Most drivers share the road well and can be pleasant and helpful. The other day, while I was stopped at a light, a lady got my attention to tell me that my gas cap was dangling. I had forgotten to replace it.

However, there comes a time when even the most agreeable driver becomes a Jekyll and Hyde. This phenomenon occurs when he or she has to yield the right of way, specifically at the South Portland yield sign where drivers merge from Broadway into Cottage Road going east.

Even though the line of cars is bumper to bumper from the corner of Broadway to Highland Avenue, drivers are still pressing through the yield sign, bunching up sometimes three abreast, each one more determined than the other to get into the line first.

These were the good guys who have become egregious. Their only conscious thought is “me” – “I must be first because I have stuff to do.”

And so where does that leave the person who is sitting down on Cottage Road looking anxiously up at a green light, knowing that the chances of getting across the intersection are growing slimmer by the second?

You, my friend, you’re the guy, the guy whose agenda is inconsequential; it leaves you up a creek without a paddle.

And if you think I’m going to venture into the intersection to try to snug up into that line of cars, leaving my fanny hanging in the middle of all that, you have another thought coming, because when that light changes, it’s trouble in all directions.

The person behind me was pretty darned ticked, but then so was I.

Marlee Hill

Cape Elizabeth

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