Stupid Drivers pt 2

So, as I mentioned the other day, I hate stupid drivers.

Downtown DC has solidified this for me, once again

Today, my beautiful wife, Sadie, and I, decided to take our two kids downtown into downtown DC to see the cherry blossoms we had heard so much about (We missed them, btw. Sad panda) and walk around to see some of the sites. On the way into the City, there were some stressful points, but nothing really worse than you would find in bad traffic anywhere (Except this was light traffic).

We had a wonderful walk around the Tidal Basin, enjoying the time outside and the sunshine, stopping to take pictures whenever the mood struck. Great Day!

Until...

We went to leave to meet my uncle at his hotel and go to dinner, which was a welcome surprise. It was a grand total of 3 miles to get there. 3 miles. 3. Due to drivers deciding that lanes did not matter, traffic lights were mostly optional, and the plethora of one way streets and, my favorite, streets that you can only turn on during certain parts of the day (which did not apply at that time, of course), it took almost 45 frustrating minutes to go... you guessed it! 3 miles! Then, in what should have been a 7 minute jaunt to Georgetown to get dinner, we ran into more stupid people and even worse taxi drivers, extending the trip to another 40 minutes. Thank goodness my kids are cute and my uncle was pretty good at entertaining them, or else this whole ordeal would have been even more hellish (screaming kids don't make bad situations better).

Beyond just the bad drivers, I discovered that jaywalking and crossing streets is the sport of the city. You wouldn't believe how many people would just dart into the streets, causing far too many people to stop abruptly or swerve. My personal favorite was when I'm watching as a large group of pedestrians waits... waits... waits... (red walk light) then as I approach the intersection, they move, as a whole, into the intersection and attempt to cross the street (walk light still red). I couldn't believe it.

Sigh. I knew DC was full of morons, but this is something new. Common sense is becoming far less common. What a shame.