echodrift

Ok buddy, let’s go!

I’m a very vocal driver. Anyone who’s ever been in a car with me will agree. Sometimes I speak up even when I’m not driving. I think I got it from my dad. He likes telling the story of how one day he had me out doing something when I was very young. Apparently the driver in front of us didn’t start moving quickly enough to suit me after the light turned green. My dad claims that I lifted myself out of my car seat a little and said “Ok buddy, let’s go!” So yes, this started at a very young age.

Driving to and from work lately has been a little stressful even though it’s only two miles one way. For one there is major construction going on at the bridge near our apartment. This bridge happens to cross a very busy interstate. There’s an almost constant stream of semis and other drivers exiting, entering, and crossing this bridge. During lunch time and ‘rush hour’ it backs up more than a bit. One major issue is the Pilot on one side of the bridge. It’s the only station large enough for the semis to stop and fill up so of course it’s the station they go to. The turn lane for this station is just past the light at the bridge. Some drivers just aren’t smart enough to realize that traffic will flow more smoothly if they don’t block the turn in for the drivers. To me that’d be common sense. Just the other day this area was clear, surprisingly enough. Drivers were letting other drivers through. However, one driver decided that they were going to take advantage of the semi that was pausing for traffic and pull out. into my lane and almost into me. I absolutely hate seeing drivers that close from the corner of my eye because I simply don’t trust other drivers. I always assume they’re going to do something stupid (and they usually do). Incidents like this usually elicit some very loud yelling in their direction.

Then there’s the matter of the road near the college. I usually take this route to avoid students. I don’t like stopping to let them cross but I’ve been in their shoes and I know how irritating it was for cars to not stop. Especially when it’s raining. Why don’t people take pity on the poor college student who’s been caught in the rain with no umbrella? The road I choose to take does not have a center line. It has no lines at all, actually. For some reason this makes people think that they don’t have to drive on their side of the road. I’d say that 9 days out of 10 I will meet someone who is not entirely on their side of the road. Or they may be completely on the wrong side of the road. This is particularly prevalent at a very sharp curve. No one slows down enough to stay on their side. I don’t understand this at all. It’s not like it’s a road with little traffic. Quite a few people use this road and still I continue to meet people driving on the wrong side.

For some reason I keep spelling traffic as ‘traffice.’ I have this weird habit of often adding an ‘e’ to the end of random words. Hah! I just did it with random, probably because I was thinking about it.