I Hate Driving

This morning I had an epiphany. Driving is a game of chicken between those who want to follow the law and those who don't.

This morning as I was driving to work, another car nearly ran into me. Here's how it happened:

I was on I-195 going to the train station. At the end of 195 is my exit. I turn on my blinker to signal that I need to get over into the exit lane. In the exit lane, there's one car in front of me, an empty space next to me, and one car behind me. The car in front of me needed to get into my lane, so I slowed down a bit to let the car into the lane. As I began to move into the exit lane, the car that was behind me races right up next to me and starts to move into my lane! Needless to say, I immediately hit the brakes so that this car would not hit me. He moved into my lane in front of me, and I was then able to get into the exit lane. Of course, as I drove by that car I gave it the bird.

This highlights what I have noticed on numerous occasions on the road -- the game of chicken is between me, the car following the law, and the other car, the one driving like an asshole. It's a game of chicken to see who will give up first to prevent a car accident. I could rattle off probably another two dozen stories with similar circumstances -- like the time when I was driving straight through a one-lane intersection and the car behind me decided to make its own lane in the intersection to try to pass me, or the time when I was merging onto I-195 and the car coming off of 195 decided to skip the yield sign, block me from getting onto the on-ramp, and then swerve towards me after I let the car pass me.

Seriously, I cannot take this shit much longer. Please build a useful, functioning public transit system already.