Choose a Lane

"Choose a lane," is something my excellent-driver of a husband sometimes utters when driving behind someone who has not. We are plagued by what I call "provincial driving" where I live, people who are following their own local routines, living in the center of their own little world, driving down the center of the road, even a road divided into lanes.

My husband is known for his laid-back nature and the thing we call "Cuban time," which does not require getting anywhere fast or strictly on time (although he has been cured of this by me when it comes to theatre and sports events, work, poetry readings, doctor and dentist appointments, movies, and stuff involving other people and their feelings), but  even he grows impatient and testy driving behind someone who will not choose a lane.

I stay in my lane and signal all lane changes, as it's the law, it's polite, and it's much safer to let other drivers know your intentions, right? Unless you are a self-absorbed, provincial driver who doesn't want anyone to know you are just about to turn (left or right) in case you speed up to pass him before he does, which this same driver might do as soon as I signal my intentions.

This is a life lesson for me that I never quite learn. Do not signal your intentions. Someone will take advantage of the situation to speed up and endanger you and everyone around you.  Am I overreacting here?

Anyhoo, the other side of this...road...is that provincial drivers who are better drivers than I am are alert to the selfish and even the spaced-out habits of other local drivers. And might I just mention that it is not good to be driving while writing a novel in your head, or vice versa, as I learned the other morning while driving 30 mph through a firmly red light after dropping my daughter off at school.

OMG, I'm a provincial driver. And, worse, a creative type trapped in a car and a routine that lulls me into thinking I'm safe and can be thinking of other things while driving.  Life lesson, life lesson, life lesson. Learn it! 

Anyhoo, no drivers or pedestrians were harmed while revving up the engine for this blog entry. Thank you, provincial drivers everywhere.

Eventually, though, please choose a lane.