In The Shadow Of My Magnificence
Posted on | March 9, 2006 at 7:59 am | 4 Comments
Allow me to share with you one of my traffic pet peeves. It is the driver who tailgates me in the left lane of the highway not because I am going too slow, but because I am going too fast and he wants to go the same speed, but wants me to take the heat in case there is law enforcement ahead. I call these drivers wakeriders. I can always tell when I am being followed by a wakerider because as soon as I get into the right lane to let this person pass, they get into the right lane also, right behind me. For some reason, I find this more annoying than tailgaters who follow too closely because they are trying to force you into the right lane so they can pass you. At least those people have some cojones. The wakeriders are just cowards who feel temporarily empowered by someone else’s boldness, but then fold when forced to take the lead themselves. Damn parasites.
Please note: I do not personally tailgate and I do not endorse it. Unless the speed limit is 45 on a one-lane road and you’re stuck behind a person going 30. Then tailgating is perfectly acceptable, as is loudly questioning the age and political bent of the offending driver.
Latre.
Comments
4 Responses to “In The Shadow Of My Magnificence”
March 10th, 2006 @ 2:14 am
Of course you feel annoyed by a wakerider. Who wants to be tailgated for an entire trip? You move into the right lane just so they’ll stop it and when they move right over with you anyone would get pissed. But you know, here in the Beautiful South I can’t remember the last time I had a wakerider. Maybe in my old age I just don’t go fast enough for them (I’m pretty much a cruise control set at 4 MPH over the speed limit guy, which is a drag because the max speed limit here is 70, but at least I’ve never been pulled over).
As usual the drivers here are crazy (especially the ones from Texas). The one time there was was actually snow on the highway (New Years eve, 2000) the drivers on I-20 (60 MPH limit) were either going about 25 or their usual 70 (and this included semi’s). As far as I could tell nobody (myself excluded) was going a safe and prudent speed for a snow covered interstate.
March 10th, 2006 @ 8:42 am
Oftentimes when I’m bedeviled by a wakerider, I’m not really going that fast. I’m only going fast enough to pass the slow people in the right lane. Which makes it all the more surprising to me when the wakerider changes lanes with me. Hopefully there is a special circle of hell reserved for these people.
I get a chuckle mentally picturing Colorado-hardened driver you having to deal with a bunch of southerners who have never seen snow before and have no idea how to drive in it. That sounds really annoying.
March 10th, 2006 @ 11:39 am
Like most Coloradans know how to drive in snow
The first snow of the winter it’s always the same, everyone forgets snow is slick, and all the moron SUV drivers who failed high school physics forget that all cars have 4 wheel braking. The ditches along the highways are strewn with the scattered remains of 4×4s. For some reason I always think of “Roads to Moscow” when I see that cheerful sight.
March 11th, 2006 @ 2:45 pm
It’s rainy season here (season = about a week, usually, kinda like Denver but 3 months earlier) and Angelino drivers always seem to panic, going even more slowly and irrationally than normal.
Last week I saw “live team coverage” on the local news of the “flooding” – one guy pointed excitedly to 5″ of water in an intersection that had cars splashing through without slowing down, and there were 3-4 other correspondants scattered around the area reporting on the carnage. The wife called the reports “everything that’s wrong with this city”… I wanted to send them to cover a tsunami, preferably from underneath.