Road rage, Texas style

My commute isn't bad, considering the horrific driving experiences I had when I lived in the Puget Sound. Here in DFW, people seem accustomed to doing the speed limit (shocking I know), and sometimes even faster. I would often get frustrated at people who felt morally obligated to drive 20 mph below the speed limit for no apparent reason what so ever, and immediately think they are doing so just to drive (no pun intended) other people nuts. Most people in the Seattle area hate their traffic and with good reason. It's impossible to get to your destination in a timely manner, unless you work graveyards, and even then you're dealing with that special kind of jerk going 45 mph in the left lane with no one in front of them.

 

On my commute home the other day things were going well, but every day there's a line up on the ramp from 161 to I-35. It's typical and I'm used to it, as it's the only slow period of my drive, but as it's a two lane ramp usually people stay in the left lane waiting to get onto the freeway, but there's always a few number of folks who can't stand the idea of waiting around for people to press on their accelerators and fly down the right lane to cut in at the front. This annoys some, and usually you'll find someone from the left lane decides to straddle the lane marker in a futile attempt to block others. This usually just makes the right laners swerve to the shoulder to get around them, give a honk and/or the finger, and continue their progress.

 

This day was different.

 

After seeing a half a dozen cars speed by me to cut their way up to the front of the line, the driver in front of me decided he had enough. He pulled into the right lane, got up alongside me, and matched my speed, which was stop and go. Cars started to file in behind him, and he maintained his defiance against those who thought they were entitled to be in front of him, even when they expressed their displeasure by honking at him repeatedly.

 

As my wife repeatedly tells me, it's never a good idea to piss off Texas drivers, and you never know whose packing. Well I guess this can be said for any region, but stereotypically it's a safe assumption that if they're a native Texan, chances are high they're packing. This man though, risked life and limb to prove a point, that no one is getting past his awesomeness and they shall not reach home before him. Godspeed blocking traffic guy, Godspeed.

 

"Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic." - Dan Rather