traffic tuesday #14 – foggy windows

By erik Tuesday November 4, 2008

It happens to everybody. You’re running late, and when you get to your car, you find the windows fogged up. If they were frosted, you could grab your scrapper and clean of the ice. This, however, is different. It’s some sort of strange temperature thing and to solve the problem you’re going to need to wait ten minutes for your car to warm up.

But, as I said, you’re late.

So what do you do? You go ahead and leave hoping that windows will defog before you run into your neighbors garbage can or run over that strange neighborhood cat that always seems to be lurking around.

I’ll admit, I’ve done this, but last Saturday I fell victim to this seemingly innocent, yet defiant act.

Around 7:40am I was traveling north on 80th Ave. when a guy in a red Pontiac Firebird pulled out in front of me. He pulled up to his stop sign (I had none), stopped for several seconds (as if he was waiting for me to pass) and then just pulled out in front of me. Fortunately, my lightning fast reflexes kicked into gear and I immediately laid on my horn (priority #1) and then swerved and slammed on the brakes. As I was moving to safety, I realized that I couldn’t see into Mr. Speedracer’s windows. Yep, they were all fogged up.

He forgot one of the most important rules of driving with foggy windows: Role Them Down. After all, being able to see is one of the slightly essential aspects of driving.
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