On The Road (Etiquette)

I’ve spent eleven days traveling between Florida and the Western United States, and one of the things I took note of was the signs.  When you enter Texas, you’ll see signs saying, “Drive Friendly;” and the other sign that caught my eye was use the left lane ONLY to pass other vehicles.  Both of these signs seemed to really have an impact on the manner in which people shared the road.  Even myself!  As soon as I seen the drive friendly sign, I felt some kind of relief, and it turned out to be a pleasant to drive though Texas.  People didn’t dill dally in passing lane, and some would even tap their breaks and fall behind the car they were slowly attempting to pass just to allow people like me to make my way pass them, without disengaging the cruise control. 

Yet when we were returning to our Gulf Coast home, the closer we got to the Louisiana state line, the ruder the driving became.  There were more cars in the passing lane than those who were being passed.  And most times we were lucky to be going the speed limit, let alone anything above that.  And then it occurred to me, was it the friendly signs that made the difference?  Do people actually need a sign to remind themselves of the rules of the road? Like get the fuck over if you’re not passing another vehicle at the moment?

If you’re one of those people who talks to others in your rearview mirror and your thoughts are along the lines of, “I’m going the speed limit, and if they don’t like it they can kiss my ass,” then you’re just plain rude.  Be courteous.  Give it a little extra gas and pass, or tap that break and fall behind the car that you are apparently having trouble passing in the first place. Do you really need a road sign to tell you how to be?

If you’re going the speed limit, then good for you, but not all of us or our vehicles are calibrated the same way.  When I’m traveling distances, I use my cruise control.  The cruise on my Ford Explorer doesn’t seem to float up and down like the one on the rental car we used on this latest trip.  We rented a mini-van and to compensate for the lousy cruise control, we would set the cruise for five mile over the speed limit.  So when we were traveling down hill, we were cruising, but if we were climbing a mountain, then we were lucky to be doing two miles over the speed limit. 

So as you see, there are reasons why we’re not all traveling the same speed limit.  And if I am speeding, it’s none of your business.  I didn’t count the cops we passed on our 4,751 mile journey, but I can say we didn’t get a ticket doing 80 in a 75, or 85 in an 80 mile per hour zone. 

We have signs here in Florida too.  They say, “Arrive Alive.”  When you’re impeding traffic, the people behind you are getting angry.  This is why road rage is now a part of our American vocabulary, and why we have signs that say arrive alive. 

In 1990 I had relocated from Southern California to Columbus, Ohio.  At that time in my young life, I carried a pistol in my pick-up truck, due to the freeway shootings in California.  It had become a habit. 

Well one day this guy in front of me at an intersection blew off our green light to allow traffic from the other direction to turn in front of us.  It was a hot summer day in afternoon rush hour traffic. Maybe he thought he was doing a good thing.  Yet he didn’t have any concern for those of us behind him, who sat through two lights. 

I beeped my horn in frustration. Who knows, maybe he had fallen asleep?  I’d say maybe he was having car problems, but his foot never left the brake.  Anyway, he gets out of his car with an angry look on his face, and I flash him my pistol.  He then returns to his car and drove on when that light turned green a third time. 

That was the last time I ever carried a gun in my vehicle, and why I am so against allowing people to have concealed weapons permits.   If that man hadn’t gotten back in his car, I may have shot him.  I had become the person whom I was protecting myself from.  Road rage, it happens that fast and that sudden.

A.M. rush hour in Columbus, Ohio – a man in a utility pick-up truck gets angry and tries to run me off the road in my Ford Probe.  We’re on the outer-belt doing about 70 miles per hour.  He runs his truck into my car and tries to push me into bumper to bumper traffic to my right.  No shit, I’m on two wheels.  He was pissed off because I knew the traffic patterns and got around the traffic and was passing him in the middle lane . . . with a smile on my face.  (I might have even waived at him too).

Maybe I shouldn’t have smiled, but hey, who would have thought he would use his big ass pick-up truck as a weapon?   You never know who’s in that car or truck behind, beside or in front of you; they may be just that angry and bat-shit crazy enough to cause physical harm, if not death.

Be nice.  Be nice on the road like you are when you’re in church.  Better to drive with love than to be the source of anger and frustration.  Ride on!