California has some really potent road rage laws on the books. This of course does not stop the average Californian from being a passive-aggressive danger to everything on the road.

The near entry onto the highway near my house requires very careful timing. The on-ramp is about 15 feet long with about 1/8 mile visibility that ends in a sharp turn. Effectively, you need to enter the highway and gun it for safety.

We have a new manual transmission. What this mean is that on occasion a gear will stick and not hit as planned. Today this happened.

Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do. Now, typically, most drivers who drive our highway are aware of the peril that is our little 2 lane highway. Today was an exception. A red Mustang came barreling up behind me at about 80 miles per hour and almost rear-ended me. I saw the car appear out of nowhere and promptly caught my ill-caught gear and floored it.

I sped up to 70, which is normal on the highway. The mustang swung around me, passed me and then slowed to 45. For the next mile every-time I tried to change lane it would speed up, cut me off and then slow down again. This made me nervous because it was driving like it was going to suddenly jam on the brakes to try to make me rear end it.

Now I was determined to pass and keep the Mustang behind me. Before if it seemed maybe I was imagining the Mustang’s behavior now it was abundantly real. I watched the Mustang slide across two, then three lanes of traffic to stay positioned in front of me. The mustang did not signal these lane changes once. Finally, as traffic presented more obstacles to the mustang I was able to pass. The mustang cut off two vehicles to try to get into the next lane to try again, but by this time we were in South Pasadena traffic with signals and more cars.I finally passed the Mustang and got a very evil look from an African-American woman with her hair in a bun.

The car in traffic tried adamantly to again ‘jockey for position.’ This is a bad thing in L.A. because now this could qualify for road rage on her part. I did however write down the plate information. Now I just wanted to get to the office and lose her.

So, if you’re driving in the SouthPas/Old Pas area in Southern California… If you’re driving and see a red Mustang with CA plates, “4VXE328.” Please, give it wide berth. The driver (in my opinion) seems dangerous. Pity there isn’t more I can do.

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