Rules of the Road

I'm not a fantastic driver. I'm not bad really. Certainly not bad enough to put me in the same league as female drivers, if you can even call them that. I prefer to use the term traveling multi-taskers of death, but that's besides the point. I'm just saying, in a little over 6 years of driving I have been involved in 2 accidents (1 of which was my fault) and gotten one speeding ticket. So like I was saying I'm a decent, maybe even pretty good driver, just not an outstanding one. I would however consider myself rather well versed in the rules of the road, both the written and unwritten ones.

The topic of road etiquette I'm concerned with today is when 2 cars are traveling opposite direction on a residential street and there is a car parked in the road. It is the responsibility of the person who is driving down the side of the road where the car is parked, to yield behind it so that the other person can get through, and then pass the parked car once the way is clear. This is not an merely common courtesty, it is your legal obligation because if you decide not to yield and you end up getting in an accident its your fault. This being said, I was in this situation today, yielded as I was supposed to, and then before I proceeded, the other person waved to me as if I had just done them some sort of favor by allowing them to go first. Really, I didn't have a choice though. It isn't like people wave at me for stopping at red lights or for not running stop signs. I don't get any sort of praise for going to speed limit. So why this? By waving at me when I yield behind a parked car for you, you're basically telling me, "Hey, I'm a terrible driver because if I were in your shoes I woulda plowed right through and killed us both." Do me a favor, if I wave you through at a stop sign, go ahead and give me a wave, but if I yield behind a parked car for you, go ahead and put that hand right back in your pocket so you don't openly admit that you have no idea what you are doing behind the wheel of a car. I feel better not knowing.