Getting his way on the highway

I’m so lucky to have seen Paul Brownfield’s hilarious piece this morning in the Times (“No, really, how am I driving? Let’s talk,” Feb. 20). My wife and I were laughing out loud as we read it together.

I’ve often wished there were a universally recognized gesture to tell another driver you’re sorry for whatever you just did, like having cut him off and forced him into the path of an oncoming tractor trailer because you didn’t know that your lane was right turn only and you needed to go straight.

But usually when the need to apologize is great, the other driver’s mood is correspondingly ramped up. And I’ve found that whatever gesture I make -- meaning to say “oh boy, that was dumb of me, I’m sorry” -- is instead interpreted as yet more aggression.

If my wife is in the car, however, her gestures to me no doubt satisfy the other driver completely.

Brian L. Buckley

Los Angeles

*

You actually saw several open parking spaces in the Trader Joe’s lot? Mirabile dictu! Can your fact checker verify that?

Beverly Graf

Toluca Lake

*

How are you driving? This being asked by a great-grandmother who tries to avoid road rage, crawling along the freeways at five miles over the speed limit while cars fly by.

Don’t tack that bumper sticker onto your car. At the speed you seem to be going, I’ll barely see your rear end at all.

Cordially, an over-the-hill road crawler (who wants to go where she’s got to go without antagonizing dashing young men on the speedway).

Ilse Schmidt

South Gate

*

I’ve often wanted to have a machine attached to my car that takes people out of the game when they do something foolish like cut in front of me without signaling. I am also exhausted by driving with my husband because he takes these affronts so personally, so I usually do the driving if at all possible.

Your piece was hilarious. Insightful. A cry for help in the wilderness.

Louise Steinman

Los Angeles