Backroad Bumper Cars in Central New Jersey

Unlike some of my previous commuter routes, I enjoy my current drive to work, mostly because I can stay on two lane backroads that wind through wooded areas. I can observe the changing of the seasons, spot some horses and avoid bumper to bumper traffic. These roads do exact a price however, as most have  strictly enforced speed limits, which I try my best to respect. Unfortunately, there are others on these roads who don't care about getting a ticket, who are willing to risk the fine, the points and the license surcharges.

This morning, it was a large, red, pickup truck, emblazoned with the name of a power-washing company. I saw it in my rear view mirror - the front grill at least - as he tailgated me on Washington Ave. Once the road widened into two lanes for turning at the light, this truck roared past me, making a big show of swerving in front of me and careening toward the turn at a high speed. After we both had made the turn, I could watch the truck as it bore down on other cars, and forced itself between two rows of traffic to pass. The engine was so loud, I could still hear it accelerating away from me.

Other days, I have encountered the same gray Audi on Davidsons Mill Road. This crazy driver has even passed me going uphill onto a bridge over the NJ Turnpike, with absolutely no line of sight to whether or not someone is coming the other way. I've had people zoom around me at stop signs and traffic lights. Once, at a red light on one of these back roads, the driver of a car behind me got out of his car and started pounding on my window, demanding that I go through the red light because "no one was coming." I've seen my share of cars pulled over for speeding as well as ridiculously serious accidents, some fatal, on these "low speed" back roads. Once I witnessed the car in front of me careened into a cornfield, another time I watched an SUV fly past a stop sign and T-bone a car going the other way.

Right now I know my kids are chuckling because they like to tease me about being a stickler for the speed limit. But I am not that person going 50 on the Turnpike in the middle lane. I just want to to avoid participating in Backroad Bumper Cars on my way to work.