This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
You Be The Driving Judge
Mar
16
2009
What you would do in the following situation?
You are driving home from work one Friday afternoon, and you are about halfway there.
- You are behind someone going 65 mph in a 70 mph zone, on the freeway. You don’t pass him because you want to exit very soon.
- Your exit lane begins, so you signal and change lanes, while the other vehicle (a minivan) stays in what had been the right lane.
- It is a long exit lane with a straightaway followed by a gentle curve. It is not really an exit but a transition to another freeway, so it is meant for a vehicle to be able to maintain the posted speed along the whole path. You speed up to 70 mph and therefore begin passing the other vehicle.
- Once you are alongside the other vehicle, its driver decides to exit too. He does not signal but steers into the exit lane anyway. You notice this and know that if you don’t do something, you will be run off the road.
What do you do?
- A. Maintain your lane, but honk and gesture so the other guy knows you’re already there
- B. Slam on the brakes to avoid the impending collision
- C. Step on the gas, swerving slightly onto the shoulder in the process until your tail is clear of the other vehicle.
Before you answer the question, remember that you are in a car, not a minivan, and there are no kids with you in the car. Also remember that this is a long exit lane and the other vehicle has been going under the speed limit for no apparent reason, so if you stay behind him your trip will be even longer.
In case you can’t tell, I chose C. And no, I did not honk or gesture.
As I watched the minivan grow smaller and smaller in my rearview mirror, I wondered if he was going even slower in order to put a safe distance between himself and me. If he didn’t know what he had done, he just might think that I was some maniacal driver who was weaving in and out of traffic. Or maybe he did know what he had done and was too embarrassed to let me see who he was. Or, worse yet, maybe he had no clue anything had just happened and was just going slower because it was a curve.
The next day, I remembered that my license plate expired the week before and I never put the new sticker on the car. I had renewed the plate, but didn’t put the sticker on the car at the time because of bad weather. The sticker is on now, so I’m good.
Let me pass through your land, I will travel only on the highway; I will not turn aside to the right or to the left.
Deuteronomy 2:27
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 1:00 am and has been carefully placed in the Mishaps category.
March 16th, 2009 at 10:02 am
I would have done C too but I also would have honked. I sound like Nana in the van, always telling people to STEP ON IT or PUNCH IT MARGARET.
March 16th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Oblivious slow drivers in good weather make me impatient, so I’d probably want to hit the gas and get past the oblivious slow driver. However, my accidents — especially the last one — have made me more cautious than impulsive in the car, so I think my initial reaction would be to hit the brakes. And then the horn.
March 16th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Am I in my supercharged Buick Ultra, or just the standard Park Avenue?
March 16th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
The Ultra
March 17th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Either way, it doesn’t matter – when you’re in a Park Avenue, semi-trucks get out of your way. I backed the minivan into the Buick out of the garage (it was the first time we parked it there and it’s white and it was the first snow of the year and. . .). The van had a huge dent in its plastic bumper. I think I almost found a scratch on the Buick.
Or maybe other drivers just get out of a Park Avenue’s way because they assume the driver is senile.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
If you really want to freak out other drivers, hang a handicap permit from your rearview mirror while you’re driving. Everybody will just assume you’re going to destroy the entire world.
On that topic, I HATE it when people leave their permits hanging from their mirrors when they’re driving. Is it THAT hard to take it down? Really? Most of the people who leave it hanging regularly exasperate the drivers around them, and those exasperated drivers start to assume people with handicap permits are lousy drivers. Hey, world: we’re not all bad drivers. Seriously. Just the ones who can’t find it in themselves to REMOVE BEFORE DRIVING like it says in ALL CAPS on the permit.
Grrrrrr.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Maybe their handicap is mental; why don’t you try being a little more tolerant?
March 20th, 2009 at 11:34 am
If I’m in the Mazda I take C and I’m by him in a heartbeat.
Up until very recently, in Michigan it was illegal to keep the tag hanging (along with anything else) from the rearview mirror while driving. The law was struck down by a federal appellate court as being too vague and gave police officers “too much discretion to decide which ornaments are OK”.
http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2008/12/michigan_law_prohibiting_rearv.html