It's Sunday! A time for worship, religious obligations, rituaslistic painting of one's flesh to support a favored football team, afternoon naps, and for me to create an addition to my blog postings.
Today I'd like to take you to a very special section of my brain. It's a magical place of seething criticism and astute observations. A place where tolerance for idiocy does not exist. It's a place where my attitude of swift and deliberate retribution rests. Yes, Faithful Followers, today we're visiting my RANT center. (If you have not already applauded in anticipation and glee, do so now)
Not long after automobiles were made available to the public, laws started springing up to make sure people used these vehicles properly. Laws are great. If you ever looked up "Dumbest Laws" in google, you'll most likely be entertained for hours. What truly boggles my mind is that no matter how dumb the law is, there was SOMEONE dumb enough to do the opposite in order to bring the law into existence. For example: In New York it is illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your pocket on Sunday. WHO was doing this in the first place? Ridiculous people...
That sets up for this rant. Obviously I'm not bothered by crazy laws. I'm upset at these things called automobiles, or "Cars" for the common tongue, and the people who drive them. Car laws have been enhanced and rewritted everytime someone has had a not-so-great idea. Seatbelts were introduced as more and more accidents occured at higher speeds. Now the top concern for car manufacturers isn't luxury or perfomance or even how cool the car looks. It's how safely can this car be destroyed when it hits something at 30-60 miles per hour?
We don't need safer cars! We don't need more restricted rules for opperations! What we NEED are smarter drivers!
Personally, it seems that we give anyone who can see straight and say their name a liscence to opperate a two thousand pound fiberglass, poly-alloy death weapon on wheels. Ok, maybe that's a bit harsh. But it seems like the educational process is wasted on rules and procedures without teaching people the essence of HOW to drive.
How many of you have been ticked off by the person who rides your bumper? You're already going 5 over the speed limit and the guy behind you still feels as if he can just nudge you a little bit that you'll speed up OR pull over, cry for failing at life and let him pass. It sickens me that people have this NASCAR mentallity where if they pass you, they will win some sort of trophy for getting to their destination a whole 8 seconds faster. Chill out! You're not Jeff Gordon!
I have lots of time to think in the car and I rant about these drivers to myself. But I also did some simple mathematic calculations. It just doesn't pay to speed! Listen, if my car (on its best days) gets 38 miles per gallon at a rate of 70 miles per hour. That means every hour I drive freeway is costing me rougly $6.50. Let's say I'm on a 160 mile trip. Total time: 2 hours, 16 minutes (appx). Total fuel cost: $14.02 If I increased my speed to 80 miles per hour I can shave a good 16 minutes off my total time! But my MPGs drop to 26... Those 16 minutes just cost me $6.48. Is it worth it?
That's 16 minutes off a 3 hour drive. But what about the short game? People seem to LOVE to race me to red lights. They must imagine that if they get there first that they'll have the best position for the next heat! Sorry, untrue. Cars burn more fuel accelerating in those start-up gears. My philosophy is always to coast to red lights (when I have a ways to go) instead of gunning it until I HAVE to stop. Most times, the light turns green and instead of wearing on my brakes for stopping AND spending more gas to get back up to 3rd or 4th gear, I can resume my course and speed without wasting anything.
These things just bother me. If people were smarter about their transportation, stopped being in a rush, stopped trying to be first, and just worry about letting EVERYONE get to where they're going safely, then the world probably wouldn't need so much oil, AND driving would be a lot more pleasant.
For more driving philosphies, leave me a comment asking for more. Feel free to share some of your own!
What bothers YOU about other drivers?
Gotta admit! This is my pet peeve and you have nailed it completely on the head! The speed limit is not a suggestion, it's a LIMIT. And I prefer to go about 60-64 when that's the limit...esp. when there are massive trucks driving at appx. 70mph in both directions of me. This is not good enough for most bad drivers behind me, and they like to pass people three cars behind me and then to make a point, cut me off for having the nerve to drive that slow! I'd prefer to "arrive alive" at my destination instead of putting the pedal to the metal and driving like a bad game of Night Driver on the old Atari. Also, i have noticed the phenomena of "light turns green when not racing to the light." This actually infuriates bad/race drivers all the more because you are temporarily in 1st pole position of the reality car game show that they are playing. Whatever, I just keep driving safely although I have to ask for forgiveness most mornings for losing my temper over having my life and the lives of others being put in danger over the glee that bad driver must get when he is then one car ahead of me at the next stop light. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to know there's someone else who's equally as irritated! I think the problems is that the powers that be only teach rules instead of principles. There's no driving philosophy. Plus, for testing purposes, you only need to make 7 out of 10. So... you have a lot of people who may not know every rule (I run into a LOT of stale-mates at 4 way stops because people don't know the rule of first come, first go...)
ReplyDeleteSpread the word! Adopt a driving philosophy that saves gas and $$ and makes the world a better place to commute in!
Thanks for sharing!
I like to drive fast... I pretend I'm a NASCAR driver almost every day :) ha I'm the person you hate. But I don't ride bumpers though, that's a bad life choice.
ReplyDelete