Who's Irresponsible?

I drove to work this morning on Tidewater Drive, a small but direct local four lane road. Along the eight mile route, Tidewater passes through "working-class" (whatever that means) residential neighborhoods, small-scale retail corridors, several schools, a housing project, and a post office.

As I drove along, moving with traffic at about 45 MPH in the 40 MPH zone, I saw in my rearview mirror a red Honda Prelude, zigzagging and tailgaiting through the traffic behind me. Eventually, the Honda came up behind my Jeep, closed to within a couple feet of my back bumper, swerved to the right, flew past me, zigged left within a couple feet of my front bumper, and sped ahead, continuing to move through traffic in the same pattern. As it passed, I saw three bumper stickers: "Stop the Ecocide," "Liberate Laboratory Animals," and "Say No to Fur."

Now, I have no idea of the ultimate destination of this idealogue, or the reason for his/her eratic driving. It is easy to imagine, however, the driver of this car pulling into PETA headquarters in downtown Norfolk, running into work (maybe 5 minutes late) and sitting down to write an op-ed piece about the danger posed by people like me, who insist on driving "dangerous" sport utility vehicles.

Wouldn't it be interesting to see a study (federally funded, of course) comparing the danger posed by responsible, law abiding SUV drivers to that posed by self-important activists racing to work so that they can resume saving the world?