Thank goodness for mirrors!

I thought I had pretty much seen it all on the highways by this point but this morning I experienced a whole other brand of inconsiderate behaviour.  As I was just passing the Kipling exit going west to the 427 ramp, I noticed a fire truck coming down the Kipling west-bound ramp so I quickly moved to the right shoulder and stopped to let him pass.  As I was about to pull back into my lane, a car came flying by me on the left.  The driver was recklessly using the passing fire truck to jump past people on the highway.  He just flew along behind the truck with no consideration for the people who had actually done the right thing and moved over to let the fire truck pass.  The guy almost plowed into the side of me (and would have if I hadn’t checked my mirrors before moving.) and he ended up only a couple of cars ahead of me in the queue of traffic that was almost stopped trying to get onto the 427.  How is a couple of car length gains worth the risk of life?  If he doesn’t care about the injury he might cause to me or others, why doesn’t he have enough self-respect to look after his own personal safety??  Trust me – no job is so important that you should be driving like a maniac and taking huge risks trying to get to it.  Well except for the job the firemen were trying to get to.

Is common courtesy completely dead??

Now that I am a commuter I have more opportunity to experience the stupidity and inconsideration of far too many drivers. 

First of all – is there a broken signal light epidemic going on at the moment?  Do people feel that it is unnecessary to notify the drivers around them that they plan to veer off in a different direction or change lanes?  It would be quite helpful to me to know when someone is planning to plow their way into my lane.  It would cut down on the need for me to slam my foot down on the brake to avoid an accident.

Second – would it kill people to actually acknowledge a good deed?  When I merge into a lane where I know the person behind me had to actually slow down to let me in,  (Most often done on the 427 just after Eglinton when you have to move 3 lanes to the left in rush-hour because the right lanes end …don’t even get me started on the brilliant design of that section of road!) I always give  a wave in thanks to acknowledge the good deed.  Unfortunately I am apparently one of the rare people who practice this consideration for my fellow drivers.  I consistently give way to people needing to move over and I am rarely awarded any sort of acknowledgement for helping them out.  They just go about their business never once thinking that maybe a simple hand wave would make the whole commute a much more pleasant experience for all.  They instead just focus on where they are going with no thought to the thousands of people around them. 

Third – are people aware that there is in fact an area around their car where they actually can’t see with their mirrors??  The blind spot is apparently more blind for some than others.  Perhaps we are also experiencing a neck injury epidemic as well as a broken signal light one as there appears to be many a driver that finds it difficult to look in either direction to ensure no one is there before changing lanes.  With bumper to bumper traffic it is a little difficult to avoid driving in someone’s blind spot and you would think that people know this but as I have seen first hand – they don’t!

Dumbasses!!!!

These are just 3 of a list of many behaviours I have noticed consistently in my 2 weeks of commuting to work.  I am sure I could fill up another couple of posts with all the insanity I see but these ones are really persistent and irritating.