Note to all Santa Barbara drivers…
I don’t know if there’s something in the air that is causing most of you to drive like complete and total morons, but you really, really need to knock it off. A perfect example: To the individual who, instead of speeding up to the flow of traffic while merging with the right lane of the freeway, decided to come to a dead stop - your “avant garde” driving style almost caused a multi-car wreck. Had the person behind me not swerved to avoid slamming into the back of my car (and don’t think he didn’t get some profanities thrown at him as well), we all would have had a very long morning. While he was, in fact, a dipshit for tailgating on a freeway on-ramp, your dip-shittiness still ranks higher in my eyes, as you NEVER EVER STOP on an on-ramp when freeway traffic is flowing.
And just to drive my point home, let me cite the California Driver Handbook.
Enter the freeway at or near the speed of traffic. (Remember that the maximum speed allowed is 65 mph on most freeways.) Do not stop before merging with freeway traffic unless absolutely necessary.
(Bolding emphasis is NOT mine.)
It was not “absolutely necessary” for you to stop. In fact, it was quite the imperative that you not stop. If merging is “too complicated”, then take the bus, because we seriously need to thin out the idiots on HWY 101. And while I am on the topic…
To the tail-gaters: No matter how close to my rear bumper you get, I will not drive faster, and I will not pull into the right lane, because there’s a good chance I want to go as fast as you want me to go. I also have a “lead foot”, but I am not an idiot, and I will not make matters worse by swerving in and out of traffic to save 30 seconds. I’ll drive faster when traffic lightens up. One of these days, I’m throwing it into neutral and letting you carry the burden for both of us - at the price of gas, that actually seems like a good idea.
And to everyone else: Driving while talking on a cell phone makes you drive like an idiot. You are not that important. Hell, I’m not that important, and I am pretty sure I am more important than you. It takes 20 minutes to get from Goleta to Milpas - you can talk about last night’s episodes of Flavor of Love and The Girls Next Door when you get out of your car.
There… I feel better.
Standard Podcast [57:54m]: 
