Smokey and the Bandit
It is amazing how one police car can completely destroy the ebb and flow of traffic on a highway. The average speed on the parkway I drive to work is between 65 – 80mph. The posted speed limit is 55. A very hostile environment is created when the car in the fast lane is doing 55mph because the cop in the slow lane is too.
The driver of the “cop aware” car knows this is going to happen…knows that he is going to piss off everyone behind him that is not “cop aware”…but has no way of communicating the “cop problem”. This was the situation of the car in front of me. Poor bastard. I could feel the pressure of the cars behind me, because everyone knows that the second car is responsible for letting the first car know that he is driving too slow. So I do, because afterall I am a contributing member of my society. This leaves the car in front of me with three choices:
1. Stay where he is, knowing that the traffic behind him would only become more and more savage.
2. Pass the cop, which would surely enrage him as the driver disregards his authority.
3. Swallow his/her pride and slow down to pull in behind the cop, thus showing a sign of weakness to “the pack” and to the cop.
The driver pulls behind the cop, putting me in the pole position. I sped up and then became immediately “cop-aware” myself, and underwent the painful realization of the position that I have been put in. Concerned for the life of the grasshopper that had decided to hitch a ride on the hood, I decided it best if I pull behind the police car. As not to jeopardize the life of a fellow traveler, who seemed to be holding on for dear life, I pulled into the position of shame. It was rewarding to watch the Mercedes behind me also become “cop-aware” as she sped by me.
Meanwhile, come to find out that the grasshopper had not jumped on my hood to take a scenic 12 mile ride to Wallingford, but in fact to warn me. It appears that I forgot to put my gas cap back on and was spilling gas. Good things I quit smoking cigarettes on the way to work, huh?!? Thanks little fella.
-Garth