More on driving

I sat at a red light this afternoon, looking at the white Toyota in front of me, waiting for its brake lights to go dim.  The alien sticker on the top left of the rear window told me this driver was probably in their 20s or 30s. The skull sticker on the bottom left of the rear window told me that this driver probably didn't care too much about following a pesky thing like the speed limit.

The red light blinked off and the green light turned on.  Anticipating a speedy departure by the car in front of me, I took my foot off the brake and began to inch forward.  The white car hadn't moved.  The driver appeared to be looking just away from center. Eventually, the car in the oncoming left lane decided to go ahead and turn.  The white Toyota eased forward and accelerated...

... to 40 kph in a 50 kph zone.  (That's about 25 mph in a 30 mph, for my American friends.)  We continued at this very legal (but slower than expected) pace until we reached the next traffic light, which was once again red.

The red light blinked off and the green light turned on.  Once again anticipating a speedy departure by the car in front of me, I took my foot off the brake and began to inch forward.  Once again, the white car hadn't moved.

I peered into the front seat of that car to see if I could figure out what was going on.  Was it an older driver? Was there something wrong?  Eventually, the white Toyota moved forward and accelerated to about 42 kph.

I was starting to get frustrated, trying to hold off some road rage.  Whoever was driving this white Toyota, they were clearly not paying attention.

The next light was red.  The driver turned the blinker on to move into the left turn lane.  I eased my way by, turning my head to see who was driving and what they were doing.

The young 20-something in the driver's seat was engrossed in looking at her cell phone.  I would assume she was texting someone but she might have been updating her Facebook status or looking for a good restaurant nearby.

Please, pay attention when you are driving.  I recently read that up to 80% of accidents nowadays are caused by some form of distracted driving.  Please don't risk being the cause of one of them.