It’s the most incredible coincidence.
Every time we get a good dump of snow in Prince George, I find more examples of Blacktop Blockheads.
Last week, I found a new example of an old friend, as well as a possible Blockhead, but with a twist.
Let’s start with the possible Blockhead. I have, over the years, noticed a number of vehicles parked on the wrong side of residential streets. I’m driving down the street, and there’s a vehicle parked on my side of the road, facing me.
Now, whenever I have seen this in the past, I always figure it’s someone who isn’t overly concerned with the rules of the road, since they had to have driven the wrong way (in my lane) for at least a short distance to get there. Also, when they leave, they will also be breaking the same rule.
So I gave a shrug and usually just drove by the vehicle.
This time, though, was a bit different. The headlights were on.
So now I’m coming toward a vehicle whose operator has already demonstrated a lack of respect for the rules of the road, and now I have to assume they aren’t going to just start driving whenever they want, even with a vehicle approaching..
It didn’t happen, but I did make sure I passed with a wide berth.
The old friend Blockhead actually turned out to be a pair. After the last snowfall, I was driving east on Fifth Avenue, making sure I stayed in the tracks I will number 1 and 2. There was another vehicle beside me, driving carefully in tracks 3 and 4.
Looking ahead on the road, I noticed (as I’m sure did the driver beside me) there was a vehicle ahead of us, and they were using lanes 2 and 3.
This was not an optimal situation, as you can well imagine. We were slowly catching up to him, and were basically hoping the driver would realize there were TWO vehicles coming up behind him, and would thus decide it might be a good idea to pick either tracks 1 and 2 or 3 and 4.
What became somewhat more worrying was when I looked in my rearview mirror – and saw a vehicle closing in on me and the vehicle beside me – and also using tracks 2 and 3.
I had no idea what to do in this situation. I cast my mind back many (many, many) years to my Young Drivers of Canada training and could come up with nothing explaining what to do when you were basically faced with morons ahead and behind you.
Luckily, the guy behind us apparently realized something wasn’t right, and moved over into my tracks. At almost the same time, the driver in front of us also clued in on what was happening, and moved to tracks 3 and 4.
So I went by that guy, then pulled over and let the speed demon behind us go by.
I also then got off Fifth Avenue fairly quickly and found a road with no other vehicles.
It just seemed safer somehow.
What do you think about this story?