I'm from Jersey so I'm accustomed to bad driving; sometimes I might even say proud of it. But my experience here on Long Island for the past few months has put any bad driving I have seen in New Jersey to shame.
As I've mentioned before, people who don't use turn signals piss me off, but that's nothing compared to what Islanders do. Shockingly I think they actually use their turn signals more often, however, they drive like such maniacs that it doesn't matter. I think the best word that I've heard to describe the whole situation is entitlement. They just don't care about anyone else on the road. I have seen more people run red lights here in 3 months than I have ever seen anywhere else the rest of my life. I don't know if it's true or not but I swear the yellow lights last longer to let more people get through. I will slide by in a yellow light and watch in my rear view mirror completely dumbfounded as four other people follow me through a changing light. Then of course people blatantly go through a light that has been red for ten seconds.
I don't think I've ever been as tempted to road rage as I have been on this island. Everyone cuts across lanes like it's their job. The odd thing is that people seem to switch between manic driving and relatively normal driving for no apparent reason. I get concerned when suddenly I'm the fastest driver on the road, because most of the time people are leaving me in the dust. I wonder if they got a memo that I missed. I've watched people on the expressway weave in and out of traffic across three lanes just to keep going fast. And its not at all unusual to see people make a turn across 2 or more lanes of traffic.
Of course I have to keep pace to some degree or I will get my car smashed up by some crazy person. I've definitely become a more aggressive driver and more likely to run through a yellow that I would normally stop at. No one slows down at a yellow light. NO ONE.
As I've said, it all rests on entitlement. Every driver seems to think they are entitled to do whatever they please with the whole road. Don't even think about going slow or you will get run down. And don't try and merge onto the expressway because apparently you don't have the right to merge into the right lane when there's plenty of space there.
And while you're out there on the road, please make sure to text, call, put on your make up, eat a full breakfast, write your novel, practice your golf swing or whatever else you might want to do to distract you from the boredom of driving.
Every day is a battle. Hopefully the car will survive.
Also, If you are feeling inspired by road rage, check out this neat Etsy find:
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