Vanessa Gross

Driving is a lot like having kids. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
I have driven some of our countries busiest streets. Places like Seattle and L.A., but for some reason, recently driving around Grand Junction has become more like an amusement park.
Ok, let me be clear. I am not talking about the idiots that don’t know how to use the roundabouts or the four-way stops. Those are two issues that deserve a page all to themselves.
No, I am talking about the driver who races to get past me, driving as fast as he or she can, nearly hitting my car and cutting me off while speeding ahead. All that crazy driving, pointless! They end up next to me at a stoplight and it’s a precious moment not to be ignored. Personally, I like to look over, smile and wave. But the look on the driver’s face doesn’t seem to mirror my own.
But no matter, it won’t be the last time it happens. Maybe I should be compassionate, and realize their ignorance for what it is. Ignorance with a license.
The driver who never learned to parked also a regular here in Junction. This wannabe player is the one who thinks that Ricky Bobby and the “Cars” characters exist. He will back-up traffic just waiting for the perfect parking place for as long as it takes. Or the woman who will back out without looking first, too busy texting or eating lunch. The least dangerous but still annoying — the driver who is so very important that they need to take up two or three parking spaces to show that their truck is really that big or their car is really that expensive.
Another classic ­— the driver who does not know how to judge distance when it comes to turning corners or turning into driveways. These Einsteins are the driving mathematicians who cannot seem to judge how far point “A” of their front bumper may be from point “B” of mine. I’m the one that is at the painted line where a turning car is supposed to be at, but yet the “Einstein” who is turning first, has the audacity to give me the dirty look as they come within an half an inch of my car.
Last but not least, it is the looks of the other drivers that annoy me the most. The looks of “oh, screw you,” for obeying the speed limit and apparently getting in their way of beating me to the mall, only to line up with me at the next stoplight. The look of “Oh, you had the right of way, suck this!” as they flip me off for following the traffic laws and not getting the speeding ticket.
I do not let other driver’s stupidity change my habits of being a safe driver. Yeah, thoughts of “Days of Thunder” make my foot rev the gas pedal as the driver next to me eggs me on with their “C’mon” looks. But I have kids in the car and I respect our driving laws. Traffic laws are here to keep us all in check in this game of cars, to keep us alive for the next gas up.
But living in Junction, it seems to me that in this town, if you are playing the driving game, the defense has undoubtedly won.