Texting, Driving and Teenage Girls

I took an hour ride across I-84 on a bus Tuesday.  I'm not often a passenger in any vehicle and the elevated seat on the bus offered a different perspective on the road.  I decided as the bus merged onto I-84  to observe how many people were talking on cell phones or texting while driving a minimum of 65 mph.  It didn't take but a second to catch the first texter and then they passed the bus with stunning regularity.  What was interesting about this little experiment was that not one of these texters or talkers were female.  Every single one that I observed from Meriden to Ridgefield was male. Several of them were driving business vehicles so I would assume they were conducting business as they drove.  I will admit that I have been known to occasionally take a quick call while driving, although rarely, and I have NEVER texted while driving.  What amazes me about the people I observe is the brazen manner in which they break the law. 

I also took a 1000 mile road trip last week covering six states in the process.  I expected to have a lot of fodder for this blog when I got home.  Fortunately (or not, depending on your point of view) I didn't.  The drive south was a breeze and the ride home was not bad until I reached the George Washington Bridge and miles of overnight construction in Connecticut.  The start of the trip however almost set me on a rampage as I was trying to leave town and had to do the alternate merge to get on the good old (almost completed) Arrigoni Bridge.  A Toyota Tacoma truck felt the need to cut me off so he could get one vehicle length ahead of me.  I find that infuriating (see previous blog entries), but was able to let it go when we got over the bridge and he had to stop at the stoplight for those heading down to Route 9 and I sailed right by to go down Main Street.  "So long, sucker!"

My weekend trip also took me across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel.  I've made that crossing many times and really find it a marvel of engineering, but as I was heading south across it this time, I noticed a huge tanker ship about to cross over the tunnel I was about to enter.  I actually had to stop and say a little prayer that the tanker was not so overloaded that it would ride too low in the water, scrape the top of the tunnel and spring a leak while I was down there.  Perhaps I've watched Titanic documentaries a few times too many.