slow down people
Last night, little miss Em refused to brush her teeth… again.
There was something slightly different to her usual tearful drama, though. As
it turns out, she had an infected tooth and her distress was actually genuine.
Yes, I know, we’re having a major dental epidemic in my family. I just had a root canal, the hubby had two (of course he couldn’t pass up the chance to
one-up me, I’ll-see-your-one-tooth-and-raise-you kinda thing) and now Emily.
So we made an emergency visit to the dentist this morning.
After which I promptly attempted to promptly drop her off at school so she wouldn't miss much. Since I
have late mornings and daddy usually takes her to school, I had not been on the
freeways during rush hour for a while.
This morning I saw five separate car accidents… count them
FIVE SEPARATE CAR ACCIDENTS… during my 18-mile roundtrip ride.
One of them happened while we were slowed to an almost
standstill for an accident to be cleared. This idiot was texting/emailing/tweeting on his phone and just
gingerly rear-ended the car in front of him.
IN A TRAFFIC JAM!
BEHIND AN ACCIDENT!!
Of course, this being Los Angeles, the crawling rate of
freeway speed on the 405 and the 101 abruptly dropped. Cars were backed up from
miles. Both ways. Making people more anxious and more, well, late.
I used to like driving.
I used to feel safe in my car.
I will never ever drive anything but a big fat SUV in which
I can clearly see the road ahead of me, unobstructed. And anxious, hurried
people get off my tail to see better too. Gas prices and the environment be
damned!
So my Public Service Announcement for this week is:
Slow the fuck down people!
And STOP USING YOUR CELL PHONES WHILE DRIVING!
That urgent tweet about
how it sucks to be #stuckintraffic is REALLY NOT WORTH IT!
You’re welcome.
What about you? How are you doing on the roads lately?
posted by Unknown @ 12:19 PM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
Is incredible how people don´t be careful. the accidents is the worse
I can't even imagine driving in traffic like that on a daily basis - partly because if I can't go 15 miles over the speed limit I get antsy. Part of it comes from living in Podunk, Michigan where people will drive in the passing lane for 10 miles if they know they're going to be making a left-hand turn in the next town down the road, and they can't merge into their own lane when making a turn onto a divided road so that oncoming traffic could also turn into their own lane(I did a whole post/rant/hissyfit on that but I think it got shit-canned when I purged the blog), and they routinely blow through stop signs (just had that happen again yesterday at a 4-way stop as I was getting ready to take my turn - the woman never even took her foot off her accelerator as she went through).
It does seem that every other person you see on the road has a phone to their ear, which is probably better than trying to text or read. That really is insane. It's rare to see someone pulled off the road while they're on their phone.
That said, I've driven in Milwaukee and Detroit where I've been doing 85, pacing most of the cars around me in what seems like 4 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic to a little country mouse, and had cars still pass me. Then I know how the Q-tips I pass here feel.
My feelings exactly, PPH. Thanks for chiming in.
I have one thing to say to people who speed, and especially those who cut me off while speeding: You give my defensive driving skills WAY too much credit!
Traffic is bad on certain parts of London, but no way near as bad as LA!
It's usually not so bad. Plus, when you're a local, you know the times and places to avoid. But Monday was super bad, even by LA standards. You'll see soon enough:)How much longer till the big trip?
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