Sometimes I can understand a bit of rubbernecking. And sometimes it just makes no goddamn sense. I ran into both on the way to work this afternoon.
It made sense when a crushed car fell off an 18-wheeler carrying about 18 crushed cars into the middle of the 405 freeway. That’s just not something you see…ever.
I was kind of grumbling about the slowdown until I saw the cause. That was just bizarre. I’m rarely able to justify rubbernecking, but that case, I could forgive.
But then, I got really pissed as I was going over the hill into the San Fernando Valley. The bane of my existence on this stretch of road is one of those highway signs that have messages on them.
Today’s message was that there was an accident on the 101 West that closed two lanes. But it wasn’t the message that annoyed me, it’s the reaction.
People were slowing down to 20 miles an hour to be able to read it. If you have to slow down that much to read a short message in giant letters, you either need:
a) corrective lenses (or better ones),
b) Hooked On Phonics, or
c) both.
This happens any time there’s a message on that sign, and it pisses me off to no end. I just wanted to scream. But I guess it just goes to show that things even out in the end, even in traffic slowdowns.