He had been damned embarrassed when the irate driver came to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing.

Kaederman's answer was to pull loose his pistol and fire at the irate driver, point-blank.

"I won't work for you again," I said as he gave the irate drivers behind him a friendly wave and merged onto expressway traffic.

One irate driver actually yelled at me, called me "lazy" and stated, "Then I might as well lower it for everybody with a shopping cart!"

Many drivers, looking for alternate routes, flooded Third and Fourth avenues, where traffic nearly stopped as police officers directed irate drivers.

An irate driver honked on the street somewhere behind him.

The public image of roads is quite poor, with long delays, dull dusty contraflows and irate drivers - a troublesome means to an end.

The first I knew of it was when a cab shot past me, with the irate driver leaning out.

He added that he had received more than two dozen telephone calls and E-mail messages from irate drivers.

"The irate driver will usually say, 'Oh, Merry Christmas to you too,' and walk away," he said.