Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Driving in LA

Since moving to LA 5 months ago, I have never feared for my life on the roads as much as I have since we inhabited our little boat here. I'm sure my husbands truck has permanent kristi-sized finger dents, finger prints and all in the door handle, and I'm pretty sure holey-shit-handles were invented by some non-local who was subjected to the drivers in LA.

My trips down the 405, 110, etc. have not come without shouted curses like, C*%K-SUCKER, MOTHER-F%$KER, DICK-HEAD etc. flying out of my husband's mouth. You might be thinking: "Maybe it's your husband," or "Maybe your husband needs some anger management." Normally that would be my first thought as well, however, since driving with him and witnessing the poor manners and rude drivers myself, I have been proven wrong. And when I was blessed with a car about a month ago, even my husband turns to give his overly-calm, overly-polite--basically, overly-Canadian wife a shocked glance when I scream "You stupid (insert profanity here)________, why don't you just (insert driving action to be completed)________.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that California has the worst drivers I have ever come across. It's never been a common occurrence for me to have a car speed up when I try and put my blinker on, or cut me off for no reason except they didn't want to wait for all the open space behind me--they'd rather be wedged between me and the semi in front of me (which I intentionally got behind because I know they'll drive slowly and rationally'ish). I thought it was common courtesy to put your blinker on if you want to get over, and if I have to slam on my breaks while you swerve in front of me, a polite 'thank you' wave would be appreciated, but apparently not many people--so far no people--know how to do that.
If the lane I'm in is coming to an end, please speed up or slow down to accommodate my vehicle; trying to stay up to speed with me so I don't cut you off doesn't help..why? Because the person behind you is doing the same thing.

Pedestrians and bikers are no better. In the 5 months I've been here, I've had a child run out onto the street in front of me (on a busy street), at least 3 people J-walk without looking to see if there's a car coming. This past weekend a biker swerved left in front of us without looking and my husband slammed on the brakes, the back tires fishtailing and tires screeching, then HE yelled at US.

Please people, help me to lower my heart rate when I get in my vehicle; Allow me to enjoy driving again and stop fearing for my life. If we all start being more polite on the roads and stop saying "well they don't, so why should I?" maybe, just maybe, we can make the roads a better place to be on. No?

sheesh, my heart is beating just thinking about all this.

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