Friday, December 07, 2007

Backing Up

Have you noticed that when you're backing out of a parking space -- having first looked both ways to make sure no one's coming -- and you're halfway out, some car will zoom from out of nowhere. But instead of stopping, since you're halfway out of your space, they cut past you? There you are, slamming on the brakes, tossing the kiddies around the interior of the car (okay, kidding, they're strapped into their space-age car seats) just so some rude person can save 1 or 2 seconds?

Didn't people use to wait for people to back out? Didn't we stop, knowing the way past that car was mostly blocked, and that we'd be free to move on after they were done?

It happens everywhere. At Target, at the mall, at church. This morning, it happened to me again at Biscuitville. I was 3/4ths of the way out of the space, narrowly avoiding the lengthy drive thru line, when some car cut IN BETWEEN my car and the drive thru line, while talking on a cell phone.

I have one of those cars with the spare mounted on the rear, and I'm tempted to just keep on going and bump them with my spare. Who has the right of way?

And here's just one more example, pardon my venting, but occasionally I pass a school on a two lane road -- one lane in each direction -- and if I slow down or heaven forbid, stop, to allow a parent who is dropping off a child to enter the school's parking lot, I get cars behind me zooming past and not allowing that turn in. How wrong is that?