Stuck in traffic.

I've seen a lot since I started commuting between our Naples and Sarasota offices four years ago. I've seen a giant tire tread fly off a tractor-trailer and come spiraling back to bang into my undercarriage and crush my air conditioning system; an alligator sunning in the middle of Immokalee Road; a wispy old lady peering serenely over the steering wheel as she drove the wrong way down U.S. 41; and motorcycles, cars and trucks of every description lying mangled along the road, with huddles of weeping people standing by their side.

This February and March, I never saw fewer than two-and sometimes three-accidents per day on I-75 between Naples and Fort Myers. I've heard scary-looking people shout scary-sounding obscenities at me when I got in their way; and one recent night, I pulled up to a stoplight and watched a knobby-kneed senior citizen, shaken up because he had barely missed some jaywalking tourists, jump out of his Cadillac Deville and knock one of them to the ground.

But I haven't seen, as Fort Myers Sheriff Mike Scott has, drivers shaving, steering with dogs in their lap ("We're not sure who's driving the car-the person or the poodle," he says) or perusing books and newspapers on a busy highway. He's even watched two motorcyclists switching machines while whizzing along at 50 mph. But his favorite story is the lady with "a high-maintenance look" who hopped out of her Beamer after she was stopped for running a red light and ran to the front of the car to lift the hood. "I can't have someone drive by and think I've been stopped!" she exclaimed. "This way they'll just think I've broken down."

Captain Eddy Johnson, district commander of the Florida Highway Patrol's Lee and Collier division, can top that: One of his troopers recently clocked a driver at 93 mph in the emergency access lane of I-75 near Corkscrew Road. When asked why he was in such a hurry, the man said, "I've got to get to Fort Myers to buy some crack."

Incidents like these are why a DOT source told Jill Tyrer, author of our story on Southwest Florida's traffic crisis in this issue, that the region is gaining a national reputation for bad drivers. But I'm not sure that we're really the problem-and Lieutenant Harold Minch, who's in charge of safety and traffic enforcement for Collier County, agrees. We don't have worse drivers than most places do, he insists: "We have more challenges." Among those challenges: a landscape that's changing so rapidly because of growth and new road projects that elderly drivers, seasonal residents and even old-timers get confused; visitors from all over the world-including places where they drive on the other side of the road-who aren't sure where they're going and keep checking directions; and ever-increasing gridlock, which lengthens commutes, shortens tempers and provokes seriously stupid decisions.

The good news, says Minch: "Our crash rates are coming down, and last year we had 19 fewer fatalities [in Collier]." The bad news? The decrease in fatalities may be the result of an increase in congestion, since you're less likely to die in slow-moving traffic. (The worst accidents, says Scott, come from running red lights-"all the serious blood and guts happens at intersections.")

In "Road Rage," beginning on page 66, Tyrer, who can make even the most complex subjects clear and lively (be sure to read her story about two dozen of Southwest Florida's innovative tech companies in this month's issue of our sister publication, Gulfshore Business), explains just what-and who-have driven us into our current traffic tangle, and what lies down the road. And senior editor Hobart Rowland rounds out the story with telling statistics and a light-hearted look at how some super-commuters survive all those hours in their cars. (We heard one bi-county exec operates an entire office in his SUV; but despite Rowland's best efforts, he refused to incriminate himself.)

We can't say, however, that our story has a happy ending. Although traffic infrastructure and technology will improve tremendously over the next decade, most experts doubt those improvements will outpace growth. If people keep pouring into the region-and there's every reason, with all those retiring baby boomers, to think they will-crowded roads and congestion will continue to be a way of life.

For the whole picture, turn to Tyrer's story-but please, don't read it in your car.