AUGUST 31, 2007 @ 2:42 pm – SB 405 Fwy at Cherry Ave Exit Ramp in Long Beach.

Damn it's been hot here in the LA area. For the most part, the Highway A-holes have been keeping to themselves. I'd like to think that all LA drivers read this blog and think more than twice when they are about to make stupid decisions.

But this heat wave is finally starting to take a toll on drivers. Today on the SB 405 at the Cherry Ave off-ramp collector, there were not one but two A-holes.

One car, a 2006 Chevy HHR mini SUV, was driving very slowly - like 5 MPH or less, in the right lane as the Cherry Ave collector started. I wasn't getting off the freeway, so I was in the second lane from the right driving a respectable 55 MPH in the early Holiday get-outta-town traffic, but just as I approached the collector lane where the HHR was, traffic slowed down abruptly to about 10 MPH.

As I was passing the even slower HHR, I heard a loud truck horn blast next to me. There was a massive off-yellow and orange-brown cement truck with western motif graphics painted on its mixer drum and cab doors right up to the bumper of the HHR. When the driver of the HHR heard the horn, the woman driving stopped her HHR cold in the middle of the collector with no trafic ahead of her. As I continued past I caught a glimpse of her staring in her rear view mirror back at the cement mixer truck while she was at a total stand still.

As I continued on, she continued to remain steadfast in her position. I don't believe she had any mechanical problems (even though she was driving a Chevy, but I digress) but I think she was just pissed someone had the nerve to honk at her, or she was trying to back off the collector to get back on the freeway... an even more bonehead to try as a Highway A-hole.

Then HHR's potential mechanical issues I really can't speak to, but if her problem was that she took the wrong off-ramp, her problem would have been solved if she would have just continued on the collector and followed the signs to re-join the freeway 100 yards ahead.

That's what the signs that read "Thru Traffic OK" mean you Highway A-hole.

And dude driving the cement mixer, get a grip already... according to your dispatcher's desk (yes, I called), you get paid by the hour. You should thank Ms. HHR for putting another $3 in your pocket.