Etiquette

It's been an interesting week or two on the road - me with the Prius, everyone else driving like idiots. Don't get me wrong, I don't think the people on the road have changed, but I think I have. Toyota says that the Prius gets 60 miles per gallon, so I've been changing my driving habits in hopes of getting somewhere near that (I'm at 46mpg now, which is double what my BMW got; you'd think I'd be happy with that).

By changing my driving habits, I mean things like:

1. Driving between 55 mph and 65 mph in the slow lane (for those who are unsure, the "slow lane" refers to the right lane)
2. Nearly rolling through stop signs - this bothers me. I know it's wrong, and yet, I also know that if I come to a complete stop, I'll potentially have to use valuable (expensive these days) gasoline to get the car moving again - I wonder if that would work with a policeman (policeperson?) if I got pulled over for rolling through a stop sigh - "Sorry officer, I was just trying to save gasoline" - probably not.

Today was different though. On my way home, someone - I'll call him "Family Guy" zipped past me on the freeway entrance ramp. In the old days, I would have pulled up alongside him (I'm not a chauvenist, statistically, it would be man), stared at him, given him the finger and gotten on with my life.

When I got on the freeway, surprise, surprise, there was Family Guy - there was enough traffic that he got nowhere once he passed me. As I pulled along side, finger at the ready, I looked into his car - there he was, my prey - a quick toot of my horn to get his attention, the finger, vindicated. But it was not to be.

I looked into his car, and he wasn't alone!! He had his wife with him, and a couple of kids in the back - who knows, maybe he even had a cat or dog in there. What was he doing passing me on the entrance ramp. Parents aren't supposed to do that, they're supposed to be safe drivers. I don't remember anyone ever giving either of my parents the finger as a result of their driving. Maybe he wasn't the father?

More importantly, what I was I supposed to do - should I beep, should I give him the finger? Will his kids be scarred for life? Or worse, will it be the last straw for his wife - has she repeatedly warned him about driving like an asshole when she's with him? Will she leave him because of this? And what would that do to the kids? Are they going to need therapy?

And, let's not forget, I'm driving a Prius now - does that change things? Is it just completely wrong to give someone the finger from a Prius? Driving a Prius means, in theory, "I'm well balanced, down to earth, calm" - by giving Family Guy the finger, am I messing things up for all of the other Prius drivers?

Thankfully, Family Guy got off the freeway at the next exit (perhaps he knew I was thinking about ruining his life as he knew it) so nothing of significance happened. But next time, who knows. Do I give him the finger? Or stick my tongue out at him?

Or do I just get over it and accept that there are just people out there who can't drive but don't realize it? What would Miss Manners say?