Hoping to avoid a fiery faulty brakes-related death this past week, I rented a wee Yaris from Smart Motors until my Accord sedan could be repaired (thank you Dutchs - its great now). Ive owned many compact cars over the years and heres what I was again reminded of in slightly PTSDish fashion: < sermon > Many people who drive big cars -not so much sedans, but SUVs, wagons, pickameup trucks, big rigs- are horrid drivers around little cars. I was very nearly struck several times, each time due solely to a driver in a larger vehicle ripping in front of/around me, or drivers in bigger vehicles not leaving an appropriate following distance behind me, who very nearly rear-ended my tiny rental. Dude in a big red pickup truck was 1.5 seconds from t-boning me, and after I avoided the collision he flipped me the bird and yelled a mouthful of choice words because, I can only guess, I had the audacity to beep my cartoon quality, subcompact horn at him. I get it. Its a teeny car, easy to think, hey, little car, Ill just scootch around it, easy peasy. But in a teeny car all of these individual choices, all the Ill just...s are transmitted to teeny car drivers as severe, aggressive actions regardless of what your intention may have been. Several times this week I watched the story of my life flash before me as the big vehicles shoved their way through. Dear friends and love ones, each and every one of you, if you drive a larger vehicle, even a smallish large sized vehicle, please recognize your driving behavior when your big car and my little car are on the road together. You may not even realize youre doing anything wrong. But please pay attention to the distance you leave between us. If were stopped at a stop sign or a traffic light, please do not climb up my tiny Yaris ass. Were at a stoplight, right? I mean, reasonably: nobody is going anywhere until the light changes to green. Right? Cramming your vehicle up into mine gets nobody to proceed through the intersection any faster, and only serves to make me nervously wonder why youre not paying attention -either dont see me or dont care about our mutual safety to leave a buffer zone? Your headlights are coming straight into my rear- and side-view mirrors from behind, and, if we approach one another from opposite directions, straight into my eyes. I cant see around you at all, I am at a significant disadvantage. Big cars allow the benefit of height and distance. Me in that little Yaris? Not so much. Please look out for the little cars. < /sermon>
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 17:25:10 +0000
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