Sometimes I am driving along and the people ahead of me are just driving stupidly. Could be anything, but usually it involves people poking along well below the speed limit or wandering back and forth– they’re probably looking for something, but if they’re that bamboozled they should pull over and look at Google Maps or something.

The car I drive isn’t very big –a Ford Escape SUV– but it can be big enough to obscure the vision of people behind me if the car in front, being stupidly handled, is smaller. So, yes, I pull somewhat to the right if there is room and let the people behind me see the idiot up ahead so they know I’m not the problem.

I was originally going to do this in a civilian setting; perhaps with Juni or some of the other characters back in Boise, but I couldn’t think of a good reason to switch back yet and I wanted to get this comic posted, so I switched it to a military setting. Admittedly, military convoys are sorta “stupid driving” by institutional mandate (and some amount of necessity)– we drive slowly and poke along, and can unfortunately block exits on freeways and stuff. But there are good convoy drivers and bad, and we get to recognize one from the other eventually.

If you’re in Boise, or are passing through, we have a lot of stupid drivers here. There’s the usual slow drivers or rubbernecking wanderers and people who don’t signal their turns, but one thing that seems to stick out here more than anywhere else is the complete inability to comprehend turn lanes. I’ve seen people use them as passing lanes, lanes to speed up and merge, or they try to turn in the lanes but wait until the last minute and make a 90-degree turn, leaving the butt end of their vehicles sticking out in the traffic lane. A lot of people just don’t use them at all, and sit in the traffic lane with their turn signal on, blocking traffic for what seems like hours. There’s a part of me that likes to drive, but I admit there’s another part of me that is increasingly hopeful that the era of self-driving cars can free us from the chains of idiocy.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe new year! Until next time.