So, I almost got in a fight on the highway today on my way home from work.
They are doing construction on I-70 near Vail this summer and it routinely causes big traffic jams on the highway. The few times I have been stuck in this traffic, I have noticed a bunch of people who think they can do whatever they want and decide to drive in the shoulder past all of the stopped traffic. It made me so mad that today I decided to wait in the right lane and watch for people doing this and pull into the shoulder myself to block them off, flip them off, and let them know that they are jerks.
So I did it. My first customer actually pulled onto the shoulder from right behind me. They were in the left lane and then pulled into the right lane right behind me and then right into the shoulder from there. When I saw what they were doing, I quickly pulled into the shoulder, honked my horn at them, and flipped them off. Well, they decided to stop and make more of it, acting like they wanted to fight with me. When I first decided upon this course of action, I didn't think it would result in any physical altercations. I thought I would simply flip them off and let them go on their merry way with them hopefully feeling at least a little bit guilty for their selfishness, and with me feeling at least a little bit vindicated. So when this guy stopped and wanted to make a bigger issue out of it, I didn't know what to do. So I rolled up my windows and locked my doors and motioned in an annoyed manner for him to keep going, but I also kept flipping him off too just for good measure. Luckily he decided to leave without incident.
Unphased, I kept watching for these hated shoulder passers. I saw a few coming, but I wasn't able to pull in front of them in time, so I had to be satisfied with merely flipping them off from the lane I was in as they passed unhindered on the shoulder. Then I saw another car coming and pulled in front of them and flipped them off through my sunroof. They got mad and made a two-handed "what the hell is this car doing?" sort of motion, and then they gave me a sarcastic two thumbs up and exaggerated smile gesture as if saying sarcastically, "Good job! You are a really great vigilante! Keep it up!". After a few seconds of flipping them off some more and giving them a "you should wait in traffic just like everyone else" motion, I let them pass while they continued to give me the sarcastic two thumbs up and I continued to flip them off. I wanted to say back to them, "yes, I AM good at this, and yes I WILL keep it up, you jerks!"
Yeah, it was pretty immature (REALLY immature), and probably not very smart of me (some might call it plain dumb), and it probably just made me even more mad than if I had done nothing (I was fuming), but I don't really regret doing it either. The people in the cars around me might have thought I was just as much of an ass as the people passing in the shoulder, but I like to think that maybe I was also their hero for doing what they wish they had done. It probably had no real effect on the people who I flipped off either, other than just make them angry, but I also like to think that maybe I made them feel at least a smidgen of guilt too. So, I probably won't do it again in the future, but I think I'm glad I did it anyway.
PS: Don't worry. I pretty much always contain my emotions quite well when I am driving, especially when I'm driving the bus. Even though there are so many thing to get mad about when driving the bus, I am really good about maintaining my composure and not letting those things upset me.
4 comments:
According to the ethics column in the Sunday Denver Post (last week I think), it's okay to drive on the shoulder past construction IF you are going to the exit, not if you then get back in in front of all the people you passed....
Even if the exit is still like 2 miles away?
I'm not a huge fan of making myself the target of random acts of violence. People in cars are pretty damned irrational. Something about the perception of being ensconsed inside an invincible cocoon or something. I always ask myself if inserting myself into the situation is something I'm willing to get the shit kicked out of me over or not. Usually not ... (although when I'm trying to find a place to park and there are a bunch of jerk's cars that are sloppily parked so as to take 2 spaces cause they think their car is just TOO COOL, I often go out of my way to park EXTRA close to the drivers-side door, so they have to crawl in from the other side - that's more my style of retribution) At least then its only my car that gets the shit kicked out of it, not me bodily.
I think they said "reasonable distance" which or course could be a matter for debate.... or rage...
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