An open letter to Mr. (Colorado licence plate #) Q**009.
Sir, yesterday I was one of fifteen drivers who had the misfortune of following you down a one-lane road from the top of the Sangre de Cristo mountains in Eastern Colorado, all the way to the western plain. The law in Colorado plainly states that you are to pull over and let other cars pass you if there are five or more trying to pass. You held up all fifteen of us for about thirty miles of steep downhill running. Most of the way, you were riding your brakes. I’m surprised you didn’t burn them out before reaching the stop light at the bottom.
In the steepest part of the road, there’s a turn-out for slow-moving traffic. A big, bright yellow sign about the size of a VW microbus tells you to use it if you are slower than the other traffic. A second sign of a similar size, a quarter mile down the road, states that slow-moving vehicles MUST use the turn-out. A slightly smaller sign warns you that the turn-out is half a mile ahead, and a similarly-sized sign points to the turn-out entrance when you get there. All have huge, black letters on a bright yellow background, and are so large that they dwarf the roadway. You sailed right past the turn-out, forcing all the rest of us to ride our brakes too, to avoid running you off the road.
That would have been bad enough, but it’s not all. There are many, frequent speed limit changes on that route. You braked hard to slow down for Every. Single. One. Even when you were already going much slower than the new speed limit. You were not weaving, having trouble staying on the road, or showing other obvious signs of impairment. There was no one else in the car to distract you, and you did not appear to be talking on the phone. When I passed you at the bottom of the pass, I could see that you had Colorado plates, so presumably you knew the basics of mountain driving. You did not appear especially elderly, the car was modern, and obviously had good brakes. You did not seem to be a member of a race or ethnic group that could be expected to have trouble reading English. So what was your problem? I can’t for the life of me imagine.
Please, as a public service:
1. Learn the basics of mountain driving before venturing out on one of the more dangerous mountain roads in North America.
2. Read and obey the traffic signs. If you can’t read, or can’t read English, LEARN.
3. When you are obviously holding up others who want to go faster than you, PULL OVER and let them pass! It’s only common courtesy.
4. Get down on your knees and thank whatever Diety you recognize that none of the fifteen of us was driving a big truck.
