Road Rage

Road Rage/Bad Driving

A poll (AutoVantage Road Rage Survey Reveals Best, Worst Cities ) came out today listing the top cities for Road Rage. No surprise, New York made the number one spot, edging out Miami for the first time in five years. Actually, having been married to a Hispanic man, the fact that Miami held that spot the previous four years did not surprise me. Put a hot blooded culture in a densely packed hot climate and you're bound to end up with some over-heating. Having traveled all over the U.S. and seen how people drive, I am really shocked that Wilmington, NC didn't atleast get a mention. It is one of the worst places to drive. Maybe not as bad as New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, LA...... but lets face it we have the highest insurance rate in the state for a reason. The people here do not know how to drive. You have the drivers who want to go 90 mph in a 35-45 zone. You have the drivers who want to 25 mph in a 55-65 zone. You have the drivers merging into to traffic who do not understand what the term YIELD means. Lets not forget the drivers who don't understand stop signs and red lights. But you have those drivers everywhere. Locally we also have the overabundance of drivers who change lanes without looking, drive without hands, decide to make a left turn from the far right lane or take a right exit lane from the far left lane..... all without signaling or looking. And speaking of signals, did you know that turn signals must be an optional package when buying a car here, because few actually use them. Don't even get me started on the cell phone abusers and texters. The list of bad driving habits could be endless....... but equally bad is how some people react to them. I had a woman coming on to the highway merge right into my lane. I couldn't change to the left lane because there was a vehicle in it, I slammed on brakes (no easy task in a K5 blazer weighing over 4000 pounds) and managed to avoid an accident, two cars behind me slammed on breaks and went off the road. We were all quite shaken yet none of us got ugly, the young woman in the car that almost caused a four car pile up flipped us all off as she sped away. Of course the police said since we managed to avoid an accident there was nothing they could do. Of course not. Just like the guy in the black cherokee who was weaving in and out of traffic on Martin Luther King, going 80 mph or more while blowing up balloons. Yes, you read that right. He was inserting a balloon in his mouth and blowing it up while driving at a high speed down the road in 5pm rush hour traffic. I called the police on that, unfortunately he turned off before the police caught up with us so I don't know if they caught him, but they have his license.

Why do people continue to get behind the wheel of a vehicle and think they don't have to be responsible. I realize almost everybody has a license and drives these days. It's like eating, sleeping, breathing.... we can practically do it on auto-pilot. But a car is not a toy, you can kill someone or be killed with one.