Road Annoyance

It’s no surprise that cars turn ordinary people into jerks. Present company excluded, of course. I see a lot of morons in the course of the day, and most of them are on either side of me on the freeway. Yesterday I saw a car cruisin’ down the road with its trunk open – and there was nothing in the trunk! Either the person that had been trapped in there managed to escape, or the driver accidentally pushed the release button. Either way, he needed to pull over and close it, because there was no way he could see out the back window.


Last night was cold, and if you left your car outside overnight it was frosty this morning. A car almost ran into me because the driver had not cleaned his windows. Superman might have x-ray vision but you don’t, and you can’t see out of foggy windows!

I have issues with SUVs. This is a sensitive subject, because several members of my family drive SUVs. I know they are all considerate and would never think of parking in a space marked “compact,” because they know that, while their vehicles might be compact length-wise, they are wide boys! A compact space is usually shorter AND narrower than a regular one. I have had to climb into my car from the passenger side many times after finding that an SUV has pulled into a compact space only millimeters from my driver’s door. As a 62 year old woman with bad knees, hoisting myself over the gearshift is not easy!

My most recent SUV issue is the manufacturer’s fault. SUVs are high up off the ground – a lot higher than a regular car such as the one I drive. I’m also short. At night when an SUV is behind me, the headlights shine right into my rear-view mirror exactly at my eye level, effectively blinding me. Yeah, I can flip the switch to angle my mirror down, but that reduces its effectiveness by about 75%. And why should it be my problem anyway? Shouldn’t those headlights be aimed lower? This is really a safety issue and another instance of short-people discrimination.

I work at an airport, and one of the very few perks I get is free parking. I have an electronic card that I have to tap on a reader to enter and exit the garage. The exit is the same one that the public uses. There are 4 pay lanes. One of them – the only one with the electronic reader – is clearly marked “credit cards only.” Yet people choose that lane without reading the sign and then have to back out because they want to pay with cash. So all of us employees that were lined up behind the moron have to back up to let him out.

And upon entering the garage cars will come to a complete stop after going through the entrance gate. Apparently they will die if they can’t park within 2 feet of the entrance. In a 9-story garage.

Drive safely and considerately!