Honk if you want this bumper sticker

COEUR d'ALENE — Pat Krug had several choices.

When she recently encountered an angry, rude and potentially dangerous driver, she could have ignored the person.

She could have flipped the driver off.

Or she could create a bumper sticker in hopes of applying a little salve to infectious roadway irritation.

Krug chose Door No. 3.

As she tells it, she was at a stoplight and, after it turned green, she waited a mere moment before depressing the gas pedal. Sensible drivers do that, having seen the aftermath of red-light runners at the area's busiest intersections.

"But when I didn't go instantly after the light turned green, the driver behind me honked and then passed me," she said. "I've never had that happen before."

Lately, Krug has been hearing similar tales of woe from long-timers unsettled by what appears to be a widespread change in courteous local driving habits. When she was cut off by drivers twice in one day, she decided to do something about it.

The result is her bumper sticker, which she's providing The Press to distribute. "Be Kind," it says. "You're in Idaho Now."

Krug believes the change is occurring because of people moving here from "where they used to live, where they got conditioned to drive this way."

But here?

"We're not that way," she said. "The danger is that we get accustomed to it and then we start doing it, too."

The free bumper stickers are available at the newspaper's front counter, 215 N. Second St. in downtown Coeur d'Alene, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The bumper stickers are easily applied and removed from surfaces.