Driving Thoughts

When I grew up, we drove for most vacations. In fact, that's more or less why I ended up in ATL! I remember road trips to Charleston, SC, with an overnight here in ATL, or just ATL as THE destination for us to eat and shop (a sport in my family :) Not much going on in the big O, so we took vacations to see some great things. DC was a long trip, but worth it, ditto for Detroit/Greenfield Village and Philly. New Orleans was a hit (oysters off Bourbon Street-yum!) and "Are we there yet?" never gets old (except to parents, me included). Even in college I was on the road (Lexington, VA was over 8 hours away, my sister (at the time) in Charleston was almost 11 hours-not fun driving straight through but I've done it). What I'm leading up to is my credentials for griping about "other" drivers. First off-I am agressive and Susie yells at me all the time, but overall I am safe (okay, I do take some risks, hopefully very calculated ones, but I do NOT put my family in danger). With that being said, I will now come to my point:

OTHER people just can't drive. No turn signals, no allowing someone to merge, no manners, and total impatience! Worse than that, I am really griping about our recent KY drive for Thanksgiving. Why is that such a trauma? It's the "non-professionals" out there--I call them the "OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS" drivers. Church folk make fun of people who show up for Easter, Mothers' Day and Christmas ONLY. I make fun of fools who don't have any sense but get on the highways of our fine nation and try to drive home for the holidays--and make a mess of everything! We're ALL trying to get somewhere (ditto for ATL traffic) and you can't get through a wall of traffic. But if we ALL learned to get OUT of the left lane unless you are passing someone, traffic would flow more smoothly and nerves would calm, etc. etc. etc. Don't gripe about riding in the left lane at "YOUR" speed--if someone comes up on you, get out of their way-as simple as that! When someone flies past you on the right, again, get out of their way! If you don't signal, I am not going to let you in (though I will not go out of my way or speed up to block you if you have the right of way). What about people who come flying off the on-ramp and cut into traffic instead of merging? How rude/stupid is that? Again, you are NOT more important than the person sitting next to you in traffic; wait with the rest of us! (Note to you all: it's Friday night, and I have yet to leave the office so this is BEFORE sitting in traffic : ) If any of you doubt my gripes, try merging onto I-75 South from HWY 5/Canton Road exit. I have seem some truly stupid moves-this week and every day!

Bottom line is this: We are Southerners, we are supposed to have manners--Act like it on the Interstates and surface streets, please! Change lanes? Signal. Someone asks you politely to allow them to merge? (also known as a turn signal) Make room. Don't ride bumpers (look in any collision shop-note that 95% of the wrecked vehicles are front/rear impacts from either hitting someone in front or being rear-ended). If the traffic is moving, move with it or move out of the way. Hopefully my fellow I-75 drivers see this post in the next few moments so I can get home quickly tonight : ) Y'all have a safe and happy weekend! Cheers, Bo