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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

I drive like a grandma

My grandma taught me how to drive.

She taught me a lot of crazy stuff that I never use, like always drive in the middle lane when there are three or more lanes, and signal about a minute before you need to turn.

But the most important thing she taught me about driving was conservativeness.  I realized from Grandma that it's a lot more important to avoid accidents than it is to be right when driving. I think Grandma and I are in the minority. A lot of people have a lot of road rage.

I was driving on 8th North in Orem, heading toward the freeway.

A little ahead, I saw a car pull out across the three lanes of 8th North traffic to make a very dangerous left turn. By the way that car was driving, I could tell that they were just looking for clear westbound traffic, and were just hoping that eastbound was clear.

Another car from the other side of the road did the same thing, but in the opposite direction. So at this point, there were two cars in the middle of a very busy road trying to do synchronized turns.

A third car appeared, and they were all crawling around the middle a the road where they didn't belong. And I was leading a pack of cars driving sixty miles an hour toward this conglomeration.

A bunch of red flags go up in my head, and I slow down. Really, really slow, so I have no chance of hitting them, or being part of the huge impending conflagration if they get forcefully hit by someone on the other side of the street.  Eventually, the crazy cars all cleared out of the road, but I still drove slowly for ten more seconds.

This event was significant. Utah has some really bad drivers, but these were three of the worst drivers here, stuck in the middle of the second biggest road in Utah County at the exact same time.

It warranted an extra ten seconds of extreme slowness, in my opinion. I think most crashes happen in the aftermath of someone else doing something stupid. I'm trying to avoid accidents, not be right.

The guy behind me honked at me, flipped me off, swerved around me without signalling, passed me, and stopped at the stoplight on 8th North and State Street. A couple seconds later I got to the stoplight, too.

We waited there together for two long minutes until the stoplight turned green.

Photo purchased from Rendery on istockphoto.

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4 comments:

  1. Isnt that the worst! When some idiot gives you the bird and speeds away then you meet up again, side by side and its totally uncomfortable. THE WORST!!!! Ha Ha Ha Sorry that was you!

    I didnt learn how to drive from my Nana however if I did I think the world would be one big mess if I did! And by the world I mean anywhere I was behind the wheel. Ha

    XOXO
    Yours Truly

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  2. Thanks for the consolation. :)

    My grandma's name was Helen. They used to call her Helen Wheels.

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  3. Lol that last bit was too funny! I hate it when that happens, when people speed around you just to slow down again. Especially when they are rude about it. I am sure he was very embarrassed.

    I have noticed that drivers in Austin are much better than those in Utah, always waving you over and thanking you for letting them in. Very polite. And they drive slow too, even on the freeway.

    Haha! Helen wheels.

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  4. Sadly, still no proof that the aphorism, "Texas is always better," is false.

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