Driving idiots

Today I came across two real doozies.

I often come across the careless, the negligent, the "I'm not tuned into the world right now, despite my 80MPH velocity up I295" and the downright vindictive. ("How dare you ride a motorcycle around me?")

But today, I came across two real doozies.

The first was a woman in a minivan. She was going to do 72MPH in the fast/overtaking lane. No matter what. Some twit in a white Honda decided he wouldn't do much more than that in the middle lane. Which left the slow lane for those doing 80 to 90. Somewhat concerned for my safety, I followed at a safe-ish distance - for about 5 or so miles, and then I decided my safety was best served by blasting past her as fast as I could. I achieved a fairly decent 3 figure velocity. About 10 minutes later - she passed me! Doing, need I say, about 72MPH in the fast lane.

The other one was driving a Ford Explorer. His left front tire was all but flat. How do I know? He was yacking on the phone as he overtook me - I was doing about 85 - on the inside. Something seemed odd - so I looked at the car. You do these things when a car veers toward you in a drunken lurch. I noticed the front tire - it was almost flat! I slowed down; heck - I almost pulled an emergency stop! I got onto the shoulder, and called it in - someone with a tire like that? They'll kill some sodding innocent. He could barely control the damn vehicle, the tire was so flat.

In the last week, I've helped the cops nab a drunk driver, almost been rammed when some idiot changed lanes, but at about 30 MPH slower than the lane I was in, seen someone drive at 72MPH in the fast lane and almost got wiped out by a fool with a flat.

The worst moment? When I pulled a real emergency stop, for the guy who pulled in front of me. And slowed down. He wanted to go from I295 to I76, but he neglected to check that the lane between the two roads was not occupied. With nowhere to go, I pulled that brake lever like I was trying to break it. (So to speak.) Heck, I even stomped on the non-existent rear brake. The guy behind me - his tires squealed as he couldn't eradicate forward motion as quickly as my Ducati. He then did his his level best to overtake me, so his passenger could give me the finger. What the heck did I do? Avoid ramming some idiot who pulled in front of me? I'll take a stupid gesture over a close examination of an unknown backseat - any day!

(I let him go - fools like that are likely to do something as equally stupid to the initial problem.)

There are plenty of times when I'm glad I can out-accelerate and out-brake pretty much anything on the road. But there are times when you wonder if sanity is a detriment. After all - when everyone else is insane...

Carolyn Ann