The UK Strikes Back at Highway A-Holes.

Well I'll be damned! The UK might finally be taking the issues of Highway A-holes serious after all. 10 MPH on the M32? If you can't handle a stretch of road where everyone else regularly drives upwards of 60 MPH, stay the Hell away from it! And no, it doesn't matter if she had a medical condition. If the condition hinders her ability to drive SHE SHOULDN'T DRIVE! Enough rant, here's the Reuters story;

LONDON (Reuters) - A woman banned from driving for seven days after traveling at speeds of less than 10mph on the motorway told Reuters on Friday: "that road's my nemesis." Stephanie Cole, 58, of Fishponds, Bristol, straddled the hard shoulder and inside lane as she dawdled along a stretch of the M32 near her home last August.

In the back window of the car was a sign which said: "I don't do fast, please overtake".

Cole admitted driving without reasonable consideration at North Avon Magistrates' Court on Friday and was told she would have to take another test at the end of the ban.

"I didn't intend getting onto the motorway, but all of a sudden I found myself on it and I could not get off," she told Reuters after the hearing.

"I just panicked. I hate that particular stretch of road and I avoid it normally. It is my nemesis."

Cole had been traveling from her home to a stationer's when she was arrested in her Perodua Kenari mini people-carrier.

"I thought "thank God" when I saw the blue flashing lights," she said. "I thought they could help and I asked them if they could drive me home."

Cole, who has multiple sclerosis, said she depends on her car for getting around.

"I will try and retake the test," she said. "I will have to do my best when driving, and hope it is better than it was."

JANUARY 3, 2008 @ 11:31AM - NB 405 at Mulholland Drive

Happy New Year, let's hope 2008 is a year with fewer Highway A-holes affecting our lives.

I know, it's been a while. But today's sighting was an obvious one - and one I had not seen in a few months.

Asian lady in another beige Honda Accord. Interstate 405 NB just before Mulholland Drive. She was driving in the fast lane at a blistering 40 MPH. A reasonable speed if the road is packed with traffic. But when everyone else is cooking along at a 65 MPH clip. the Honda is a hazzard, and the Asian woman driver a Highway A-hole.

OCTOBER 1, 2007 @ 12:25PM - SB 405 at Normandy

Flashing red lights on emergency vehicles like CHP cruisers, police cars, enforcement motorcycles, fire trucks and ambulances deserve the lawful respect and right-of-way the law demands. Could someone please explain to me then why is it that I continue to see people driving down the road totally ignoring the flashing red lights on emergency vehicles.

If an emergency vehicle is coming up on your rear and you don't pull over to the shoulder to let them pass, then you are in violation of the law. If you are on an un-divided road and the emergency vehicle is approaching you from the other direction and you don't pull over to the shoulder to let them pass, then you are again in violation of the law. It's really as simple as that.

Let's take a short quiz;

You are driving down the freeway and you see a CHP motorcycle officer gaining on your rear with his red lights flashing. Do you...

A: Slow down and maintain position in the flow of traffic.

B: Slowly pull to the right side of the road, stop, and allow the cruiser to pass.

C: Immediately stop in the lane you are traveling on and wait for the cruiser to pass.

I'll give you an obvious, common sense based hint; it's not A or C.

That's right, according to the State of California Vehicle Code, the answer is B, as in pull to the side, stop and let the emergency vehicle pass. Please never do what today's Highway A-hole did.

A CHP cruiser trying to get through traffic to attend a traffic accident ahead code 3. Traffic was bumper to bumper. People were trying to get to the side of the road so that the cruiser could pass on through... well most people anyway.

A lone black 2000-ish 4 door Mercedes with the license number 6151344 was just sitting still in the previously moving traffic dead in its tracks. The driver was a woman who looked to be somewhere in her early 30's with short black hair. She had come to a complete stop in the middle of lanes and turned on her emergency flashers. The CHP car was right behind her with red lights flashing and siren blowing. All she had to do was follow the merging traffic the right. Problem was she didn't want to move, she just sat there. The patrolman in the cruiser gave her instructions over his PA horn. "DRIVER PULL OVER TO THE RIGHT" blared out of his PA speaker. Nothing doing, she just continued to sit there.

Afger a few second. a break of cars to her right gave her a complete opportunity to get out of the way. Like a deer caught in headlights she just continued to sit there. The CHP cruiser was obviously fed up waiting for her to make the move, so he just passed her on her right side.

Lady, I hope that someday it's your kid up ahead in a traffic accident and some other Highway A-hole refuses to pull over for the rescue vehicle or ambulance trying to same you kid's life. Karma can be a bitch and everything.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2007 @ 2:55PM - SB 405 at Studebaker Road Off-Ramp

Here's a shout out to those hard working people at JjK Roll Offs. These guys provide those huge roll off garbage containers you see at major construction sites.

In order to get these huge steel multi-ton receipticals to and from the sites and the garbage dumps, rather large diesel tractor trucks are required to muscle them from here to there.

Oh sure, they take up extra space on the freeways, drive slower than the rest of traffic, and usually have a vile stench about them. But it's the subtle things that make these trucking giants the 'welcome' traffic additions they are.

JjK Roll Offs, if you would be so kind as to check the California Vehicle Code and it's passage concerning commercial trucks and their loads. TO give you the thunbnail sketch of the code; YOU HAVE TO COVER YOUR TRUCK BINS WITH A TARP TO KEEP THE CRAP IN THE BIN YOU ARE HAULING FROM BLOWING OUT AND INTO TRAFFIC!

Today one of your trucks was cruising SB down the 405 Freeway just before the Studebaker off-ramp. Large cardboard boxes (more than a couple, more like dozens) were flying out of the top of the bin being transported, and into traffic and the path of the drivers following your truck. This un-expected rain parade of cardboard was causing all the cars behind it to take drastic action to avoid hitting the boxes. One driver in a Nissan Pathfinder looked to have gotten the attention of your truck driver to alert him as to his problem, but there seemed to be a communication error; your driver just smiled and continued on.

So, JjK Roll Offs doing business in Torrance CA, I hope that one day a CHP officer actually witnesses one of your trucks dumping trash into traffic, causing a major accident which after a legal trial, you business is found liable and is closed down forever.

It doesn't pay to be a Highway A-hole Jjk Roll Offs.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2007 @ 1:23 pm – SB 405 Fwy at Sunset Blvd

Driving in Los Angeles has been called a lot of different things, but boring isn't one of them.

Here's Super Mom driving her newer silver-grey Mercedes E350 in the number 1 fast lane on the 405 freeway SB approaching Sunset Blvd off-ramp. Traffic was flowing amazing quick for this time of day. I was driving a few cars behind her in the number 3 lane at a brisk 60 mph.

All of a sudden, traffic ahead of me started to hit their brakes hard. Red lights lit up faster than dusk on a Saturday night in Amsterdam. Some tires screeched and rubber was laid to pavement as dozens of cars tried to stop. Fortunately, it didn't appear that any bumper tagging occured.

As I crept forward, I was passed the offending instigator - the silver-grey Mercedes Super Mom was driving was at a full halt haly way between lanes 1 and 2. The car was slightly sideways and their were skid marks trailing the Mercedes to where it stopped.

In one hand Super Mom held a cell phone as she yelled into it and at her very young child in the back seat jumping in and out of car seat. In her other hand she was holding a large paper Starbucks coffee cup in a paper sleeve.

It appeared that the loose kid in the back seat may have distracted her a tad bit more than the converstaion she was having on the phone. She must have hit the brakes (whick I thought would have been anti-locks, but I guess not) and slid into her current position dead in traffic across two lanes.

See, even Super Moms can be Highway A-holes.

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.