In high school, in Driver’s Ed, they taught us “defensive driving.” I remember one of my classmates making a joke, “But what about offensive driving?” Or maybe that’s not a memory and just an obvious retort that should be made.
In any case, tonight I witnessed firsthand a case of offensive driving.
I needed to make a left, and there was a vehicle in front of me. It was a green light, and we sat there because there was traffic coming and we had to yield. I couldn’t see the traffic coming because of the vehicle in front of me. Then the light turned yellow, the vehicle in front of me moved, and the vehicle behind me — a Volkswagen SUV or some kind, as I would learn later — started honking its horn.
But because the light had turned yellow and then red, I didn’t turn. For one thing, there wasn’t enough time for me to judge the oncoming traffic because of the vehicle that had been in front of me, and when I had assessed the situation I probably could have gone.
This however, was not okay for the vehicles behind me. One whipped out from behind, went around my passenger side, and made the left on the red.
But not the Volkswagen who had honked his horn.
When the light turned green and I had a protected arrow, I made my turn.
Imagine my surprise when, to my left (on the driver’s side) I saw the Volkswagen that was behind me passing me in the turn!
Seriously. I got cut off in the turn.
This put us onto a narrow, windy road, and the SUV quickly found itself behind other vehicles who were not moving as fast as he would have liked. Occasionally, he would pass a vehicle in a No Passing zone.
At one point he put his hazard lights on and attempted to force a vehicle in front of him off the road.
I have no idea where this person was going.
I didn’t really care.
He was going to hurt himself or someone else, though.
Offensive driving. Don’t do it. It only makes you an asshole on the road.