Freeway or Raceway?

I don’t know what it is about this summer, but man are drivers crazy out there!  I can’t remember the last time I noticed how incredibly aggressive they are.  I wonder many times if I am driving on a local freeway or in a NASCAR race?

Now, admittedly, I’m not the most passive driver.  I have been known to, on occasion, use some “not so ladylike” language and gestures when in traffic.  When I was younger, I was really bad.  I would tailgate like nobody’s business and get irate if they wouldn’t get out of my way in the fast lane.  It was my form of vigilante justice, getting the slow pokes out of the way so the rest of us could race to our destination.

As an older (mature?) woman with a child, I have learned to slow down and relax…a lot.  That’s not to say I don’t have my angry moments, they’re just less frequent.  It’s especially difficult when you have a child in the car who loves to repeat every word you say.  I’ve learned to get real creative with swear words.

Lately, though, it seems drivers are just nuts…tailgating, swerving in and out of traffic, cutting people off, running red lights, the list goes on and on.  Maybe it’s the nice weather?  Maybe it’s all the repressed anger of being passive-aggressive in their daily lives?  In the Midwest, we don’t scream and yell at each other, so I think it just bottles up and then we can take out our rage anonymously on others.

It also seems the larger the vehicle, the bigger the jerk driving it.  I believe they feel because they’re bigger, they own the road.  They can ride up your rear bumper, blind you with their headlights, and not signal turns.  The driver is usually a woman talking on a cell phone with no one else in the vehicle or a man with a small appendage (if you get my drift).  Either way, they’re lame and need to be banned from the roads.

I think the next time I come across the aggressive driver, I’ll do this:  instead of screaming and swearing, I’ll wear a big smile and do a parade wave as if  I don’t have a care in the world.  That’ll piss them off for sure.