Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Chicken

Motorists and pedestrians in this part of the rural South discovered something very useful to them (and maddening for me) some time ago: If you pull out in front of or step out in front of a speeding car, it has pretty much no choice but to slow down or stop for you.  

It's a great way of cutting in front of someone or saving time getting from point A to point B, even if it makes you look like a complete idiot or total jackass.  The trick is to not cut in front of someone who's so close they won't have time to stop; but cutting in front of those oncomers who do have the time to slow down (again, the maddening thing here is that the right-of-way vehicle is forced to slow down)  is a pretty safe bet.  Of course I wonder how many accidents this has caused when the oncoming driver wasn't paying attention.  

In any event, when I drive here in this town, I constantly have emboldened drivers and jaywalkers crossing, cutting, and turning in front of me, forcing me to slow down when I have the right of way.  What am I going to do?  Run them down?

1 comment:

DixieChick said...

Well duh, of course you are. Sheesh, isn't that what natural selection is all about? ;)