All the idiots were out yesterday

[An Haddock]

Was it the weather? The phase of the moon? The holidays?

Whatever it was, I had two near-misses and other nonsense.



1. GO. JUST. GO.

One of my pet peeves is when you're waiting to cross a street... you have one, two three... multiple cars pass without stopping. Then the LAST GUY in the line of cars will stop to let you go... while there's five miles of clear road behind him.

Hey - I get you're the one guy obeying the traffic laws but at that point, why the fuck bother? Just go. It's faster and easier for us both.




2. Do you understand traffic patterns?

Drive down a back street to a four-way stop. Guy is already at the intersection. I pull up to the stop sign. He's still sitting there and waves me on.

No.

You were there first. Go. GO!

I was tempted to pull my goddam keys out of the car and drop them defiantly to the street.




3. Thanks for the near-T Bone.

Waiting at a large intersection to turn left. Rainy weather. I'm partially into the intersection as allowed by law. Light turns yellow. I begin to pull forward to make my turn, idiot woman coming from the other direction decides she doesn't need to wait and just blasts right through the intersection. Should have let her hit me - I need the money.




4. T-bones for all!

Going up our main street, had a woman pull out of a side street on my left, making a left turn, and damn near ran into me. Should have let her hit me, too. There isn't a jury in the land that wouldn't have found in my favor.



so tired.

so weary.

[siskaren]

2. Do you understand traffic patterns?

Drive down a back street to a four-way stop. Guy is already at the intersection. I pull up to the stop sign. He's still sitting there and waves me on.

No.

You were there first. Go. GO!

I was tempted to pull my goddam keys out of the car and drop them defiantly to the street.

I get so annoyed by people who can't seem to figure out how stop signs work. It's either guys like that who apparently think they're supposed to wait for an approaching car to get to the intersection before they're allowed to go (even though the other car has a stop sign as well), or it's people who stop when they don't have a stop sign (or don't when they do), or who apparently think that when they stopped is when they get to the end of the line, not when they get to the stop sign.

[An Haddock]

I get so annoyed by people who can't seem to figure out how stop signs work. It's either guys like that who apparently think they're supposed to wait for an approaching car to get to the intersection before they're allowed to go (even though the other car has a stop sign as well), or it's people who stop when they don't have a stop sign (or don't when they do), or who apparently think that when they stopped is when they get to the end of the line, not when they get to the stop sign.

I see it all the time around here... four way stops where the person with the right of way doesn't take it, people slowing down or stopping when there's NO STOP SIGN or the opposite where they blow through stop signs without slowing.

Times like that the suburbs really suck.

[Aethian]

Only 4-way I will wait for the other person to stop is at one that gets bad black ice really easy.

[wolfie]

I've occasionally waved the other person to go first even though I had the right of way. Of course, I was driving the Peterbilt of Natural Selection when this happened, and the streets in question definitely weren't designed for 53 foot trailers. In order for me to make the turn, I needed the space the other vehicle was occupying to be EMPTY - either they go, or they'd need to back up a significant distance, and having them go "out of turn" would clear the space faster.

[Catwoman2965]

I've occasionally waved the other person to go first even though I had the right of way. Of course, I was driving the Peterbilt of Natural Selection when this happened, and the streets in question definitely weren't designed for 53 foot trailers. In order for me to make the turn, I needed the space the other vehicle was occupying to be EMPTY - either they go, or they'd need to back up a significant distance, and having them go "out of turn" would clear the space faster.

Speaking of needing room to turn, the road my office is on turns onto a county highway. Trucks are allowed on both, so the left turn lane turning onto the highway stops a bit further back than the right lane. This is due to the tight, right turn huge trucks need to make to turn from the highway onto the road. I can't tell you how many times I've been waiting to turn left, behind some yahoo who has pulled up flush with the right lane, and a truck tries to turn, and can't, and has to wait for the light to change, so they have enough room. I don't get that. Don't get it at all.

[wolfie]

One place I pick up from around once a month has a VERY bad right turn on the way back to the highway (corresponding not-so-bad left turn on the way to the site). On one pickup, I realized (inbound) that there was NO way I would be able to make that light, and I saw through the trees what looked like a truck coming outbound. I stopped a couple lengths short of the stop line.

The light changed, and the car in front of me (which had already entered the intersection) didn't finish his turn. Instead, he BACKED UP until he was barely clear of the stop line. Nope, the hundred feet or so between his rear bumper and the front bumper of the stopped semi behind him didn't give him a clue. So much for the other truck (yes, there was one) being able to take the turn slightly wider by using empty space in the left turn bay.