The other morning, I’m setting out at 5:30 am to my job across the DC Beltway. At the entrance to my subdivision is a 4-way stop. The roads leading from it go WNW, SSW, ESE, and due north. The last two are the thru street; i.e., they have the same name and most of the traffic goes on those two branches. My subdivision comes from the SSW branch.
Anyways…
As I’m approaching my stop sign, I see someone approaching the stop from the ESE. They’re going to stop first, so I prepare to enter the intersection after we both stop and he goes. So, he stops, I stop, he goes, I go, then I come to a fucking screeching halt as the car behind the ESE car continues to follow him through without coming within 5 mph of stopping!
I immediately honk and flash my lights just to let the asshole know that he cut me off. He continues north, then pulls over. I figure he feels sorry and is going to let me ahead. I pass him and continue north at about 45-50 mph (speed limit 40).
But wait, that’s not why he pulled over. I guess he wanted to discuss his stop. So he pulls out and tail-gates me down the road! About 1/2 mile from the 4-way the road widens to form a right turn lane into an industrial complex. He starts to pass me on the right! I’m thinking, What the hell is this idiot going to do? I’m not sure if he’s going to try to sideswipe me or what!
The road narrows back to a 2-lane road with unnavigable shoulders. I continue towards a stop light. After stopping, asshole pulls up to my right side on the fucking shoulder! I think he going to get out and do something untoward. I’m freaking because I can’t pull out to the left to get away from him (oncoming traffic), so I just make sure that my doors are locked.
He rolls down his window and starts yelling at me. I roll down my passenger window (just enough to hear him), and start yelling back at him. (It seems as though he thought he came to a full stop.) Then he says, “This is not worth getting worked up about!”
WTF!!??
You’re the jerk that drove recklessly (tail-gating, passing on the right, driving on soft shoulder) just to yell at me about how you came to a complete stop even though you didn’t you ignorant fuck! And all the while scaring the crap out of me that the next time I might see my wife and daughter is from a hospital bed because some Virginia yahoo road-raged me there.