is still no one behind us. She is getting to the portion of the road that becomes “right lane must turn right” because the lane is ending. I’m still not letting her in on principle alone. She keeps riding next to me, going into the shoulder of the road (which is more than a car length wide) and keeps riding there. She doesn’t have a turn signal on, so I’m not even sure she wanted to get over. All of a sudden she speeds up and I don’t see her at all anymore. I figured she got in front of the guy in front of me. Oh no. She has just driven as fast as she could in the right shoulder until she got to a place where the shoulder is too narrow and got over into the regular lane-like 20 cars in front of me. It was unbelievable!
I know I’ve ranted on about this long enough (too long?) but I really feel like traffic is the pulse of society. You have your people that let people in every once and while, and stay in their lane, and move with the flow of traffic. And then you have the people that are apparently so important and so much better than everyone else that they should be able to create their own traffic lane and do whatever the hell they please. It really frustrates me. I don’t mind that I’m in traffic forever…that part doesn’t bug me at all. I just hate the people and the way people just think for themselves and don’t drive defensively. They drive like they are the only ones on the road, unaware of the other drivers out there. That’s not true, they are aware of the other drivers and they just don’t care.
By the way, that beer tasted awesome when I got home.
Yesterday we had kind of crappy weather and I think people were panicky to get home before the “big storm” hit. It wasn’t raining or windy on my way home, so there was no impending
danger. Traffic was terribly backed up as soon as I got off of base (yet surprisingly there was no one on base, which is where I usually get all backed up) and I just stayed in the far right lane, knowing I’d be turning in like 3 miles and figured it wasn’t worth the fight through traffic, since none of it was moving anyway. So I inched ahead in the right lane. People kept zooming by in the right turn lane, as I’ve depicted in this lovely paintbrush drawing and I knew better than to assume that they were going to be turning at the next traffic light where the sign says “RIGHT TURN ONLY”. Oh hell no, they were going through them, and creating their own super fast right lane. I watched a Fed Ex truck that was like 10 cars behind me, pull into the right hand turn late, go up about 15 cars in front of me, and pull back into the right lane. Oh, I’m sorry, do you want to get home, or to a delivery? Well guess what? I want to get home to a delivery of a beer in my hand to help make this painful day disappear too, but you don’t see me disobeying all the rules. Am I wrong here? Or am I one of those people who says “you know we’re all in this together, if we stay where we are we’ll get there faster and not have a ton of people cutting in and out, causing us to use our brakes and go slower than we would otherwise.” One lady even zoomed through the right turn only sign into the lane where everyone legally gets into the right lane to turn on the Solomon’s Bridge and she almost got crushed by the big truck in front of me. She was just gabbing on her cell phone driving through the turn only lane at the intersection, figuring “I will do whatever I please.” The crowning glory of it all was when I actually turned onto to the road where the bridge is. The road is notoriously backed up, so you know you’re going to have to wait. I was the second to last car to get through the light, so there was just one person behind me. Oh wait, she wasn’t behind. She was riding parallel in the lane that merges, gabbing on HER cell phone and trying to get in front of me. I look over at her and she looks up at me and I sort of motion to her like “why don’t you get behind, considering there is NO ONE BEHIND ME?” (I would have loved to have just flipped her off and told her to blow me, but I’m not that low brow. Not then at least, I was paying it forward, letting people in, and just being a good citizen. A lot of good that did me.) This biotch wasn’t taking no for an answer. There is still no one behind us. She is getting to the portion of the road that becomes “right lane must turn right” because the lane is ending. I’m still not letting her in on principle alone. She keeps riding next to me, going into the shoulder of the road (which is more than a car length wide) and keeps riding there. She doesn’t have a turn signal on, so I’m not even sure she wanted to get over. All of a sudden she speeds up and I don’t see her at all anymore. I figured she got in front of the guy in front of me. Oh no. She has just driven as fast as she could in the right shoulder until she got to a place where the shoulder is too narrow and got over into the regular lane-like 20 cars in front of me. It was unbelievable!I know I’ve ranted on about this long enough (too long?) but I really feel like traffic is the pulse of society. You have your people that let people in every once and while, and stay in their lane, and move with the flow of traffic. And then you have the people that are apparently so important and so much better than everyone else that they should be able to create their own traffic lane and do whatever the hell they please. It really frustrates me. I don’t mind that I’m in traffic forever…that part doesn’t bug me at all. I just hate the people and the way people just think for themselves and don’t drive defensively. They drive like they are the only ones on the road, unaware of the other drivers out there. That’s not true, they are aware of the other drivers and they just don’t care.
By the way, that beer tasted awesome when I got home.
1 comments:
You make me laugh, really.
Luckily, the traffic here is not too awful. I couldn't stand it if ti were.
And I probably would have flipped that lady off.
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