Hey bud! The road ain't just for you!

I think I have seen my fair share of bad driving. I've lived in urban cities on both sides of the country. I've been to countries where they drive on the other side of the road and they drive off the road. In some cities in the United States, it's common practice not to look for the green light, but turn your head and observe for when the cross street's light turns red. I've been to China. Chinese have a cultural trait of driving badly. The heavier the cultural influence, they worse they drive. Chinese-Americans drive bad. This school is for women, Chinese men drive just as bad. Because of the Chinese-Americans in San Gabriel, CA, to survive, you have to drive not as badly as everyone else. In mainland China, it is a magnitude worse. Using honking and hand gestures for communication would be an improvement. So I think I can say what is bad driving.

So right now, there's two things ticking me off, and it's because some drivers think they're better than all other drivers. . The first is people who can't park. I'm not even talking about parallel parking. I'm talking about ordinary perpendicular parking. Some people don't understand the white lines. No matter what, they have to take up two spaces, and have the white line under a significant part of their car. I think these are the same people who couldn't color between the lines in kindergarten. Maybe eating the paste got to them. So there's less space for me to park. Either I can't park in that space, or there is no space for my door to open. I have to suck in my gut and squeeze out, or worse, try to get out on the passenger's side. I sometimes think about getting a hatchback, so I could just exit out the back, though my car has a fold-down rear seat with trunk access, and in the past, I've squeezed through it and used the emergency trunk release. Thankfully, I haven't had to do that to exit my car. One more thing, a Lincoln Navigator is not a compact car. There's a reason that space is marked compact.

The other thing is people who miss their lane. This happens in two ways, on the highways, and off. On the highway, it's people who will only get in their lane for the offramp at the last moment. Usually, it's because it's rush hour and they didn't want to queue up and wait like everyone else. So in the five yards before the offramp, they come to a complete stop to wait for a space to open up, holding up all through traffic. It's your own damn fault for trying to cut in line! Don't hold the rest of us up, because you were too good to wait. On city roads, it's usually someone who wants to make a left turn, but realizes it too late, so they sit in the center lane with their left blinker on. So it's a green light, and everyone behind wants to go straight, but the damn idiot won't let them through because he or she wasn't paying attention. Going straight and making a U-turn, and then a right, is obviously too great a mental strain.

I know I screw up when I drive, but I try to limit the damage to myself. I'm not out to inconvenience other people.