Wed 29 Nov 2006
Road Rage in Action
Posted by Jon Haynes under Uncategorized
[4] Comments
The other day Tim and I were on route 1 north in southern Rhode Island, and witnessed road rage in action. While I was driving these cars all started bunching up and cutting in front of me. Every time a left even a couple of car lengths of distance someone would cut in front of me. Then I mentioned that there was and accident waiting to happen, then it started escalating and Tim starting taking pictures. Apparently, after some number of people had cut in front of me this guy in a white pickup truck got mad probably at the guy in the red pickup for not letting him back in or just wanted to get in front of the traffic, and decided to pass by going off the road. He did make sure to pass on the left, but through maybe that he could make it in front of the other cars before he had gotten out of the left hand turn lane.
This is yet more proof of how messed up our road system is in the US; this particular road has many turnarounds on the left hand side so the left stays clogged with either people that will need to turn or people turning around and attempting to merge into 60 mph traffic (speed limit is 50, but traffic often moves much faster) with no almost no merge lane. This alone makes for deadly scenario and is the reason why they closed a number of them off up farther North on the road. However, this represents a small portion of a larger problem with are driving system we have too many left hand exits in this country so people must be in the left lane, often, which slows down traffic. In many parts of Europe they mange traffic more efficiently and require people to keep right and do not even have speed limits. I do not understand why we have speed limits and then allow everyone to exceed the speed limit, unless they are exceeding the speed limit by too much, and then they are in trouble. If not one is able to travel the speed limit including the police why do we not change speed limits to something that is more reasonable so that way when someone actually wants to follow the law they are able to without getting run off the road. I guess the speed limits can show us our imperfection, in that no one can follow the speed limit all the time, so we if we are incapable of even following the speed limit then we are very incapable of achieving perfecting in other areas of our life.

Great job I love these pics.
Tim took all those pictures. I had to keep us from getting run off the road, by those crazy drivers; while keeping us close enough for him to take those pictures.
Sir, I just saw how you drive, after you almost slammed into my car as you zoomed into the post office parking lot. People who live in glass houses…
I appreciate that you actually have taken the time to look at this and comment; albeit on your T-mobile device. However, I do not appreciate your cynicism. Please try and keep in mind that your view of almost and mine are probably different. Furthermore, the fact still remains that I did not hit your car, and even if I did come close to your car that does not mean I was spatially oblivious. I was indeed paying very close attention, and I actually did have a feeling you were probably thinking something negative. Why you sat there instead of coming over and addressing me in person I do not know. In addition, I believe there were two police cars sitting not far away in the parking lot, if I was doing something wrong, do you not think they would have done something? In the end, the fact still remains that I did not hit your car, and from my perspective was nowhere near hitting it. Also, I do not intentionally drive off the road to pass other cars. Also please if you want to criticize me it is fine, but please do not resort to debasement. If you do actually have something to say about other topics within this blog at least have the decency to address them directly.