Some guy flipped me off today. It was really stupid. Of him, not me. I was where I was supposed to be, doing what I was supposed to be doing. The problem was that he wanted to turn left across traffic that had the right of way and instead of waiting for a proper opening, he just turned. And I was in front of him, blocking his way. So he flipped me off.It wasn’t like I could really move any direction but forward given the light was green – for me, not him.
I kept going. So did the two cars behind me. I don’t think the guy who was doing the left turn thing was getting much sympathy – or that his bullying tactic was working for him.
Normally, I don’t tempt fate. Someone wants to be an idiot, I give him plenty of room. But turning across lanes of traffic when it’s obvious that there are cars there really crosses the line. And then flipping the oncoming cars off? Moron.
Reminds me of the time when I was driving down a street in Oregon City that has no stop signs. All the cross streets have stop signs. The woman on the cross street decided to go as I came into the intersection. She had to slam on her brakes because guess what? *I* was there. And she flipped me off.
Hello? *I* did not have the stop sign – she did. And she knew it because she stopped for it and watched the traffic in front of me go by. But apparently, I was at fault for being on the road when she wanted to go.
Go figure.
I’ve made some stupid moves while driving but I never flipped the other driver off when it was clearly MY fault for being inattentive or stupid or whatever excuse I chose to use. I wanted to crawl under the dashboard and turn very red… OOOPS. Near fatal faux pas! Thank you God for letting me live to NEVER do THAT again!
So here is a list of my favorite pet peeves while driving (in no particular order):
People who decide to merge left from the right-hand off ramp where I-205 merges into I-5 Northbound (you know who you are: get into the left-hand merge lane and merge proper, OK? You aren’t supposed to merge from the off-ramp lane that goes to Sherwood).
People who speed up when they see merging traffic.
Merging traffic that expects the people on the freeway to stop or slow down for them.
Changing lanes without using a turn signal.
Stopping and letting cross traffic turn left in front of you when there is oncoming traffic. Who died and made you the crossing guard? And where you gonna go when the guy you just waved through is T-boned?
Driving 5 miles under the speed limit on the freeway. Take a back road if you can’t find the gas pedal. Please.
Leaving a gap of a quarter mile or more between yourself and the car in front of you when traffic is moving slowly. It’s the 2-second rule. If you can’t figure out the 2-second rule, do a car length for every ten miles per hour. It doesn’t add up to a quarter mile at 40 MPH. It’s less than 40 feet.
Tail-gating at any speed but especially in 1) school zones and 2) construction zones. The sign just said traffic fines double. I’m NOT going to pay a double fine just because you’re on my bumper, trying to go faster than the posted speed limit. ESPECIALLY in a school zone.
Driving five miles under the speed limit in the fast lane. Or driving exactly the speed limit in the fast lane. Come on, even the police don’t drive exactly the speed limit in the fast lane. Get over.
Flashing your turn signal to try to get someone driving slower than you to move out of the fast lane, even though 1) they are driving over the speed limit, too, and 2) there’s traffic in the slower lanes and they can’t move over.
Truck drivers going 45 mph who decide to pass other truck drivers going over mountain passes and who just pull over into the fast lane in front of cars going 70. Hello? Anyone look in their rearview/sideview mirrors lately?
Tailgaters in the rain.
Tailgaters in the snow.
People who stop when there is NOT a stop sign. This happens all the time turning off of 99E onto 14th Street in Oregon City. The cross street has a stop sign, but 14th Street traffic has no stop sign. But people stop there all the time and wave traffic.
Anyone who waves traffic across. it’s one thing to stop for yield traffic or merge traffic when it’s slow, but to wave someone across lanes of traffic? And then they get T-boned and you go your merry way?
That’s it for now. I’m sure I can think of more irritating scenarios. And I bet you can add some, too.
Jaci Dawn 
Hmmmm, so maybe he was trying to show you how old he was?
I agree with your “other drivers” and notice that most of what they do is actually illegal. Too bad that law enforcement is busy with other stuff to enforce some of those. I don’t remember…did they take real drivers ed out of Oregon schools and make it optional at the schools? Here, the schools don’t have to offer drivers ed because there are private instructors offering the required 30 hour class. Then the new driver must complete a “required” 50 hours of behind the wheel. Supposedly, one must keep a log of those 50 hours to be turned into DMV for your D/L test, but there’s no one to check on that.
So young drivers learn their bad habits from the parents bad habits and then add their own bad habits…..
Real driver’s Ed has been out of Oregon Schools as long as I’ve been in Oregon. Kids are required to either take an expensive Driver’s Ed class or log 150 hours behind the wheel under their parent’s supervision. I opted to teach Arwen & Levi how to drive that way (parental supervision) because we couldn’t afford Driver’s Ed at the time. I refused to teach Chrystal because she had bad grades and couldn’t do two things at once, but I’d teach her now. But, yes – young drivers learn from parents who have bad habits and who never attempt to refresh their knowledge of traffic safety rules and bad begets bad.
But you know who my driver’s ed teacher was, don’t you? He was later arrested for driving over a dog on a city sidewalk and his blood alcohol was 3.0 at the time… Yeah – Leonard Schaffer. Scary.
I think he was trying to train the dog to heel? ;-P
Oh hahahahaha! My ribs ache from laughing.
When I was 7 months pregnant with Chris, an elderly lady ran a stop sign and plowed into me. Her response? “Where did you come from???”. Um, I was driving down the residential street and DIDN’T have a stop sign.
The other day I almost called the number on the back of a Halliburton vehicle to report the horrible, reckless driving. When one is going 67 mph on a two lane highway with a speed limit of 65 and there are three vehicles in front of you, you do not need the car behind so close that you can’t see their bumper. Idiot. But I have never flipped anyone off. 😉
yeah my dad will like this