HONK!

I really loathe bad drivers. And this is by no way an attack at new drivers. Worlds of difference between bad drivers and new drivers. New drivers are essentially not-the-best drivers by default; since you haven’t driven that much before you can’t possibly be expected to be the best behind the wheel the second you get your license (or as my mother would call it li-sness). Hence you drive to become a better driver; there’s an unwritten rule that you get out of the way of people on the road that are new drivers (driving with an instructor) because you’ve been there and you remember how nervous you were behind the wheel. We’ve all been new drivers at one point in our lives, we all have to learn to become adjusted to the ways of the road, the unwritten rules that drivers go by, and well practice really does make perfect – the more a new driver drives, the better that driver becomes at driving.

But I’m not talking about these brave warriors that are out to mold themselves in the ways of the road. I’m talking about bad drivers. Drivers that do not know how to drive and cannot place themselves in other driver’s shoes. This is key to learning how to drive; before one makes the judgment call to honk his/her horn or yell at someone, you have to see if that other driver is in a predicament. Oddly enough this happens really quickly because an experienced driver can scan the scene and see the other events that are occurring causing someone to not follow the laws and rules of the road.
Take for instance what happened to me this morning on my way to work, as illustrated below (click to enlarge image):

Now I was in the left turn lane (which I forgot to draw in) waiting to turn left to get to work. The man who I’ve called driver that made a mistake tried to make it past the intersection (green light, he had the right of way to make it through) and he had to have guessed incorrectly as to how much space he or the car in front of him had to pass the intersection safely and ended up in the middle of the intersection (big no-no, automatic fail on a driving exam). Fine, this happens all the time and DTMAM saw I was waiting for him to get out of my way and inched up as much as he could to give me as much space as I needed to try and make my left turn. Typically what happens at this intersection is that the oncoming traffic stops at the green lights (because they can’t safely pass the intersection due to the traffic being stopped at the red light of the oncoming intersection, which is what you’re suppose to do – in other words, if you’ve found yourself stopped in the middle of an intersection, you’re in the wrong).

Now I still can’t make my left turn because the right lane of oncoming traffic still has room to move and safely pass this congested intersection and are whipping down the road at around 70 km/h. So I’m stuck with DTMAM in the middle of the intersection, me wanting to make my left turn and cars still whipping by the next lane over.

Suddenly I hear a honk. I thought it was an accident but then I hear it again. It’s the person I’ve designated as idiot. Now even though Idiot may not be able to see everything that is going on, she continues to honk and then gives me “ugly-driver-what-are-you-doing-slash-whats-wrong-with-you?” face. I ignore idiot with her ugly face and wait until I can safely make the turn. I do so and when I check my rearview mirror as I’ve made the turn I see that Idiot Ugly Face had to slam on her stupid brakes to avoid getting hit by oncoming cars and got honked at herself. And one of those long HoooOOOOOOOOONK's.

This put a smile on my face and hopefully IUF learned her lesson. Making mistakes while driving is so common is doesn’t even have to be said but sometimes those mistakes result in horrible accidents (I saw three on my way to work this morning), so relax when driving, give the person in front of you the benefit of the doubt, you might learn something* and try not to stress out so much hockey-moms, your latte frappucinos that you must have after you drop off your unloved children at school will still be there a few minutes later.

*I’m well aware I sound pretentious and I fully admit to making mistakes whilst driving and I can even admit that maybe IUF was a new driver but new drivers are reluctant to honk their horns as most are still a little nervous to be on the road on their own, hence, IUF was a dumb-dumb.