You can’t be selfish when operating a deadly weapon

In the last couple days I have seen some interesting driving moves here in Los Angeles. While making my way home the other night I saw not just one, but two, people make left turns from the right lane. The first driver approached an intersection and realized they were getting ready to turn the wrong direction and promptly went left from the right lane. Later in that same drive the car in front of me, again in the right lane, started to slow, I assumed they were go to enter one of the many driveways along the road. This was not in fact the case, they proceeded to stop in the middle of the lane, put on their left turn signal and wait for traffic to clear so that they could then make a U-TURN from the right lane. This bad case of misjudgment was only compounded by the fact that they didn’t see the motorcycle coming up in the left lane. The u-turn was made, all the while the motorcycle was barreling down, luckily the motorcycle slowed just in time to avoid a messy disaster.

While driving through Griffith Park yesterday on the way to the driving range I again encountered a situation. The road going through this particular section of Griffith Park is a two-lane (one each direction) winding road. I came up behind a car that was going well below the 25 mph speed limit, I could tell that the woman appeared to be lost and wasn’t quit sure where she was headed. Seeing as the road was winding and there wasn’t a particularly safe place to go around her I proceeded to creep along behind her. Apparently feeling the pressure of me behind her, she promptly stopped her car in the middle of the lane, put on her flashers, and then waved at me to go around her. While this would have been a nice gesture, the location she chose was not ideal, she had stopped at the entrance to a blind corner and was now waving at me to go into an oncoming lane blindly. She continued to sit and wave and refused to move until I went around her, I did so very cautiously, and successfully made it around. As soon as I made it around she turned off her flashers and followed me the rest of the way to the golf course.

When driving in a car that can act as a deadly weapon you can’t be that self-involved, you have to think of the other people on the road. Too many people in this city are willing to inconvenience everyone else and at times put their lives in danger just to avoid making an extra turn.