Tikkabik

Living in an area with a high percentage of pensioners, Bonnie and I are accustomed to sharing the road with people with lousy driving habits, but this summer has been exceptional. It's not just the elderly -- there are just a lot of idiots on the road just now.

What irritates me so much about bad driving is that it's not just something that puts the driver in danger, but those around him too. And there's little excuse for it, when you come right down to it -- driving is a privilege, not a right.

Almost daily, we witness or are almost involved in accidents involving people who overshoot their turnoff or their exit then stop their cars short without any awareness of those around them -- I've even seen people back up to the exit ramps of limited-access highways, rather than simply driving to the next exit and turning around.

Then there are the people who plain just don't know where they're going -- turn signals on for miles, stop, start, stop, start. Is this the street?

Get a GPS system installed, if it's that difficult for you to get from point A to B.

Tailgaters are another one of my favorites: People who think you're not going fast enough, or think that crawling up your ass to a dangerously close distance is somehow going to instill in you the knowledge that they're in a bigger hurry than you and their time is more important than yours.

The inappropriately courteous I suppose I shouldn't get mad at, but do. This is a phenomenon I've seen repeated over and over again on the Cape: Someone waving me on to pass in front of them, only they're totally oblivious to the fast-moving column of cars coming up behind them, and the potential hazard they're causing.

It'll lessen after Labor Day because that's when the tourists go home, and the population of some parts of the Cape will reduce by -- literally -- 80 percent. I can't wait.