Since having children, I have become much more aware when I am driving. I still travel at a good speed but I am always aware of where other cars are, who is changing lanes, and who is busy texting their soon to be ex-boyfriend. The one thing that drives me the most insane is the middle lane driver. I don't exactly live in a thriving metropolis so the largest roads we have around here have three lanes. Maybe it is the fault of driver's ed teachers all over the county but most people simply don't know what to do with the middle lane.

Most drivers like to treat the middle lane as the ,"I'll drive whatever speed I want" lane. They must think that since there is a lane on either size of them, that cars can just go around them. I spend the majority of my time driving behind the middle lane driver, trying to force feed them the lesson of what the middle lane is for. I think that if I tailgate them long enough, they will move to the slow lane. There can be no car in the slow lane for a half a mile and they will continue going 3 miles per hour under the speed limit camped out in that middle lane. Drives. Me. Crazy.

Maybe I just made up this road rule. I don't think I did but I am hoping that someone can chime in here and tell me if I am creating new driving rules. It has always been my understanding that the right lane is the driving lane. If there are two lanes the right lane is the driving lane and the left lane is the passing lane. If there are additional lanes, the other lanes are for passing slower traffic in the right lanes. If you are in a middle lane and a car is behind you and wishes to go faster, it is your responsibility to move to the right allowing that car to pass.

One day I was cruising behind a middle lane driver who may have been passing the car in the right lane. The only issue was that the car was passing by going about .25 mph faster than the car it was passing. I was going crazy! It was taking f.o.r.e.v.e.r. Then, I had an epiphany. God put that horribly irritating car in front of me for a reason. That car may have been there to make me slow down so that I arrive at the exit 4 miles ahead 20 seconds later. If this infuriating driver isn't meandering along pretending to pass the car in the right lane, I could be at that intersection just in time for someone to run a red light and be killed or worse yet, my children could be hurt... or worse. So, whenever I am on the verge of rolling down my window and giving that clueless driver the one finger salute over the roof of the car so that Gavin doesn't see (Joey is still rear facing :) ), I take a second and thank God for putting that car there. I then put my finger back in it's holster and think, "I'm glad that God is running this show."

While I am always thankful that God has put that clueless driver in front of me, I am shocked at how many people must be running red lights.

Do you have a driving pet peeve?