stepoutoftheboxdotcom

Why does everyone drive so fast? Is everyone late, at the same time, and for what? I see women with children in the car driving as fast as if they did not have children in the car. What could they be late for? Just today, for instance, while trying to exit a parking lot, I had to carefully calculate the seconds I had to turn in front of a car. As my car turned towards the left, I noted that the driver of the car I had cut in front of was driving faster towards me. So I moved faster and he whizzed by me, and so skilled a driver was he that he was able to remove one hand from the steering wheel while gesturing an obscenity. Perplexed by this mark of rudeness, I entered the parking lot. To my surprise, the car that had been behind me, the one with the steamy engine, pulled into the space next to me. The driver got out of the car with her two young children and followed me into the supermarket. I reminded myself not to get in front of her in the check-out line. After completing my shopping, I drove to the edge of the lot and waited. Not a break! Cars whizzed past me at incredible speed. Again I wondered why everyone was in such a hurry? Where were they going? It puzzled me to observe drivers becoming unraveled at the prospect of adjusting their speed. But to be fair, I won’t overlook the few considerate individuals who often stop or at least slow down to let a driver enter into the mainstream. They are, unfortunately, often badgered by other drivers for their consideration or else think that they’re owned a huge debt for letting someone get in front of them. And how about three-way intersections? You know, the ones where the person on your right has the right of way, and everyone tries to go at the same time. And when one driver does proceed, the driver in the car behind will sneak through on that driver’s turn. When that happens, nobody knows who’s supposed to go next, so everyone inches up at the same time. Often, the driver in the wrong gives the signal, as if to say, “Okay,okay, go ahead, but hurry, I’m giving you a break here and you’d better not mess it up.” However, before you complete the turn, you realize that the kind person who gestured you to go is on your tail and if you should suddenly stop for any reason, well too bad, you had your chance! Remember the time you passed a slower driver, and exchanged dirty looks, implying that neither one of you should be allowed to drive, only to have that driver pull up next to you at the red light that you’d been sitting at for three minutes. Think about it, what’s the hurry?

(c) 2013 Linda Stone Cohen All Rights Reserved