Some people's children...
I nearly ran someone over today as I drove home from work. It would have been an accident and in my opinion, completely this jerks fault, but it still pisses me off.
I pulled up to an intersection right near fisherman's wharf in downtown Monterey. The street I was turning off is a one way street that ends at an intersection that has 5 inlets/outlets. I was sitting at the red light, waiting to turn right onto Del Monte. There was traffic coming out of the tunnel, so I waited for a break.
When I saw my gap, I prepared to turn. I looked back to make sure there were no pedestrians too close to the corner and then began to pull forward. From out of nowhere (well, actually not nowhere - there's a building close to the street on this corner and he came from the where I couldn't see around it), this guy on a bicycle comes FLYING out into the street. I hit the brakes and narrowly missed smearing this guy all over my windshield.
This guy was riding a bike on the sidewalk, zipping across the street in a crosswalk, against the don't walk sign and a red light, on the side of the street that had him going against the flow of traffic! Without even checking to see if traffic was coming out of the intersection.
And do you know what the guy did? He looked at me like I was the A$$#0!E... and then he flipped me off and gave me the 'come over here' hand gesture as he sped into downtown, still on the sidewalk. He nearly hit a pedestrian on the sidewalk because he was so busy looking back to challenge me! The light changed to green for the traffic on my street, so before I could react accordingly (give him back the single finger salute), traffic flowed between us and I just made my turn and drove off.
I was at a slow burn the whole way home. It completely affected me in a negative way. I try very hard to drive with Aloha (something left over from my many years driving on Oahu), but today, no Aloha. I was yelling at other drivers the whole way home for any reason.
So, if you're reading this, jerk, just think about what would have happened if I hadn't stopped in time. I was only accelerating from a stop, but your momentum would have caused your body to fly over my car and smashed your helmet-less head all over the street like an over ripe cantaloupe.