Seems Appropriate For This Blog

Viktor Berennes from St. Petersberg (not the one in Florida) sent us a picture he took outside a Greek toll station on the busy expressway to and from Athens International Airport.

While I can't read anything composed from the proper Greek alphabet, I'm pretty sure that I had better have correct change when traveling through that part of the world.

JULY 27, 2007 @ 3:54 pm – WB Ventura Blvd at Topanga Blvd

I have this theory. If an older driver owns a new luxury car, let’s say something like a new Benz, they seem to always refuse to look other drivers in the eye, refusing to acknowledge others are around them. I think they believe they are better than the rest of us. Boy oh boy, are they Highway A-holes.

I was running an errand in Woodland Hills this afternoon. I was driving west on Ventura Blvd in the right turn lane. I was planning to make the turn onto NB Topanga Blvd. At this particular intersection, there is a traffic right turn signal. You have to wait for the arrow to turn green before you can make a right turn. I was the first car in line for the turn waiting for the green arrow light. As the arrow turned greed signaling the OK to make the turn, I slowly started to make the turn into the congested NB traffic. Suddenly I heard two or three horns honks behind me. I glanced to the left to make sure no one was coming (although I did have the light and right-of-way). Sonofabitch, here comes a big-ass black Benz coupe forcing its way into sharing my lane.

I stopped after completing the turn onto Topanga. Inches from my driver door was the Benz. Sitting in the driver’s seat was an elderly silver haired biddy with oversized plastic black framed sunglasses on, as is the fashion now-a-days. She was staring straight ahead. She must have come from Topanga Blvd from the S, through the intersection (and a red light) and ended up next to me trying to clear the intersection for the rest of the traffic that was crossing E to W by that point.

I glanced over hoping to give her the old “mal' occhio”, or evil eye. Nothing doin’, she just kept looking straight ahead. Even when traffic started to move, rather that let me continue on (I mean after all, I was there first) she kept on getting closer to my door as she moved up. Being the fucking pacifist that I am, I stopped and let her stringy old ass go ahead. As I did so, she never looked at me to give a thanking nod or anything; she just kept looking straight ahead as if I wasn’t there.

Only old people driving new luxury cars would be that fucking arrogant.

JULY 26, 2007 @ 2:10 pm - SB 405 at Hwy 110

Soccer moms in mini vans suck... and not in the good way.

A nice warm day, good visibility too, you could easily make out the Palos Verde Peninsula off to the west. Traffic was breezing along pretty well as busy as the freeway was. And then it happened - the soccer mom from hell decided she was going to drive in the #1 fast lane. That in itself shouldn't be a problem, but she decided to drive 50 mph, not 67 as most of us were doing.

Two cars ahead of me I see the silver Toyota Sienna mini van, license tag 5CGU664, with a black grill bra strapped to its front end flapping in the wind. The van had stick figure stickers of a family of 5 next to a soccer ball in the rear back window. The white Toyota Tundra between us was right up on her bumper. I played it smart and kept a decent distance behind the truck. It seemed that as the Tundra got closer to the soccer mom's Sienna, the soccer mom would let off the gas, further reducing her already slow speed. The guy driving the Tundra was getting pissed and eventually passed her on the right flipping her off as he slowly passed her. I'm not sure if she saw his gesture of love.

I slowly crept ahead and behind the soccer mom, but not to close. I sensed that she may not know there are people trying to pass her. I nudged over off center left so that my day running lights would hit her mirrors. She never glanced back. She was down to 50 mph again while traffic in the #2 lane to her right was doing at least 60+.

By Carson blvd I decided that I was done trying to get her to move over. I passed her on the left after I merged into the #2 lane. As I sped up to meet the traffic flow at 65 mph, it seemed as if she was driving much slower now that the 50 mph before. As I passed her, I saw the reason why she was oblivious to the traffic around her. She had her head down towards her steering wheel and she was thumb-banging a Blackberry. Blackberry use while driving a car should be illegal.

Someone Has the Right Idea

A fan of the Highway A-hole Blog sent in this video link. I think he's on the right track to a possible solution of the problem.

JULY 23, 2007 @ 6:10 am - SB 101 Balboa Ave

Today we actually had a summer thunderstorm pass through the LA area. It made the air hot and humid as the day wore on. But, it was the morning effect of the storm that caused the Highway A-holes to bloom.

Whenever it rains here after a long dry spell two things happen; 1. The roads have less traction due to the road oil coming out of the crevices and floating to the surface, and 2. People forget how to drive on a slick road.

Slow down you A-holes! For the last 5 months we have had near 0 precipitation. You have all seemed to have forgotten how to drive safely in the rain. I mean c'mon now, all you have to remember is to slow down and keep an extra car length or two between you and the car ahead of you. And don't worry about what's going on behind you unlike what this bozo did.

I was in the number 5 lane puttering along in the rain about 15 mph. All traffic was moving fairly well. Just as I passed the Balboa on-ramp the car ahead of me, a 1995'ish silver Nissan Altima, decided to pull half way out of his lane to the right so that now he was driving half-way in the slow land and half-way on the on-ramp merge lane.

I've seen this before. This action usually means that someone was merging into traffic from the Balboa on-ramp and the chump driving the Altima wasn't about to let the black Honda Prelude pass him to merge. What the Altima didn't realize, was that a newer white Ford F250 truck saw the Altima move to the right, and figured I guess that he was pulling over. The F250 began to merge from lane 4 next to the Altima into the space the Altima half-way occupied now in lane 5 - the slow lane.

Horns blasted, people were yelling, brake lights lit up like a streak of Christmas lights. The F250 appeared to have taken control of the lane and was motoring on. The Altima was now completely on the right side shoulder, and the Honda Prelude was right behind the Altima - both stopped.

JULY 20, 2007 @ 2:05 pm - SB 405 at Getty Center Drive

It's become hot here in the LA area, and that seems to bring out a lack of patience in drivers. Today's report is more of the same HOV car pool bullshit.

A black 2006 Porsche 911 4S Turbo was being driven by a young Italian looking guy with the obligatory fat gold chain and medallion. He look to be in his mid to late 20's and he was by himself. I didn't get his tag number.

Again, here we have a situation of a schmuck darting in and out of the car pool lane across double yellow lines. He was himself looking rather pissed that traffic was a bad as it was. He was right, traffic was bad with the quickest lane only moving about 15 mph, and it was the slow lane number 5. The rest of us understood the situation and made the best of it. For some reason he would not accept that the traffic was going to slow him up for a bit. I lost sight of him somewhere just past Sunset Blvd. Traffic on the SB 405 remained bad until past Long Beach's Cherry Ave off-ramp.

I was hoping that a CHP cruiser or motor officer would have seen him performing is A-hole acts, but I realized that the $451 minimal fine would not have meant shit to this guy with the foreign trust fund. State of CA should increase the license point penalty to drivers who abuse the car pool laws from 1 point per infraction to 3.

JULY 17, 2007 @ 8:22 pm - NB 405 to NB 101 Transition

Well sonofabitch, it's a two-fer Tuesday!!!

Getting back into the San Fernando Valley from the LA Basin between 3:00 pm and 10:00 pm is usually at a minimal pace, or a downright crawl. This evening, the NB traffic was moving about 20 miles per hour all the way from the 405/10 interchange to the 405/101 interchange. As I merged into the exit collector lanes to get onto the 101 N, I glanced over to my left and see this absolutely bitchin black Acura NSX driving next to me. The car is so low to the ground, I couldn't see the driver from the cab of my truck. You used to see these cars a lot on the highways of LA but not so much anymore.

I had already been on the road over 2 hours by this time. As I was easing my truck out from under the overpass of the NB 101 merge, the Acura signalled it wanted to get in my lane - which I gladly permitted since we weren't going anywhere fast anyways.

Along this stretch of merging lanes, Cal Trans has set up a series of standing traffic dividers, kind of like traffic cones but thinner and taller. The orange and reflectorized dividers are spaced about every 4 to 5 feet apart parallel to the lanes to keep the merging traffic of the NB 405 traffic separated from the NB 101 traffic until the road straightens out. It makes for much safer merges.

So here was the Acura who just moved in front of me now driving about 5 mph - much slower than the rest of traffic. Just a bit further along, the Acura came to a complete stop and turned on its right blinker. Strange, since the traffic dividers I described were all along our right side acting as a barrier so no one could dart into the merging traffic until a bit further up the road. The Acura eventually ran up it's RPMs, broke rubber and darted over 3 or 4 of the dividers (they are a break-away type) and crossed into the NB 101 traffic. The now run-over dividers popped back up to their semi-ridged previous state.

I kept an eye on the Acura as I drove ahead in the merge lane watching it as, in a very short distance, the car crossed 5 lanes of traffic making on-coming traffic come to a stop. Once the NSX got to the far right side of the 101 Fwy is became clear it was trying to get to the NB 101 at Haskell off-ramp. I think that keeping traffic from darting across the 101 to that off-ramp was another reason why the barrier was in place as well.

Only in maniacal LA will some Highway A-hole take a $100,000 car and do such a jack-ass thing.

JULY 17, 2007 @ 11:51am - NB Sepulveda Blvd at Washington Pl, Arco Gas Station

I had to get off the freeway this morning to pick up some gas. As I was approaching the entry driveway, a young man in his early 20's, shirtless with stringy blonde hair, was attempting to exit the gas station. His 4-door late 80's tan colored Buick was partially blocking the driveway to the extent that no one else could enter as well as exit the station until he pulled out into traffic.

Even though traffic was light, he was not making any move to merge into traffic, deciding to sit where he was for some reason. I was not blocking him from getting out, nor was anyone ahead of him trying to exit. Moments later what light traffic there was had gone completely clear, sans me and two other cars that wanted to turn into the station's driveway. Even though I was patient waiting for the Buick to merge on out of the driveway and onto NB Sepulveda Blvd, the two cars behind me were not so patient. The tapped their horns... just a little tap each. This the kid in the Buick did not like.

He started yelling in our general direction, sticking his naked arms out to his sides in a crucifixion style pose. He just continued to sit there. I decided I would go around the block and use the driveway on the other side of the station. By the time I came around and pulled into the station, the guy in the Buick was gone, but there was a thick blue haze of smoke hanging around the pumps. One of the cars that were behind me, silver Nissan 280 Zx, was starting to pump its gas. I asked the driver of the Zx where our friend went. He said that the guy in the Buick stomped on the gas squealing his tires as he pulled onto Sepulveda a few moments after I left to go around. He went on to say that a few seconds after that, a Culver City Police cruiser sped past the station in an obvious attempt to catch the speed exhibitionist.

Finally a cop around when you need one. It figures it would be in Culver City.

JULY 14, 2007 @ 3:35 pm - SB 101 Fwy at White Oak Blvd Off-ramp

Maybe someone out there can tell me... exactly what is the maximum limit height a driver can stack broken down cardboard boxes in the back bed of a 1985 Toyota mini pick-up? I would think no higher than the cab of the truck would be prudent.

Today I see this truck, faded blue in color with no license plate, driving in the number two lane of traffic traveling no faster than 45 mph. The flattened cardboard boxes stacked in the bed were piled above the truck bed to a point about 6 feet above the top of the cab. The towering layered stack was semi-secured with motorcycle tie-down straps hap-hazardly attached to the cleats bolted on the outside of the bed. The excess strapping material was flapping in the wind.

As I drove behind the truck, I could tell that at any moment this pile of cardboard was about to fall off the truck. I hastened passing the truck as a precaution to not being involved in any foreseeable accident should the load shift and spill on the highway. As I passed and look back in my rearview mirror, I see the cardboard stack severly waver from my passing draft. This caused the truck to waiver as well. It almost looked as if the truck was about to roll up on two wheels on one side, like one of those Joey Cheetwood Stunt Show tricks. I also see that there are 4 workers sitting in the front seat of the truck. Inside the front license plate frame was a white and green "Chivas" embossed vanity plate.

The driver obviously had no brains. He was laughing at something between himself and the others in the truck. I doubt there were 4 sets of seatbelts in the truck for all the passengers and driver. I further doubt the truck, and driver, were insured. I have absolutely no doubt that the truck was being piloted by a Highway A-Hole.

JULY 12, 2007 @ 1:34 pm - SB 405 Fwy and 710 Fwy

Here's a Highway A-hole we will see a lot of in the future. It's that moron who feels so superior to be commuting with the rest of us, he's thinks he's obliged to ignore the law.

In this case, it's a late 1980's Dodge Sonoma truck, dark green in color with the complete CA license plate number of 5T20280. Driving beyond 75 MPH and in the fast lane, he enters the HOV car pool lane as a single driver. On this freeway, a car in the HOV lane must have two or more people in it, or else it's a hefty fine. He must have had a turd in his pocket because he was most definitely the only one in the truck I could see.

He continues to drive fast and tailgate upon others that happen to be driving at a slightly slower pace in the same lane. Rather than just accept the fact he will have to drive 3-5 MPH slower, he rides up on the drivers ahead of him and flashes his high beam headlamps in an attempt to get the slightly slower traffic out of the carpool lane to let him pass. His antics work on some drivers, not so much with others.

What a douche-bag. I wish there were more CHP cruisers on this freeway this time of day. A year of so there were, but you rarely see them now outside of being parked at the Carson Truck Weigh Station N of the 405 and Avalon off-ramps.

JULY 11, 2007 @ 12:18pm - SB 405 Fwy betwen 605 Fwy and Seal Beach Blvd Off-ramp

I usually have the highest respect for livery drivers here in Southern California. They have one of the most demanding driving jobs of anyone else out there. That's why I'm suprised to have witnessed a limo driver acting like a Highway A-hole.

This particular limo was a brand new stretch black Lincoln. It was still sporting "Sterling Limosines" paper plates on it. The last few digits of the PTC license stenciled on the L rear bumper were 1144-P, I couldn't remember the rest. Couldn't tell if there was anyone in back through the heavily tinted windows.

The limo was driving rather erratically, speeding up and then slowing down. For the most part it travelled in the number, occasionally passing a slower car on the right number 2 lane. The limo's speed was inconsistent and surged between 75 mph down to 50 mph and then back up again. The limo's speed wasn;t being gauged by the traffic around it, it just kept speeding and slowing dow. This was causing drivers that were behind it to brake and re-accellerate every 1/8th mile or so. This went on for many miles until I was able to pass it on the right.

As I passed, I saw the limo driver. A very attractive blonde with a pixy style hairdoo was driving. She was in her mid to late 20's and wearing a tuxedo shirt, jacket and tie. Rather large dangling diamond-like earrings swung from her lobes. She was holding her cell phone in front of her and YELLING at it, as if she was using it in speaker phone mode. She was cherry red in the face, which contrasted her striking blonde hair. She must have been trying to "convey" some kind of disappointment to the party on the other end of the call. Judging by her apparent furstration, I don't think she was having much luck getting her point across.

Dear limo drivers, don't use your cell phone for arguing with others while driving. It makes you look like a Highway A-hole... and it pisses the rest of us off.

JULY 8, 2007 @ 9:10am - Encino Farmer's Market Parking Lot

I was at the Farmer's Market today in Encino. It's on Victory Blvd just east of White Oak Ave about a 1/4 mile. Farmer's markets attract terrible drivers who have no clue on how to park.

Today's Highway A-hole is a black haired woman who looked to be in her mid to late 30's. She was wearing one of those earthy embroidered flour sack sundresses so popular with the counter-culture crowd. I had just parked two spaces away from her 2000-ish Yellow VW Beetle with the last 4 license plate numbers of 0998. There was a 1970's style "flower-power" sticker in the back window. Just great, she's a Hippie. She was apparently having trouble parking straight in the very narrow and short stall she chose to park in, and was backing out and pulling back in numerous times. Sure it was a spot close to the gate of the market, but it was obvious only a motorcycle could safely park in the stall.

I stood there watching her for a good five minutes while she continued to get frustrated. Meanwhile, there were dozens of cars waiting for her to finish her parking so that they could get by and park their cars. The line of cars behind her had stacked back all the way to the only entry, and exit, driveway to the parking lot.

With the cars backing up on Victory Blvd, horns were honking and people were shouting. It became obvious that she wasn't going to get herself into that parking stall to her own satisfaction, and she was becoming very un-nerved about everyone honking and yelling. Her mantra was getting fucked by her dogma at that point. She finally said screw it and left her car half way parked in the stall. She locked the car and walked though the gate and into the market area. People were furious that not only had she held them up, she left the car half-way parked with the front of the car sticking out into traffic with only enough room for a sub-compact cars to pass.

I hope that Tommy Chong is her husband... and beats her ass for being a Highway A-hole.

JULY 7, 2007 @ 1:30pm - SB 405 at Sunset Blvd

Look Eduardo, just because you drive a brand new, dark charcoal grey, 2007 Range Rover and have Consulate issued license plates doesn't mean you have the right to cut in and out of the carpool lane double yellow lines. That constant in/out/in/out maneuvering all the way to Wilshire Blvd off-ramp you were doing served no purpose other than causing those you were cutting in front of to slam on their brakes, which affects all those others who were following the law by not crossing double yellow lines and driving in a courteous fashion. I still beat you to the EB 10 connector where you peeled off, and I didn't have to break the law to do it.