I’ve been driving for close to 45 years. I hesitate to say, “I’ve seen it all” because I’m afraid that, once I do, something new and outrageous will happen.
I can’t say for sure but— do you think it’s getting worse? We can probably agree that cellphones have made driving worse.
Now I’m not saying there were no distractions before texting. You could be distracted by kids in the car, spilling your coffee, applying makeup and whatever else you’ve seen over the years but cellphones have elevated it to a whole new level. And the person might not be texting. They may be looking for a number, a song on their playlist or typing in an address for the GPS.
The thing that bothered me this week was someone not obeying the rules of the road. Remember those? I know, for some of us it’s been awhile.
A little reminder here: At a four-way stop sign it’s the person who got there first. If you got there at the same time it’s the one on the right. What happened to me was at a two-way stop sign.
We were on our way home from my daughter Kat’s house in Acushnet after a fun Game Night when we reached, I’ll admit, a confusing intersection.
We were coming from the upper right and had a stop sign…so we stopped. The other car was coming from the lower road and had no stop sign so we waited. That’s when the other car slowed down and came to a stop (with no sign) to allow us to go. We continued to wait another second or two because… it wasn’t our turn! The other car insisted so we went. I thought about why he might have done that and I suppose if that driver had a bad experience with someone at an intersection, he/she might have decided, “That’s it! I’m letting everyone go from now on. I’ll wait!” I guess I can understand that but…THATS NOT THE RULE! And before you ask, no I don’t follow every rule in the book and rules are made to be broken yadda, yadda, yadda…… That’s just one of my pet peeves.
Pet peeves was always a popular topic on my radio show. If you were struggling for a topic, every three months or so you could pull out the ol’ pet peeve topic and the phone lines lit up! And driving was always a popular category.
We also went down to Pocasset this week to apply for that TSA pre check and you know what that means…. over the Bourne Bridge and right into a Rotary!
Tourists (and locals) in a rotary! Never a dull moment! AND… there was a broken down truck on the bridge so as you maneuvered around the rotary you had to make sure you could get to the outer lane to get by the truck. I just closed my eyes (Priscilla was driving) and hoped for the best.
Sometimes I’m amazed when I realize that many of my friends are in jobs where they have to recertify every few years to keep their skills up yet, we learn to drive when we’re 16 and then…that’s it! Except for the eye test you never have to prove you know the rules again! How smart is that when you have that machine going 60 or 70 miles an hour down a highway?
I don’t drive as much as I used to but I do feel for you if you have a long commute every day. I spoke to someone recently who works from home now after a 43-year commute to Providence. He doesn’t miss it at all. Priscilla drives to Quincy or Dedham for work and said the one good thing about Covid was less traffic. It’s back to normal (if that is such a thing) now.
Good luck my friends! Stay alert, stay off your phones, and maybe look back for a little refresher on the rules. Remember those?
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