A Minor Rant

From the Press-Citizen: The Iowa City Police Department wants motorists to do a little thinking before venturing out onto the streets and causing traffic headaches for everyone in town. In a news release, the department listed six common sense points for drivers . . .

I won't list the rest of the article here, go to the PC website if you want their tips for the terminally brain-dead. Of course, those who are moronic enough not to realize they should plan alternate routes to avoid congesting the roadways, and think they have the right to go out in the middle of an intersection blocking cross traffic despite the huge old red light right in front of them, are probably not going to change their ways because of a newspaper article. But in a quixotic effort to reach the uneducable, I would like to add a seventh tip I was surprised to see left off the list:

People who see in front of them an entire line of cars patiently waiting their turn at the light (a la Benton Street Bridge) then try to scoot into a lane they can clearly see is closed up ahead in an effort to merge in at the last minute and cut ahead of everyone, should be dealt with.

You are not more important than everyone else who is waiting for their turn. You are an insensitive, moronic asshole. To the two people who tried to pull this on me yesterday: no, I did not politely allow you to merge. If this had been a congested parking lot, where we have to let people go in spurts, you bet I've had allowed you to turn ahead of me. If it had been unexpected road construction, where people have to suddenly merge two lanes down to one, I would have alternated. But I saw you pull out of line, speed up on the side, then try to merge back in ahead of me. Then I saw you acting all put out because I wouldn't let you in - not only in front of me, but those thirty other cars who were waiting their turn. Granted, the idiot behind me was nicer to you than I, so you unfortunately did not get the negative reinforcement you deserved. If I were God, you'd have sat there, vainly trying to get back in, and watched the cars that were originally behind you wave as they went through the intersection first before someone decided you'd been punished enough. Lucky for you, I'm not God, and other than some minor cussing, I'm not prone to road rage. But you might want to think twice about the concept of road rage. You live in Iowa, and you're lucky we don't have much of that here. But your luck may run out.