Law Students

This Guy Stops Traffic

By Pete

So there I am, on my way home from a successful attempt at walking Scout around Piedmont park with Ollie and Hattie¹. I’m driving down the road at a reasonable, and legal, speed. Somewhere in the 35-40mph range, I believe. All of a sudden, some middle-aged former hippie steps out into the street holding out his hand in the universal gesture of “please run me over stop.”

What was this fine gentleman (read: raging asshole) doing? He was stopping traffic so that someone could pull out of his driveway.

He gave me about 100′ to stop. If “what moron steps out in traffic like that!?” was a valid defense to vehicular manslaughter, he’d have been plastered to the front end of my truck.

The most irritating thing about it was how close his driveway was to a stoplight. Had he waited for it to turn red, everyone would be slowing down anyway, and he could easily have let his friend out . . . but I guess it was vitally important that she get out into traffic (where she proceeded to go half the legal limit) immediately.

I’ve created this handy map to help you visualize the situation more clearly:

Can you believe this guy flipped me off just for honking at him?

1. But a failed attempt at actually going to the Dogwood Festival which, strangely, bans dogs.

Full post as published by PeteHoliday.com on April 19, 2009 (boomark / email).