Read. Follow Directions. Don’t be Rude.

Sometimes driving drives me nuts, and the more cars on the road, the more chances there are to become irritated. One thing that irritates me greatly is when people are just plain inconsiderate and think that the rules just don’t apply to them. That somehow they’re outside, superior to the rules the rest of us follow and it’s okay for them to break them.

To get into Portland from the west side, many of us take the Sunset Highway that takes them through the Vista Ridge Tunnel. The road has three lanes and each lane goes to a different area: north, city center and south—so you have to be in a certain lane to get to the destination you want to go to. There are signs posted telling drivers which lane goes where—and it’s posted several times (so there’s no excuse not to know which lane you ought to be in).

And then comes the sign that says “No lane changes for the next ½ mile” for the section right before the tunnel until the three lanes turn into three separate roads right after the tunnel ends. This sign makes perfect sense to me because traffic slows with the approaching tunnel (which creates more congestion) and if everyone tried to change lanes right before the road diverges, there’d be chaos.

However, there always seems to be someone who decides that they don’t really care that they’re screwing everyone else behind them by switching lanes in or around the tunnel. Almost without fail, this inconsiderate action causes everyone behind this car to slow down as they try to squeeze themselves into a lane they should have already been in. It makes me so irritated because these inconsiderate people had ample time to get into the lane they wanted to be in but just didn’t. Likely they wanted to bypass the traffic (in the lane they eventually wanted to be in) and then cut in line at the last second—guess what, that’s what we all want to do, but we don’t (because we know that it causes problems for everyone else).

It’s just so selfish. And whenever this happens it puts me in a foul mood—and that’s never a good start to the day. It’s not hard to follow the rules, but apparently it’s easy for some to break them.

The Hold Up

Being stuck in traffic sucks. No one likes it. My annoyance quickly builds when I’m driving and traffic suddenly starts to slow down (sometimes to a stopping point); when this happens, I’ll crane my head to see what the hold up is because I find it especially irritating if I can’t tell why there’s heavy traffic. If I see there’s a traffic accident, then I know there’s a valid reason for the slow traffic and I can be a bit more patient. However, sometimes there’s no apparent reason. It’s just congestion and there’s just too many cars and not enough road for everyone to share. And while both of these situations annoy me greatly, one thing annoys me even more: people being inconsiderate and causing traffic to back up.

Not long ago I was driving during rush hour on fairly busy roads, and I finally got passed a particularly busy intersection, but then quickly had to stop because the cars in front of me had stopped. I strained to see what the hold up was and I found the perpetrator: a car had decided to stop in the middle of the road to let out a passenger. The area in question may have been a low speed zone, but that didn’t mean going zero speed was appropriate.

This whole situation irritated me greatly because that stopped car could have easily gone around the corner (a mere ten feet away) and let their passenger off without blocking any traffic. It was just so inconsiderate. I was mad for the people behind me, waiting at the green light to move passed the intersection and onto the road that they weren’t able to get onto.

I mean how hard is it to realize that you’re inconveniencing everyone else? A little common sense, that’s all you need. It only takes a bit of self-awareness to know that traffic is heavy and maybe I should move my car out of the way of these other cars. [Pause.] But apparently common sense isn’t a quality that everyone has. [Sigh.]

Don’t Drive Me Up a Wall

Everyone has pet peeves. Sometimes they’re large and sometimes they’re small, but for whatever reason, they just irritate us. It could be the way someone constantly smacks their gum, or says “Um” all the time, or takes credit for things they didn’t do, or constantly tells the same jokes over and over again. Each of us is special and different when it comes to things that piss us off. One of my pet peeves happens while driving, and it’s the people who don’t signal when they’re changing lanes.

If someone wants to change into my lane and traffic is heavy, then it’s especially necessary to signal so I have enough time to slow down. I’m not a mind reader; I’d like to know that you veering into my lane is intentional and not because you’re drunk or having a medical problem or just don’t see me in the lane. It’s just so inconsiderate. Using a blinker is not hard. They place the knob right next to the steering wheel; you barely have to move your hand. It’s not difficult. And yet for some people, it must be exceedingly hard to do this very simple task. Perhaps they think that the world just revolves around them and that they’re above the driving etiquette that everyone else follows.

There’s a reason blinkers were invented. Once upon a time when the horseless carriage was new, they didn’t have blinkers, which I’m sure caused some accidents. Improvements were made so that communication could be made more easily to those around them, and thus blinkers were born. They’re useful so use them.