I do not know what God’s grand scheme is yet, but I do believe God has an off-beat sense of humor. How else could we possibly explain the relocation of every bad driver in New Jersey to Fort Lee?!
Several mornings each week, while dropping my daughter off at School #1, I watch the large black Cadillac, driven by a well-dressed businessman, pull up and park illegally in front of Boston Market, clearly dropping his wife off to get coffee at Starbucks. He then waits there for her, blocking traffic obviously, because it is too difficult to pull into the empty space 10 feet away. I can only assume that he is worried that the long walk to the parking space would endanger his wife’s health.
Then there is the Beamer owner, who believes that he is entitled to two spaces, parking at an angle in the A&P lot.
Last Thursday, for the umpteenth time, I cringed as I watched a driver make a left turn from the middle lane on Lemoine Avenue onto Main Street because he/she didn’t notice there is a left turn lane with a red light.
Maybe the town would consider removing the stop signs at the Horizon Towers intersection as I watch driver after driver race through them without even slowing down.
I’m assuming there must be a Fort Lee town ordinance mandating that everyone speak on his/her cell phone while driving, since that is clearly the case. And the fact that they do not move upon the green light change because they are busy talking on the cellphones is the least of the problem.
Fort Lee is a maze of one-way streets. The occasional driver traveling the wrong direction on the one-way is a minor problem. Let us consider the driver standing in the middle of the road, blocking traffic, talking to a friend passing on the sidewalk. The one that drives me crazy is the driver pulling to the right in order to make a lefthand turn, obviously oblivious to the fact that the turn from a one-way street should be made from the left lane.
One of my favorites is the attractive woman on the road last month, driving while drinking from a martini glass. If we are going to drink and drive, let’s do it with class!
My least favorites are the plethora of drivers making U-turns on Lemoine Avenue every morning in front of Fort Lee High School. That is not to mention the drivers who cut quickly in front of other cars recklessly, in an effort to drop a student right by the entrance stairs. Mayor Sokolich could balance the town budget by planting one unmarked car there every morning at 7:30 a.m.
My eldest son and his peers are currently at the age where a teenager obtains a permit to drive. I realize that the school budget is extremely limited, but we might seriously want to consider giving these teenagers catcher’s masks and football padding with their new licenses to protect them from the “Streets of Fort Lee”.