I really don't understand why people think that they are better drivers than everyone else on the road. This mentality manifests itself very strongly in the region that I am most frequently driving which is semi-urban, semi-suburban. This area makes people just forget that traffic rules apply to everyone equally. And just because the person in the car in front of you isn't vanishing to get out of your way doesn't mean that you can take matters into your own hands. Sometimes the car in front has a view of things that you don't and there is legitimate reason that they are stopped. This morning for example, there was a small back up to turn right at a t-intersection with a light because a bit farther down the road a tractor-trailer was trying to make a tight turn. When I'm the lead car in the line to turn right, there are two cars sitting in the intersection and no where for me to go except to make my own lane to the right of the cars in the intersection, which is technically a bus lane and would mean that I'd have to merge back in which would keep everything slowed up. So what does the guy in the car behind me do? Well, all he can see is me stopped and so he goes around me TO THE LEFT!!!!!! and then cuts back in front of me. I honked and yelled and honked some more. So the dude ended up three cars ahead of me and made it through one light that I had to wait at. I easily (without trying) caught up to him and he was apparently all in a rush to get to a gas station (and it isn't like he was soundly out of gas... he passed by several gas stations before turning into this one).

And this is not an unusual occurrence at this intersection. Most times it occurs while coming home at which point I'm in the left turn lane waiting for a chance to turn (uhm, obviously!). There are often cars coming in the opposite direction and people crossing the street, but apparently the people in the cars behind me can see more clearly than I can and so drive into on coming traffic on the left to make the turn before I do.

I know my eyesight is not bad; it is pretty darn good with my contacts in. And from having been the second or third car in line at these intersections waiting to make these turns, I know for a fact that you often can't see what the driver of the first car can see. I just know that one day some little kid or old person crossing the street is going to be killed because the person two cars back decides traffic rules don't apply to them and just goes for it.

I read somewhere once that people often consider themselves good drivers because they have a lot of near accidents that they have been able to avoid, and what these "good drivers" don't realize is that it was only a near accident situation because they were driving stupidly. If they had been following the rules, there would never have been a near accident in the first place!!!!

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's look at some pandas to feel less enraged...

I didn't know that pandas like to eat plastic crates!! I wonder if the zookeepers rubbed some peanut butter or something on them.