Arrogant Asshole Driving Award goes too ....
>> Friday, July 15, 2011
Whilst I generally run across fields, I have to run a couple of kilometres on the streets and roads between home and complete country sanity. I have been noticing a common theme that is proving itself in test after test.
I am running along a path and want to cross a junction and there is a car about to turn right, I like it when they allow me to go across without breaking my pace. Effectively they give way to the pedestrian/runner. I don't expect it, but it is really cool if they do because I don't have to alter my stride or stop. At the end of a long run that is a god send.
There is a common rule for those that will and those that won't:
Boy racers of course never would give way, it wouldn't end enter their selfish heads, but that's a given. This isn't about them.
Small car up to 1200 (smart car etc) rarely give way regardless of sex or size of driver, I assume the elastic band will snap if they stop for too long.
Medium car up to 1600 (Astra, Focus, Civic etc) will tend to give way if a man is driving, woman may possibly give way if she is over weight and not wearing massive amounts of make up (I am sooo serious).
Pick up truck (usually male driven by workmen where I live) give way most of the time unless driver is wearing sunglasses and truck looks like it has never been off road in it's life.
Top end car: male driver, over weight will give way 9 times out of 10. Fit bloke never. Fit women never. 50 plus women (probably on way home from golf club) never.
Are you seeing the pattern yet?
The rule of thumb is the more money they have and the better looking they are the less likely they are to let me cross first. The more unfit looking and less ostentatious the car the more understanding and friendly they are.
This rule also tends to apply to the amount of space they leave when driving around me when I road run, it is becoming so incredibly reliable I am finding it scary.
But do you want to know who wins the Arrogant Asshole Driving Award? Who is the person most likely to have me jumping into a hedge to avoid being run over or manically jogging on the spot whilst waiting to cross the road:
Top end 4x4 or Jag driving fit woman with sunglasses, perfect hair and a sun kissed tan. What makes the women with perfect nails so unaware of me?
Having parked on the zigzags outside of the local primary school before driving onto the gym, she lurks the village lanes waiting to force runner and cyclist alike into the ditch and completely ignoring them at junctions.
I assume she is the precise reason this parking was invented.
