Driving safely feels unsafe.
It's icy outside. My job requires hours of driving every day. In these conditions, I do it slowly and cautiously.
It rarely goes unpunished. On a regular basis, other drivers behave like they're about to ram me out of their way because I'm not going fast enough for them.
It happened just earlier. Someone tailgated me so aggressively that all I could see in my rear-view was a partial view of their car — so close that their headlights dropped out of my mirror entirely. Before I made a turn, they overtook me, leaving less than a foot between our side panels. In weather like this, that is extremely irresponsible. One sudden correction can send a car into a tailspin.
And it's not even like I was crawling along. I was doing less than 5mph below the posted limit and braking gradually well before my turn.
I see versions of this regularly. It’s strange how persistent the punishment is for driving carefully around people who want to pretend it’s still sunny and 75°.
The ironic thing is that many of these drivers likely aren't on the road nearly as much as I am, yet their patience already seems completely spent.
It nicks at my inner peace, and honestly, at my sense of safety. I live in a place where it's not uncommon to hear about someone getting shot or assaulted for trivial traffic disputes, and I frequently see other drivers screaming at each other or fighting for space like it's NASCAR.
It leaves me feeling stuck. Either I drive faster and more recklessly to keep other drivers happy and increase physical danger from the weather, or I drive cautiously and increase social danger from aggressive drivers.
And all of this is coming from people who, presumably, passed the same licensing process I did.
It rarely goes unpunished. On a regular basis, other drivers behave like they're about to ram me out of their way because I'm not going fast enough for them.
It happened just earlier. Someone tailgated me so aggressively that all I could see in my rear-view was a partial view of their car — so close that their headlights dropped out of my mirror entirely. Before I made a turn, they overtook me, leaving less than a foot between our side panels. In weather like this, that is extremely irresponsible. One sudden correction can send a car into a tailspin.
And it's not even like I was crawling along. I was doing less than 5mph below the posted limit and braking gradually well before my turn.
I see versions of this regularly. It’s strange how persistent the punishment is for driving carefully around people who want to pretend it’s still sunny and 75°.
The ironic thing is that many of these drivers likely aren't on the road nearly as much as I am, yet their patience already seems completely spent.
It nicks at my inner peace, and honestly, at my sense of safety. I live in a place where it's not uncommon to hear about someone getting shot or assaulted for trivial traffic disputes, and I frequently see other drivers screaming at each other or fighting for space like it's NASCAR.
It leaves me feeling stuck. Either I drive faster and more recklessly to keep other drivers happy and increase physical danger from the weather, or I drive cautiously and increase social danger from aggressive drivers.
And all of this is coming from people who, presumably, passed the same licensing process I did.
