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It always seems to be the out-of-state plates. Always. I understand not having absolute familiarity with a particular region and its traffic peculiarities, but these examples take it a step farther; if I am approaching any of these intersections, and I see a car with out-of-state plates, something exciting is about to happen. This isn't confirmation bias - this is every time.
Location: Exit Two onramp
Out-of-state plate: Massachusetts
Until relatively recently, one had to turn left at this intersection to go northbound on the Interstate. It was a pain in the ass; no light control, heavy traffic, so they built that lovely elongated loop from the right-hand lane, and added a traffic light to the southbound off-ramp. It was a masterstroke of civil engineering; with one build, they cleared all congestion on Route 9.
That didn't stop this driver from aggressively bulling his way up to the traffic light, discovering he had nowhere to go, and, the second the light changed, squealed in front of all other cars, leaped over the median strip between the on-ramp and the road, scattering plastic bollards like ninepins, and coming within inches of getting T-boned by the car that was using the ramp as it was intended. I would swear his tires left the ground. The weird thing is, if you have a look at the map, he had a second opportunity to use the on-ramp around the corner without doing grievous bodily harm to his undercarriage...
Location: Exit Seven
Out-of-state plate: New Hampshire
If there's ever a police chase in Maine, and the suspect has New Hampshire plates, I hope the cops think to send him down Exit Seven. This thing is like a rat-trap for New Hampshire drivers. The off-ramp is light-controlled, but so is the Franklin/Marginal intersection, and the sync between the two lights is very odd. Four lanes: one left, one right, two straight ahead, and I have yet to see a New Hampshire truck hit the right one on the first try. Earlier today, I saw a truck stopped in the middle of the intersection, cars streaming around him in all directions, and I thought, "Bet he has New Hampshire plates."
Yep.
Location: Downtown traffic rotary
Out-of-state plate: Connecticut
My doctor told me this one.
This is a tiny traffic rotary in the heart of a quiet little town. The rotary sees, maybe, twenty cars an hour, but it's fairly crucial to downtown traffic flow, as you might imagine, so the city took that into account when they decided to do some Ocean Street construction and shut that road down entirely between D and E.
This apparently confused a Connecticut driver who did a couple of bewildered laps of the traffic rotary, and then tried to take Ocean Street anyway, whereupon he hit the Jersey barrier designed to prevent this with sufficient force to disable his car, blocking the entire intersection. My doctor is not a temperamental man - he's put up with my hypochondria for nearly a year, after all - but he explained this as the reason he was late for our appointment that day, and not in a tone of voice that implied serenity.
Location: Exit Two onramp
Out-of-state plate: Massachusetts
Until relatively recently, one had to turn left at this intersection to go northbound on the Interstate. It was a pain in the ass; no light control, heavy traffic, so they built that lovely elongated loop from the right-hand lane, and added a traffic light to the southbound off-ramp. It was a masterstroke of civil engineering; with one build, they cleared all congestion on Route 9.
That didn't stop this driver from aggressively bulling his way up to the traffic light, discovering he had nowhere to go, and, the second the light changed, squealed in front of all other cars, leaped over the median strip between the on-ramp and the road, scattering plastic bollards like ninepins, and coming within inches of getting T-boned by the car that was using the ramp as it was intended. I would swear his tires left the ground. The weird thing is, if you have a look at the map, he had a second opportunity to use the on-ramp around the corner without doing grievous bodily harm to his undercarriage...
Location: Exit Seven
Out-of-state plate: New Hampshire
If there's ever a police chase in Maine, and the suspect has New Hampshire plates, I hope the cops think to send him down Exit Seven. This thing is like a rat-trap for New Hampshire drivers. The off-ramp is light-controlled, but so is the Franklin/Marginal intersection, and the sync between the two lights is very odd. Four lanes: one left, one right, two straight ahead, and I have yet to see a New Hampshire truck hit the right one on the first try. Earlier today, I saw a truck stopped in the middle of the intersection, cars streaming around him in all directions, and I thought, "Bet he has New Hampshire plates."
Yep.
Location: Downtown traffic rotary
Out-of-state plate: Connecticut
My doctor told me this one.
This is a tiny traffic rotary in the heart of a quiet little town. The rotary sees, maybe, twenty cars an hour, but it's fairly crucial to downtown traffic flow, as you might imagine, so the city took that into account when they decided to do some Ocean Street construction and shut that road down entirely between D and E.
This apparently confused a Connecticut driver who did a couple of bewildered laps of the traffic rotary, and then tried to take Ocean Street anyway, whereupon he hit the Jersey barrier designed to prevent this with sufficient force to disable his car, blocking the entire intersection. My doctor is not a temperamental man - he's put up with my hypochondria for nearly a year, after all - but he explained this as the reason he was late for our appointment that day, and not in a tone of voice that implied serenity.
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