You are a terrible driver

An open letter to drivers in northeastern New Jersey (and Long Island, too):

You suck.

Seriously, 90 percent of you are horrible drivers. And it is not even because you are dumb or ill-informed (which would at least be somewhat forgivable). No, you simply do not care. Thus, you are jerks and I hate you.

Before you start thinking that you belong to the minority of good drivers, I assure you, you're not.  And the fact that you would think you are among the good 10 percent makes you even more of an ignorant jerk.

Let me ask you three things:

1. Do you drive at or under the speed limit? 

2. Do you actually come to a full stop at a stop sign?  And then do you look both ways before proceeding?

3. Do you stop for pedestrians that are trying to cross a crosswalk?

No.  You don't.  Don't even try to lie to yourself.

And it is because of you that I come close to getting hit by a car almost every time I go out running.  Usually the only thing that saves me is that I have superior intelligence and I can tell just by the way your car is moving or, if possible, the look on your face, that you are not paying attention to the fact that pedestrians are around. 

It's not like I come out of nowhere, either.  Cars are traveling at 30 to 50 miles per hour and you usually manage to see them.  But here I come at 9 miles per hour on a good day and I may as well be nonexistent.

So shape up, northeastern New Jersey drivers. If you don't, we're going to end up in a newspaper article together about vehicular manslaughter and a runner cut down in his prime.