California Drivers

I've lived all over North America. I learned to drive in torrential rain in Virginia, snowstorms in the North, freezing rain in New England, and around old people in Florida. I've driven through it all and seen it all in my 30 years of driving—until I came to Southern California.

Don't get me wrong, there's quite a few things I like about driving here. For one, I can put the top down on my car almost all year and drive 90 mph (and yet people are still passing me). But what drives me crazy is that everyone here drives on the left on the highway. I was always taught that you drive as far to the right without having to pass people. Out here everyone automatically gets on the highway and heads straight to the far left lane no matter what speed they're going. Half the time if I want get around people I have to drive in the "slow lane." I'm usually the only car in the lane. Even on a Sunday morning everyone is on the left! And, I was always taught that it was polite to get out of the way if someone comes up behind you at a higher rate of speed. But no...not here. People tool down the highway in the fast lane and they might as well not have rear view mirrors because obviously they never look.

I'm also not fond of people that flash their lights, that's just plain rude. I've had a few people try to do that to me when I don't have time to get out of the way. I just smile, kick the turbo in, and let them smell my fumes. I do love my turbo Miata MX5. His name is Max and he's hazy grey like a Navy ship. I have personalized plates that say CHIK BMC. That was my rate in the Navy.

Most of the time the highways are pretty crowded so you have no choice but to tailgate a bit or else someone will barge into your lane. But people tailgate even when there's a lot of space! The other day I saw this car tailgating a transport (semi truck in US lingo). There wasn't even a car's length between them and there was no reason for it. Both were in the slow lane and the car had lots of room to move over to the other lane, there wasn't a car near them. My husband's a truck driver and he absolutely hates that because he can't see them.

Then there's the rain issue. If we get 1/2 inch of rain the news stations will blast across the TV screen STORM WATCH! I'm not kidding. People here can't drive in the rain. Mind you it does only rain out here maybe 2 weeks out of the year and we've had a draught for the past 10 years but 90% of the people are from somewhere else...where it rains and snows. They have no excuse!! I can't tell you how many people that do not have their lights on in torrential rain and they're always the cars you naturally can't see in the rain—white, light blue, etc. People, it's the law here; if your windshield whipers are on your lights are on. Shoot, I'm such a small car I have my lights on all the time because people are always trying to run me over. They're also tailgating at 80 mph in the rain. I like to drive fast but I don't do so in the rain. That's just stupid.

Still the people here are polite drivers compared to some cities I've lived in. Don't ever get in the wrong toll lane in NYC and not have exact change. I barely lived to tell the story.