L.A. Can't Drive

Idiocy Meter

Asshole Meter

This video was submitted to me about a week ago.  It was filmed during the rains we had a couple of weekends ago.  The driver mentioned how she was on the 134 Fwy heading west, and her passenger started filming a speeding, non-signaling, weaving Toyota 4Runner that didn’t have any lights on in pouring rain.  I believe it’s the vehicle in the lower right hand corner of the video.  But as I was looking at the rest of the video, I didn’t see one vehicle on the road with its headlights on.  Granted, the video quality sucks, but that white SUV clearly doesn’t have any headlights on.  Turn on your dang headlights when it’s raining, people.  I mean, seriously, it’s like bare-backing in the middle of the Berlin Love Parade at the height of the AIDS pandemic.  When will these idiots learn?

Lord knows we could use some rain now.  It amazes me how many people I see flicking their cigarettes out their car windows in any given morning’s commute despite the fact that we’ve had four huge fires in Southern California.  Are people really that stupid?  Or are they actually that selfish, feeling that they’d rather risk setting another out-of-control blaze than suffer the smell of an extinguished cigarette in their vehicles?  Here’s an email I got from another reader:

“Love your blog and wish I had a picture or video to support this – but it seemed perfect for you so I’m sending it along…

I’ve always been driven to near madness with anger at the act of willfully hostile ignorance that is throwing one’s lit cigarette out of a car window.  For one, it says “my problem is now your problem, commonwealth!”.  Two: it’s rude and disgusting.  I mean, when I’m shooting up heroin I don’t toss the needle out for kids to pick up and play with and put in their mouths.  I generally don’t ask any of you to clean up any of my messes.  OK, fine, I don’t shoot heroin.  But someone I dated a long time ago did, and that’s close enough.  Three: we all need our pet peeves, don’t we?

Last night doing some errands around Santa Monica and Venice, I saw this on two separate occasions.  I would really like to know who these people are and why it’s not OK for the rest of us to pull them out of
their cars and beat them senseless on sight.  We know that the LAFD has said two of the LA area fires are either intentional arson or unintentionally human-caused.  No one has said, out loud, “cigarettes”
- but given the volume of discarded smoldering cigarette butts on any given day, and that both of them started near a highway, it’s possible and certainly a question worth asking.

I’m not anti-cigarette or anti-tobacco or anything like that.  I love my chosen vices, and respect everyone’s right to their own.  But I am humbly suggesting that we use this sad opportunity to raise awareness on this.  Unlike so many issues today, it’s something that is very simply fixed: use your god damned ashtray, people.”

This was sent to me a few days ago, and since then we know that one of the fires was caused by a bunch of kids failing to fully extinguish an illegal bonfire.  Well, before we start blaming our irresponsible youth, may I first say that every driver I’ve seen these last few days throwing cigarettes out of his or her window was an adult.

Filed under: aggressive, car lights, clueless, rain, speeding