To the Toyota pickup driver

Yesterday (Tuesday - snow day) morning at about 6:05 a.m., I was driving west on Broadlands Blvd from Claiborne toward Belmont Ridge. Only one lane was plowed in each direction. I was driving in the plowed lane at about 40 mph when a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, raised with big tires, several stickers on the back window, large tool/storage bins on the sides of the pickup bed, and license plate WYC6435, flew up from behind me, pulled over into the snow on the right, and flew past me on the right hand side, in the snow and unable to see where the right side of the road was. Having a jacked-up pickup truck with big tires does NOT make maneuvers like that safe or give you a license to risk the lives of other people on the road.

This morning again around 6:05 a.m., I happened to end up behind the same pickup truck going up Broadlands then Belmont then Sycolin Road. The pickup truck and I got onto Sycolin Road behind someone who was rather timid about their driving even though the road was clear and dry. While I was also annoyed at the guy in front of the pickup that was going noticeably less than the speed limit, that does not justify how you (the pickup truck driver) were tailgating him dangerously close. He kept tapping his brakes to give you a hint and get you to back off, dude. The end result of your continuing to tailgate him was that he kept slowing down until eventually we were all stuck doing 30 mph in a 50 mph zone.

I recommend you reevaluate your driving techniques. You are not safe, and you're going to cause a serious accident with your reckless driving. Think about how your family will feel if you're killed by your reckless behavior. Think about how YOU will feel if you end up guilty of killing someone else with your reckless behavior, or at least how you will feel if your precious customized pickup truck is totaled in a crash. It's not worth it, man.

 

We should add a forum for reckless drivers.

 

This scenario does not surprise me at all. My husband and I moved here several months ago. Before that, we'd lived in Arlington for two years - commuting into Georgetown each work day. Before that I lived and worked on Capitol Hill for 8 years, using a combo of driving, walking, and public transport to get around....All of that to say, I have NEVER encountered such aggressive drivers on a daily basis as I do here in Loudoun County. I unfortunately have to frequently drive through that awful Route 28/Waxpool nightmare, and I am terrified of getting hit by an aggressive driver (I have seen several accidents and countless near misses in that area alone). We moved out here to live at a little bit more of a suburbs-style pace now that we have a baby, but I think we made a mistake coming out here! So unpleasant!

 

Rebecca....be fortunate you don't ride a bike in the area. It becomes very dangerous..

 

Do what everybody else does, buy a Suburban and get a Smart Tag.

 

Nah, I'm too attached to my Honda Accord - Yolanda the Honda But seriously, when I was 7 months pregnant and we'd lived here just a few weeks, a car swerved into our lane on Waxpool *two separate times* in an attempt to make a (non-signaled) lane-change; the driver missed hitting our car by centimeters both times. My husband had to maneuver so quickly out of the way that my seat-belt locked up....He's super calm, but even he was rattled by the experience (I was crying, of course - pregnancy!). If only we'd known that was just going to be the first in many, many near misses we'd have out here! I know this is trite - but life truly is precious, and the *maybe* 5 minutes those drivers are saving themselves by cutting off other drivers, etc., just is NOT worth the risk, to themselves or others. And for the record, in my 17 years of driving I've never been in a car accident, nor received a speeding ticket, so it's not like I'm this super bad driver complaining about other people.

 

They should add bike lanes to Claiborne....

 

Was out on the road the other evening and was passed by a car heading south on Claiborne and they were going at least 75mph. I was going to try and catch up to see which business they worked for, looked like a restaurant delivery topper on the hood, but there was no way I was going to go fast enough to catch up to them.