We drove through the Los Angeles megacity together â and at one point were stuck in traffic.
âHeeeeyâ, she said, like someone gently broaching a topic I should have noticed, âWhy does the lane next to us have diamond shaped symbols on it?â
That is! A subtle and friendly way of asking why weâre sitting in traffic when thereâs a carpool lane Right There! I laughed and pulled into the lane and started driving.
Unfortunately. That isnât what she was implying, she was genuinely asking. So we were stuck in traffic, she asked about what was clearly a breakdown or emergency access lane, and I laughed and started driving in it. She was Alarmed.
âHello! Excuse me! We canât drive in this lane! No one else is driving in this lane!!â
âOh! I should have said â this lane is for people with more than one person in their car.â
âThat is RIDICULOUS. You are lying. You are lying about what this lane is for and weâll get arrested! (maâam itâs fine but if it werenât it would be more of a âticketâ situation) weâll get a âticketâ! (Maâam again itâs fine but were it not I alone would get the ticket) because that IS NOT the purpose of this lane. That is a RIDICULOUS lie.â
âIâm sorry, I should have said â I thought you were being subtle about my oversight. Please observe the carpool sign.â
âI donât know what a carpool is and I donât believe you.â
âHow about you look at all the cars stuck in traffic and see how many have more than one driver, and if there are at least five Iâll get back into the traffic jam.â
(With dawning horror) ânone of these cars have more than one person in them.â
âNone of these cars have more than one person!!â
âIf you werenât here Iâd be right there with them.â
âOK but there was no train to where we needed to go.â
âThereâs no train to where they needed to go either.â