Wednesday, July 23, 2003

It is my belief that rules of the road are no more than rules of common courtesy. Not all drivers are courteous so laws must be enacted to make drivers courteous or suffer a penalty. Sometimes the innocent also suffer. I further believe that stopping road rage cannot be completely solved by moving to the right.

The week of your first article I was ... traveling west on Ga. Highway 54 approaching the traffic light at Tyrone Road. The speed limit in there is 55 mph. My cruise was set at 55. I was in the right lane.

To my dismay a car was approaching from my rear at what I could recognize in my rearview mirror as a high rate of speed. I was terrified because from the looks of things he was coming too fast to pass me on the left because of traffic and I had nowhere to go.

This ill-mannered discourteous, selfish, totally incompetent driver got closer and closer and without slowing down, took to the shoulder to the right of me. He was a rather young male and I was not sure that he would not lose control and go into the ditch and come back to the road and wipe me out along with himself.

Well, my guardian angels were with me and he got past me, albeit at a very unsafe rate of speed. Had I "moved to the right" I would have been in the ditch and who knows what would have happened. I am not an experienced ditch driver.

Another case in point: That same week, I believe it was the day I got home and found the paper with your first column, I was going east in approximately the same place on the road, same speed, same speed limit. I was in the right lane. There was a lot of traffic, almost bumper-to-bumper, but moving along nicely at 55 mph.

Some jerk (for the lack of a better description) pulled up so close behind me that I couldn't see his front end in my rearview. I hoped he would go around but he stayed close and backed off enough to blink (time and again) his headlights at me.

I thought something could be wrong with my car but quickly dismissed it. I have a fairly new car and keep things checked. I just couldn't figure what was in his mind except to be a discourteous, unsafe jerk and a bad driver. He followed me in this manner until we reached the traffic light in Fayetteville at Ga. Highway 85.

He had finally moved to the left of me and this time I was able to get a license number. It was a dark green late model Jeep with the license number 8326 SE, Clayton County, with a young male at the wheel.

I can't call these drivers "men." They are impolite jerks. Moving over would not have solved either of these situations. First, I was already in the right lane. Second, I had no lane or anywhere else to move.

You may write better than I and I will grant you that drivers should not hog the left lane, but let's face it it's going to happen and the rest of us need to be courteous enough to not get so impatient as to make our actions worse than the road hogs. Let's be patient, courteous drivers.

Name withheld by request