The need to look beneath the surface--I drive a Prius...

I first got my Prius in 2007. Yup, a rather old, blue, practical Prius with a faint eau de dog, oil paints, and human sports gear (translation: smelly shoes) . Awesome for lugging wet paintings, and all the other paraphernalia of the trade. But lately, I've noticed, I'm a target for other drivers' aggressions.

The other evening a Black Cab (King of polite driving here in London) not only didn't yield, to let me inch into the red light queue, but took a look at my car and budged forward to make sure I wasn't getting in. A very Un-Black Cab thing to do.

The next intersection found me cut off aggressively again as I gently yielded my way into the roundabout. The usual 'everyone gets a turn' was no longer applying to me. I know the roads are more crowded, people are more rushed, and opportunities to drive "efficiently" are reduced. But why, all of a sudden, me? And then the "Ah hah" moment...

Ahead, a Prius was pulling a complete illegal U-turn in the middle of a busy road that made traffic on both sides angry and impatient. Another one pulls over near a crossing in an illegal zone to let someone out of the back seat, and yet another one cuts aggressively through 3 lanes of a roundabout dangerously putting others in peril, then pulls over randomly to let someone into the back seat. That black cabbie thought I was an Uber driver! As such, I am now the root of all evil on London roads. Encased in an outside that has been tainted by the bad acts of a few, my lovely little Prius now marks me as a target. I should be banned, I should be treated in kind...It doesn't matter that I've had mine since long before the Uber revolution. It doesn't matter that I've not got passengers. It doesn't matter that I've never pulled an insane illegal U-turn on a busy road...If only they wondered who was really inside that now tainted exterior. If only they would take the time to look...to see...and to think (but not to smell, that might legitimately turn the cards against me!)