Ah, the morning commute—a ritual as old as time itself, where bleary-eyed humans attempt to pilot two-ton metal boxes while simultaneously balancing a cup of coffee, scrolling through Spotify, and maybe even checking Instagram. But amidst this chaotic ballet of brake lights and lane changes, there exists a magical concept called "the right of way." A concept so simple, so fundamental, yet so utterly misunderstood by a staggering percentage of drivers.
Let me set the stage. Every morning, I approach the same intersection to leave my neighborhood—a simple left turn onto a road that lies across from an adjacent neighborhood. And every morning, like clockwork, there’s that one driver. You know the one: they’ve got the right of way, their lane is wide open, a clear path to freedom, yet they remain frozen in time as they sit there. Just staring at me like a deer caught in headlights, while I silently scream inside my car... 🤬
“Go ahead,” I can almost hear them thinking. “You go first.”
No, my dear, sweet, uneducated driver. You have the right of way. The rules of the road aren’t like splitting the bill at dinner—there’s no need to be overly polite. In fact, by insisting I go first, you’re not being kind or courteous; you’re just being...well, dumb.
Let’s break it down, shall we? The right of way is a simple system designed to prevent us from crashing into each other like bumper cars. If you’re on the main road and I’m waiting to turn onto it, guess what? You get to go first! There’s no need to hesitate, no need to wave me on with an awkward smile, no need to second-guess this fundamental rule. Just hit the gas and go!
Patience is a lost virtue on the paved playground that we call the road. We’ve become a society of overly cautious or overly aggressive drivers, with no middle ground. Either they sit there like a stone statue, forcing you to question whether they’ve fallen asleep at the wheel, or they shoot out like a rocket, daring you to blink.
The fact is, we’ve lost our collective driving minds. We’ve forgotten that the rules of the road are there to keep us safe, to make our commutes a little less harrowing, and to prevent us from becoming unwilling participants in a game of high-speed chicken.
So, the next time you’re on the road, remember: if you have the right of way, take it. Don’t sit there in a state of existential crisis, pondering the meaning of life and turn signals. Just go. And if you’re waiting to turn and someone has the right of way, for the love of all things holy, let them go. It’s not rocket science—it’s just driving.
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