There's an underlying reason why, when born, I was going to make a great blogger, even if the Internet didn't quite exist back then. The proof of this is in my face, every time I drive around Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti.
Just yesterday, while running a couple errands I experienced someone:
• ...not paying attention to a green light
• ...in the straight lane cutting off someone in the left lane
• ...yielding to traffic while pulling out of a parking lot while their front bumper was hanging in the road
And those are the only incidents that I haven't blocked out of my head using top secret repressive techniques. Last week in Ypsilanti, someone tried to ... actually, let's diagram it for you:
Spot #1 was where I was waiting to turn left. Spot #2 was a guy pulling out of a gas station, also wanting to turn left. Judging by the Google Earth-charted traffic, you knew he would wait a while. So he made an executive decision and just decided to turn left anyway.
With people in front of me and behind me, he was actually trying to fit between me and the person ahead of me, while blocking the straight lanes during a green light. I actually had to back up so he could wedge in and finish his left hand turn.
Traffic is terrible everywhere — this is a given. (I've been to Miami.) Towns in Michigan are no exception, but with that's going on in the state, you can't help but wonder if all the worries and what-ifs surrounding each personal story in the region is causing people to pay less attention to things like, oh, I don't know, the freaking speed limit.
If Michigan will no longer be synonymous with great automobiles, the least we can do is at least drive better than anyone else. It's a daunting task, considering the state's economic stress rate, not to mention the 70 mph highways and city roads with more needless turns than an M. Night Shyamalan film.
It would be a nice reputation to have, even though it's not really a drive-through state (except for people with family in Cincinnati and Toronto). "They can't find work, but if they did, at least they'd get there in one piece!"
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