Drivers

There is a certain predominance of a certain ethnic group around here.  I don't want to say that they are all terrible drivers.  Indeed, some of them are very considerate drivers!  I know that if I am walking down the street and one of the drivers does (as all the drivers around here do), drive right out onto the sidewalk and block it completely, getting ready to move into the road, and traffic, that, if the driver has a turban, he will back up for me.  (Well, most of the time.  If somebody's got a turban and a long white beard, then they look at my short beard, and figure that they are older than I am, and block my path anyways.  I figure it's an age thing, and that, at that point they figure they have seniority on me.)

Most women will back up, and about half of young men will back up.

If, however, the driver is driving a truck, forget it.  He'll block the path.  He probably won't even look.  He'll take off with a roar as soon as it's free to do so.

And young guys with muscle cars, or souped up pickups?  Forget it.  I think most of them take their mufflers off, to make the car sound louder.  And they'll just step on the gas, squeal the tires, burn rubber (if they can), and go as fast as they can until they are blocked by traffic.  (Which is usually in about a block.)

There are a lot of inattentive driver here, of all shades.  Any time I am crossing in front of a car, stopped on (not before) a driveway and waiting the chance to jump into traffic, or even at a crosswalk, when I have the right of way, but someone is turning right, and waiting to jump into traffic, I always watch the driver (who seldom looks around) to get some indication as to when they *might* be going to suddenly start moving (without, of course, checking to see if anyone has started to walk in front of their car).  Just about got mowed down this morning.  The young lady called after me, "Sorry!"  That would have been cold comfort, if I hadn't been able to jump out of her way in time.

Somebody recently opined to me that there are a lot of bad drivers here in Delta.  Yeah.  But mostly there's a real diversity of drivers here.