Rush Hour Roulette

I made it to the office alive this morning.  And the four kids in my car made it to school in one piece, too.  But it took a minor miracle.

To get to my daughter’s school in the District of Columbia, we have to take a small bridge – Chain Bridge – over the Potomac from Arlington, Virginia into the District.   On most mornings, there is a backup on the road leading to the bridge, requiring cars to yield to other cars seeking to enter that road.  Many drivers are polite about it, some are not, but most are at least paying attention.

Accident Waiting to Happen #1:  The man reading his newspaper while driving his car.

It was my turn to merge into the line of cars on the road leading to the bridge.   I started to merge in – with plenty of space and as is the norm for this line of traffic over the bridge – and the guy who is supposed to let me in slowly turns the page of his newspaper, which is spread across his dashboard for ease of review.  He is intensely focused on the story in front of him as he starts to accelerate.

Thank god, I’m good with a horn (or at least, Road Rage Jan is) and still have a decent reaction time reflex.   I got his attention and he slowed down, letting us into the line.  (And no, in case my husband is reading this, I didn’t shout obscenities or give him the finger – I had kids in the car!)

As we progressed over the bridge, he moved into the lane next to mine, than up next to me, reading his paper the whole time.  God help us all.

Accident Waiting to Happen #2:  Texting Like Crazy in the Orange FIT

Having dropped my charges safely off at school, I made my way toward Georgetown enroute to L Street, which offers a straight shot downtown. Every time traffic slowed to a crawl, I noticed a little orange Honda FIT car essentially stopped in its tracks -- the driver was busy reading and responding to email on his device of choice.  This happened repeatedly. I honked, others honked, and he texted, indifferent to the vagaries of rush hour and endangering others (not to mention himself).

Accident Waiting to Happen #3:  The cyclist in search of a race.

I managed to travel past Textmaniac in a new direction, arriving at the far end of Georgetown and the entrance to L Street. 

L Street is a pretty busy thoroughfare on the best of rush hour days, but it has become a better street to take now that bike lanes have been created.  Which is all well and good when they are used…which they weren’t today as I essayed the roughly 12 blocks or so in the direction of my office. Three separate cyclists peddled past me as if they were in the Tour de France, weaving crazily between lanes of traffic on either side of me. These guys were seriously whacked.  I managed not to hit one.

 Accident Waiting to Happen #4:  The cyclist, the crosswalk, and 2 seconds left on the clock before the light changes.

You get the picture.

Why should getting to work be so very hard and dangerous, day in and day out?  Why does my city have the most indifferent, reckless, impatient and self-important commuters in the country?

Oh yeah, that’s right.  I work in Washington, D.C., recently cited for having the worst drivers in America.  ‘Nuff said.