King of the Road!

I don't know what it is like in your area but here in the Metro Detroit area people think they own the road. It irks me. Really irks me. The lack of common sense and the lack of consideration from people around here drives me up a wall. (No pun intended)

Today I dealt with two individuals. Both lacked common sense and one was just trying to be the King of the Road. In the first instance I was merging onto a major freeway this morning on my way to work. As I was heading down the on ramp I noticed that there was a car in the lane I needed to merge into. Now, normal people out there in the world would do a couple different things as the person in the inside lane while traffic was merging. If the the next lane over is clear you would move over to allow the mergers on the freeway, or if that is not possible you will slow down and let anyone ahead of you in, NOT try and cut the merger off. Yes, I was coming down the on ramp at about 75mph and I was ahead of him. To his left was no one, behind him, no one. But he wanted to pinch me off for some unknown reason. I was so clearly ahead of him because when he laid on his horn I looked over to my left to see no one. His front tire was equal to my rear tire. How in god's name he thought he had the right of way is beyond me. I got in front of him, waved to him and hit it up to 85 where he couldn't keep up. For someone in such a hurry he sure wasn't able to keep up.

The second instance is one that happens a lot here in Michigan. We have what is called a Michigan Turn-Around. When on roads that are split by a median we have a turn off so that you can head the other direction. They are commonly two lanes. Common sense would dictate that the driver on the inside lane would be expected to turn into the inside lane and the outside driver to the outside. Well here in good ole Michigan it works this way, Inside driver will go wherever he damn well pleases which is usually the outside lane while cutting off people already there. Of course that happened to me this morning. Of course I made sure to get my spot back by speeding up and slipping ahead of him for kicks. It's nice to have a car that goes quick.

In is common in the Detroit area to be driving down the freeway and put your signal on and the person in the lane you are trying to merge into (who would be about 5 car Lengths back) gun it not to let you in. Everyone has to be in front of everyone. It's really weird. Sometimes it is just fun to turn the turn signal on to watch people freak out that they might have a car in front of them.

I am not a perfect driver. I have made mistakes in the past. Unlike most drivers, when I accidentally cut someone off I do my best to show an apology. Unlike the guy who pulled out in front of me and I had to slam on my breaks not to drive straight into his trunk. His reaction for his bonehead move was to flip me off. Yeah, that makes sense.

So to all you stupid drivers out there. Wrap it around a tree.