What’s “trending” should be the pending Super Bowl match-up featuring the ageless wonder (Peyton Manning) and the NFL’s top performer of the year – “Superman” Cam Newton.

By all accounts, Peyton will make Super Bowl 50 the final game of what has been an illustrious career…save all the recent news of his possible involvement with taking a performance enhancing drug.

Meanwhile, Cam– named last week as the NFL’s Most Valuable Player for the 2015 season – is performing at such a high level that proves why he deserved such a lofty accolade.

And I would be remiss not to mention the absence of the of the 2015 NFL’s MOW Award winner (Most Obnoxious Whiner) Tom Brady from the 50th anniversary of the big game. I, for one, will not miss him.

But football isn’t the subject of this week’s column. Rather, I choose to address one of my pet peeves – idiot drivers.

Is it just me, or has anyone else taken notice of drivers operating their vehicles just before sunrise and sunset without having their headlights on? I know that they can see how to drive without their lights at that time of day, but it’s not about whether or not they can see; it’s about you being seen!

What’s even worse is not having headlights on during inclement weather. North Carolina law states that if your windshield wipers are activated, so should your headlights….no matter the time of day.

And don’t even get me started on those idiots behind the wheel who drive in foggy conditions without headlights. Apparently they must have left their brains at home.

Other brainless drivers include:

Those that ride my bumper and refuse to pass, even when I give them an opportunity by slightly reducing my speed on an open road with no oncoming traffic in sight.

Those that do pass me at breakneck speed inside of 100 yards to a stop sign or a red light. Believe it or not, we arrive at the same place at the same time.

The driver that sits and waits at a stop sign until I’m within 25 yards of the intersection, and then they pull out in my lane and creep along at 40 mph.

Those that slow down when approaching a green traffic signal. It never fails that they’ll make it through the light as it turns yellow and I’m stuck waiting at the red light.

It’s nice when a driver gives a bicyclist some room, but you really don’t have to cross all the way over the centerline (into oncoming traffic) to do so. The last time I looked, a bicycle isn’t as wide as a bus.

I like courteous drivers…those in a crowded parking lot (with everyone heading in the same direction, and towards the same exit) who will pause to let another driver have the right-of-way. But, hey, one’s enough! You don’t have to let the parking lot empty in front of you!

Additionally, the same logic applies at a four-way stop sign. When there are two vehicles, usually one driver will motion to the other to go first. But what happens when there’s a vehicle at each corner? Does it become a game of chicken? Actually, the rules of the road state that when two or more vehicles arrive simultaneously at a four-way stop intersection, drivers turning left must yield to oncoming cars, and all drivers must yield to a driver at the stop sign to their right.

No matter what the rules are, it’s a safe bet there’s a driver (or drivers) out there bent on breaking them.

 

Cal Bryant is Editor of Roanoke-Chowan Publications. He can be contacted at cal.bryant@r-cnews.com or 252-332-7207.