Bottlenecks and Rubbernecks

I got caught in a traffic jam today. It wasn't because of an injury auto accident, it wasn't because a tomato truck tipped over, spilling it's cargo of tomatoes all over the I-5, and it wasn't even because the California Department of Transportation closed all but one or two lanes for highway repair. No, it was because EVERYBODY wanted to slow down and look at a car that had been pulled over to the side of the road for some reason. I can only imagine what traffic would have been like if it had been part of an accident or if a highway patrolman was giving the driver a ticket or something. It was caused by "rubberneckers"!

I see this a lot. People seem to have a pathological need to stop and look at auto accidents on the highway, and I know some of the reasons why. They want to see blood, guts, gore and body parts. They want to be able to tell their friends and co-workers, if the accident makes the evening news, "I was there! I'm a witness! I saw it all!" Some of us have lives people. Are your lives so empty, you have to attach yourselves to some sort of event, just for the sake of bragging rights?

Another type of traffic jam I'm frequently caught in is the result of bottle necking. That's when people aren't paying attention while driving and get to close to their exits before they realize what they've done, and rather than just take the next exit they slow down, curse all the other drivers coming up behind them who won't stop to let them over, cause others behind them to slow down to nearly a dead stop, and make their exit. To those who may be guilty of this, let me say "You are not the center of the world!".

Here is a little trick I'm going to share with you all. If you are three or more exits away from the one you need to take, drive in the leftmost lane whenever possible, when you are two exits away, start moving from the leftmost lane to the next lane to your right, and when you have passed the exit before your exit, get into the rightmost exit lane! It's that simple people.

I'm sorry (but not much) for sounding so angry, but I was in a rubberneck jam today and was nearly 15 minutes late for work, and I left for work 30 minutes before I had to be there, which normally gives me 15 minutes of relaxation time in the break room before I have to start my day.

In other news, I started a chain e-mail today. It contains a file photo of the picture of a rose I took while at Bob and Nate's wedding in Oroville. For those of you who delete my e-mails, here is the picture. I love roses. They remind me of my grandmother who adored them. Enjoy.