I don’t know about this new law that went into effect July 1. The “Slow Poke” law, House Bill 459, is designed to reduce tailgating, road rage and traffic congestion. If you’re driving in the left lane of a Georgia highway or expressway and some motorist speeds up behind you, quickly move over and let him pass or you could be ticketed.
I’ve been stuck behind drivers in the HOV lane who weren’t going as fast as I wanted to go. Then, I’ve been in the left lane exceeding the speed limit by five to eight mph (that’s a confession), and someone really putting the pedal to the metal comes storming up behind me, riding my bumper. I find it interesting that I could get fined for not speeding enough. Isn’t it somewhat ironic that the slow poke law could actually encourage excessive speeding?
Several years ago, Citizen publisher Cal Beverly wrote a front page column about slow poke drivers. Maybe he was ahead of his time. He made the suggestion that slower drivers need to drive in the right lane so hurried drivers can pass. That column must have struck a nerve because the reader response in the next week’s paper vented about “left-lane laggards,” but also expanded to traffic light issues and bashing bicyclists.
Well, here I am, a left-lane driver, but not one who is oblivious to the caravan behind him. I’m like plenty of folks going the speed limit and still ticking off drivers riding our bumper. Often we can’t get over because the car on the right is going the speed limit. If we increase our speed, it’s even more dangerous, plus, with my luck, I’ll get pulled over for leading the pack. If we slow down to pull behind the car on the right, that just increases the rage from the trailing driver.
I admit my right foot is too heavy. Around town I try to drive the speed limit, but on the open road, I catch myself regularly going over, especially on the interstate. I’m not proud of this, but one summer on vacation I even got pulled over in a federal park for going 34 mph in a 20 mph zone. I got a warning, but that’s a first for me.
There have been many times when I’m going five mph over in the left lane, and still some driver flies up behind me, flashes his lights and acts like he’s on the track at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Flashing your lights really pushes my button. Did you know preachers can be ticked off? Maybe I’ve been one who has added to this road rage ruckus because if you ride my bumper when I’m already going over the speed limit, buddy, you’re in too big a hurry. And if you have the nerve to flash your lights … you can seethe and stomp and spit all day long until you back off my bumper. And if you keep on building rage, one of those protruding blood vessels may just pop right out of your neck.
Here’s the deal: if you’ll back off my bumper, then I’ll move over as soon as I have the first opportunity.
Something else that pushes my button is drivers who haven’t figured out how to use the roundabout at Beauregard and Grady Avenues. And we’re about to build two more, one with multiple lanes?
Recently, I was coming into the roundabout and stopped to yield to an oncoming car, and she stopped and waved me on. She had the right-of-way! There was no way I was pulling into her path and “failing to yield,” so I just sat there until she went. Then she stopped at the next yield sign and waved on that oncoming driver … ugh!
But leave it to a preacher to bring up the bottom line on irritating drivers. Whatever happened to good, old fashioned kindness and courtesy? Where did “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another” (Eph. 4:32) go? Do we lose all patience and rationality when we get behind the wheel? Are we really in that big of a hurry? Isn’t life too short to get all out of sorts over some pokey or tentative driver?
Let’s just be nice out there. And don’t be in such a hurry.
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[Dr. David L. Chancey is pastor of McDonough Road Baptist Church, Fayetteville, Ga. The church family meets at 352 McDonough Road and invites you to join them for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m. this Sunday. Visit them on the web at www.mcdonoughroad.org and “like” them on Facebook.]
