Minnesota Musing: Judging Bad Drivers to be Selfish

Does anyone remember the year of Driver's Education Class? The months of behind the wheel training, and the test at the DMV and the final driving test to confirm that you were a safe driver?

I ask you, dear reader, do you ever see people who drive like maniacs? You know the type. The type that:

• follows very closely
• makes loud noises behind you
• makes gestures with their middle finger as they pass you
• passes extremely close to the front of your car
• pulls out in front of you causing you to slam on the brakes?
• drives along side you when there are cars merging onto the highway
• drives along side of you when someone is pulled over
• doesn't pass you, just hangs in the left lane next to your car
• passes and then, slows down in front of your car

Trust me, it's a problem that's been going on for a long time.

My parents, and mind you I haven't ridden in a car with the two of them for over 35 years, used to look at the crazy people driving and state that they probably got their drivers license as the prize in a box of Cracker Jacks.

Mind you, my parents were the first people to need driver's licenses. My father's first license was sometime after the mid 1940's and it cost a quarter to obtain.

Boot legging Delivery Guys were the original fast car people, then supposedly they became the NASCAR people.

If you are from Minnesota and you go to places like Charlotte, North Carolina, you will find that people drive there like they're all from the speedway.

I find great pleasure in making a left turn when I have a tailgater behind me. They are inches from my rear bumper and their car language [like body language] forces me to believe that they are looking for a clear spot to pass me.

Click. Blink, blink, blink. Brake lights.

Now, they have to slow down and wait for me to turn.

I notice that most of them act like I did something wrong. I turned.

It's nothing personal on my end. I need to turn. I refuse to go another mile just because they don't want me to turn. But, it's not all about them. They need to understand that.

It's about me. That's right. Me. Me. Me.

It's about me getting to my destination.

Hopefully I will never have to deal with them being behind me again, but most of these people are behind me on a daily basis. They take the same road as I do. They get behind me every day. Perhaps they are not as selfish as they are unlucky.

One day, I was tailgated almost all the way to my destination. I needed to go to the grocery store and I needed to purchase Dog Food at the dog food cooperative. The red truck turned off to go to a different store.

What a relief. When I finished buying my groceries and my dog food and was heading back home, I noticed a commotion on the road ahead. Guess what it was?

There was a highway patrol, one car in the grass with its rear end all smashed and, that red, shiny dented pickup right behind it.

I am very thankful that he didn't smash into my car. He would have if he could have, but the other car took one for the team. Why these people are allowed to continue to drive is beyond me.

On Highway 35, there are lots of billboards advertising different products and businesses that want you to stop in and spend your money.

One such billboard was for a Car Insurance broker who wanted your business by asking if you noticed that when you notice that all drivers have seemingly forgotten how to drive.

If everyone takes the time to drive nice, we'd definitely notice it on the roads.

Shall we blame the car manufacturers who make their cars engines faster, their tires stickier, their car bodies more race car like.

We have commercials with people like Matthew McConaghy who drive very sedately and calmly. Can we not drive like him?

Can we blame false advertising. Like see ya, Juiia?

The problem is not going to resolve itself.

So, what do we do next?