The Taxi Driver

 

I was driving back through town.

The taxi behind me was obviously in a hurry. He was driving far too close.

I didn’t increase my speed, as the lights ahead were red. As I slowly approached them they turned to green, and I went sailing on by at the same steady slow speed.

This infuriated the taxi driver in his black cab jammed up behind me. He flashed his lights aggressively, but there was no where for me to go except forwards.

There were two lanes of one-way traffic on this particular stretch of road and also cars parked to my left so I couldn’t pull over and let him go by. He flashed his lights again. He wanted me to speed up, but I’d already noticed that the lights ahead of me were at red and that the traffic was banking up behind them.

As I slowly approached the stationary cars the lights turned to green and I went sailing on. As I rounded the corner I realised that the taxi was almost in my back seat, but again I didn’t increase my speed, for the next set of lights ahead were at also at red, and the cars that had raced ahead had already juddered to a halt.

I simply chugged along at a slow steady speed.

No doubt I was being called every name under the sun in the taxi. Ignoring it, I steadily motored on and as I approached the lights turned to green allowing me to gamely chug on further without stopping.

This was too much for the taxi driver. He overtook aggressively his engine racing leaving me in the wake of his exhaust fumes and curses.

Ahead of us both the traffic had already ground to a halt at the next set of traffic lights. The taxi driver screeched to a halt in a traffic lane which would allow him to turn right.

I simply chugged along and entered the left hand lane just as the light for this lane turned green.

There was undiluted delight in sailing straight past the taxi with its irate driver and then continuing at the same steady speed. I didn’t bother to glance in his direction.

For all his bluster and impatience the taxi driver was in the exact same place he would have been in had he simply relaxed and just gone along with the flow.

Still it’s something I’ll have to remember the next time I find myself in a hurry and find myself behind a slow moving vehicle.

Maybe, just maybe, they might know the timing of the traffic lights.

(Oh, and I wasn’t really going all that slow!)