Give 'em a break

Every morning when I drive to work and every afternoon when I drive home for lunch and every day when I return to work after eating lunch at home, I go through a very long school zone. It's actually one of the longest school zones I've seen. It's a side effect of having an elementary school on one side of the road and then just as you pass the elementary school, you pass a high school on the other side of the road. That whole way is a slow 20 miles per hour. I've learned to be patient during that stretch of road because otherwise that zone would be the death of me. It never fails that any time I am in a hurry, the school zone lights are blinking. So instead of maxing out the speed limit to get to where I need to get, I am slowing down to a mere 20 miles per hour. Seriously.

I've gotten to the point where it is very natural to reach this spot in my commute and hit the brakes. One could say it's a habit now. So yesterday was no different. I was headed back to work after lunch and I reached the school zone. Being the upstanding citizen that I am, I slowed waaaaay down. (I should mention that I was also chatting on the phone.) I had almost reached the halfway point which is a stoplight when a truck who had been driving along behind me suddenly honked its horn, sped up and passed me on the left into the turning lane. It is not unusual to see cars driving much too fast when they should be dutifully minding the speed limit (it's for the kids people!) but what I didn't understand is why the guy honked at me! I thought about it for a little while because it irritated me that someone could be so rude to honk when I was driving at a respectful 20 miles per hour. And then suddenly it hit me. I had been going 20 miles per hour when the zone lights hadn't even been blinking! And this guy had to endure me doing this because he needed to turn at the light, so he couldn't just pass me! I must have been so into my conversation on the phone that I didn't even check the school zone lights and just slowed down automatically. Talk about some patience. This guy was probably so irritated with the lady in front of him just talking away on her phone dutifully minding a non-existent speed limit of mind-numbingly slow proportions that I'm surprised he didn't lay on his horn a little harder. Now that I think about it, he was actually quite polite with the tap on the horn to say "hey lady, you're going ridiculously slow. Move along!"

So maybe the next time you see someone driving reeeealllly slooooow, give them a break. They probably just think they are doing their civic duty and minding the speed limit. They're not intentionally trying to irritate the "you-know-what" out of you. I know from experience.