Drivers in my Town Never Cease to Amaze Me...

This is a rant.  I don't rant often on Gather but I'm bothered and I feel the need to WHINE about something this morning.

I'm 5'8" with long legs so I take long strides and walk fairly quickly, partly because of my build and partly because of the fact that I'm used to walking quickly because I spend most of my time in New York City.  So I walk fast and I'm always polite when crossing the street and try to walk faster then usualy so as not to block any drivers trying to get where they need to go.

Several months ago, I was crossing the street at the end of my block.  I had the light.  Someone was making a right and started honking me and then had the nerve to give me the finger!  I was so angry.

In parts of my town there are crosswalks where drivers are required to stop if they see a person even stepping into one.  Well clearly drivers think this doesn't count if a pedestrian is already in the middle of the cross walk.  I'd have to say that I've come very close to being hit on several occasions.

And just yesterday I had another incident at another area of my town.  I was walking home from the train station (I live a couple of block away which makes it unncessary to drive to the train) and there is a driveway for business owners on that street in between two stores.  In half the driveway yesteday afternoon there was a Verizon truck clearly trying to fix something.  When I reach the Verizon truck I slowly walked past it and lo and behold there was a blue SUV of some sort, maybe a Honda, coming backwards at about 20 mph up the driveway at me.  I noticed the driver looking backwards and to his right but not at all to the left where I was coming from.  I yelled at him (his window closed which doesn't do much good) and he yelled at me back.  As I started walking in front of the man's car he put his car in drive, inched up 2 inches and changes directions back to where he was going and sped off.  I was so angry.

Even when I'm in the car I follow all the rules (except maybe the speed limit in some cases).  I always come to a full stop.  I always use a blinker.  I always let people walk if they are trying to cross the street.  Is it really so difficult for people to follow the same rules?  I don't have as much as a parking ticket. 

It was never anything new that MOST people in my town can't drive.  And maybe it isn't even a matter of being unable to drive but a matter of being selfish assholes.  I hate getting into my car when I need it to get someplace.  I hate bringing the car to the supermarket because the crazy in people comes out!  It's INSANE!  Thankfully I drive a fairly new Volvo so the idiot drivers in my town don't have as much of a chance of injuring me, at least when I'm inside my car.  When I'm walking is a totally different situation.

And what really gets me is that fact that the town has these meter cops driving brans new Ford Escapes driving around town and the municipal garages and partking lots giving parking tickets to every tiny violation: whether a car is an inch outside the line or parked at a metered spot one minute over the time frame.  And there is NEVER any sympathy.  A pregnant woman or senior citizen could be walking toward the car getting a ticket and bed the cop to let the ticket go but they won't.  Where are the cops giving tickets for the MOVING cars?  The cars that can actually do serious damage?  I mean obviously they need to give parking tickets but I think that they need to get thier priorities straight.

I'm growing to hate the suburbs more and more with each passing day.  I'm sick and tired of it!

OK anyway.  I'm finished ranting.  Respond if you want.  Not necessary but I just needed to vent :-)  Thanks for reading.