I appreciate the gesture, sir, but PLEASE don't do this

[Pixelated]

I was waiting, in a left-turn lane, for a chance to make a left turn. (duh )

I was in no hurry whatsoever, nor was I holding up other traffic -- there wasn't even else anybody behind me, waiting to turn.

Oncoming driver, in the inside lane, stops (thus holding up the driver behind him) and waves me to turn. I twitch the wheel a bit ... and another driver shoots through the intersection in the outside lane. The driver trying to let me through was driving a decent-sized pickup so I couldn't see too well who else might be coming up in the outside lane.

Now, the second driver was entirely in the right. If I had been turning, chances are good there would've been a nice crash and I would've been entirely at fault.

So I sat on my brakes, shook my head very firmly at the driver trying to be nice, and also very firmly waved him forward. Once those two vehicles were gone, both oncoming lanes were clear and I turned.

I know Driver 1 was trying to be nice, but ... that's a very bad idea.

[notalwaysright]

Arg, it's not nice, it's stupid. People don't do that very often here, but when I come across one, I start making big arm waving motions. Basically trying to convey "NO, you go, idiot! GO GO GO!" with my arms somehow. Generally people get the idea, or they're afraid of me. But ignoring the law is not nice, honestly where do these people come from?

[Slave to the Phone]

YES! 1000 times YES!!!

Be predictable people, I am not going to proceed when someone else has the right of way. There are all those other folks driving these big metal things that expect ME to be predictable and I don't want to get run over.

[Luna Baby]

we call it 'making up the rules as you go' and we (hubby and I) hate it. I hate thrown my car into PARK while some idiot was trying to hold up 30 cars so they could let me go. I refuse to follow someone else's rules that break the driving laws unless it happens to be the officer directing traffic.

[An Haddock]

You have my sympathies. I hate it when people do that. Even more dangerous in your situation as you couldn't see who was zipping along in the other lane.


I posted not long ago about someone who decided to "allow" me to make a left turn - except I couldn't because there were pedestrians crossing where I needed to turn. So now this jackass is holding up traffic because I have to wait for the pedestrians to go. If the guy had just continued without stopping for me, it actually would have been faster.

[gerund]

I have encountered this idiocy several times. Mostly I gesture back at them and they give up after several times, sometimes shaking their heads in disbelief.

One time the idiot was stuck. I waved him on, he waved me through, rinse repeat. In the end I put my car in park, opened the door and got out, then waved him on. He finally went and after that the road was clear for miles and I could (legally) continue.

[Pixelated]

There are rare occasions where this sort of thing is actually helpful. We've got a ton of construction going on right now on one of My Hometown's two major roads. You get some poor bugger trying to turn left into, say, a gas station, and I am happy to be either on the giving or receiving end of nice people waving me to turn, because otherwise I could be sitting there for an hour or three.

Again, you have to be VERY careful that nobody in the next lane is going to zip merrily along while you're trying to make that turn. However, under these circumstances it's normal that traffic in each lane is at a dead standstill, so that's almost never an issue.

[An Haddock]

One time the idiot was stuck. I waved him on, he waved me through, rinse repeat. In the end I put my car in park, opened the door and got out, then waved him on. He finally went and after that the road was clear for miles and I could (legally) continue.

Those drive me batty, too. I'll be waiting to cross a street - even if it's not at a crosswalk. Three or four cars will go by. Like clockwork - the LAST CAR in the line will always stop, even if there's five miles of empty road behind him. Dude - you might be making yourself feel better but you're not doing me any favors. JUST GO.

There are rare occasions where this sort of thing is actually helpful. We've got a ton of construction going on right now on one of My Hometown's two major roads. You get some poor bugger trying to turn left into, say, a gas station, and I am happy to be either on the giving or receiving end of nice people waving me to turn, because otherwise I could be sitting there for an hour or three.

I'm not completely without thanks. If there's a line of 20 cars and I just need to make a quick turn, I appreciate someone letting me go. But if I only have to wait for 2 or 3 before I make my turn, it's not the end of the world.

[Jetfire]

As a biker/pedestrian and an occasional driver, I'm beginning to hate it when people stop for me. I know they are trying to be nice, but often times, there's no one behind htem, so if they would just go, there's a wide open road for me to cross.

I especially don't like it when I'm on my bike. If I get to a street I'm crossing, I'm usually already stopped. If the car stops to let me go, I have to get started again... It takes time for me to get started; usually more time than the car going through the intersection would take.

So usually I look at traffic and judge. if there's an opening behind the guy slowing to stop me, I'll turn my back to him and look away so he can't indicate, and often try to wave them through. I figure with no eye contact we can avoid getting into a Canadian Standoff.

If there's a lot of traffic, I'll suddenly become fascinated by the house on the corner. Or I'll look behind me as if I'm waiting for someone. Often times I'll try to stay back from the intersection so they won't notice me there until it's too late.

Now if it's a signaled intersection and/or there are other people crossing, I'll go with the crowd and signal. But just myself? I'm fine waiting for a clear road to cross at.

[Monterey Jack]

As a biker/pedestrian and an occasional driver, I'm beginning to hate it when people stop for me. I know they are trying to be nice, but often times, there's no one behind htem, so if they would just go, there's a wide open road for me to cross.

Not a fan of this, either...if there are no other cars immediately behind them, it'd actually be quicker if the car just went by at top speed instead of slowing to a crawl with the person behind the wheel gesturing for me to cross.

[Pixelated]

So usually I look at traffic and judge. if there's an opening behind the guy slowing to stop me, I'll turn my back to him and look away so he can't indicate, and often try to wave them through. I figure with no eye contact we can avoid getting into a Canadian Standoff.

If there's a lot of traffic, I'll suddenly become fascinated by the house on the corner. Or I'll look behind me as if I'm waiting for someone. Often times I'll try to stay back from the intersection so they won't notice me there until it's too late.

Must be a Canadian "thing" -- that's pretty much what I do too. "Oooh, look, something shiny!!"

[Pagan]

I was waiting, in a left-turn lane, for a chance to make a left turn. (duh )

I know Driver 1 was trying to be nice, but ... that's a very bad idea.

This is exactly how my wreck happened. The street I was on was 6 lanes across, three in each direction, and I was on the inside lane headed north to get into the left-turn lane at the light. All of a sudden, there's a car perpendicular in front of me because she believed the other two lanes that it was safe to go. Luckily, my foot was already on the brake to slow down, but I still hit her.

All that happened to her car was a ding on her back driver side wheel, meanwhile, the whole front end of my car had to be replaced. But her insurance had to pay for it and the rental car that I had to keep over a weekend.

As a biker/pedestrian and an occasional driver, I'm beginning to hate it when people stop for me. I know they are trying to be nice, but often times, there's no one behind htem, so if they would just go, there's a wide open road for me to cross.

I had this one yahoo do this one time. My street is 4-lane with a nice median down the middle and there's not a lot of traffic. So I'm waiting on the median to finish crossing one day and this guy stops and waves me across. Thing is, there was someone coming behind him in the other lane and even if I had gone ahead, I didn't have time to finish crossing before the other car got there...which he would have known if he had ever looked in his rear view mirror. I kept waving, he kept waving. I finally *pointed* at the other car and he got his ass moving...with this look of disbelief on his face.

[MadonnaC]

I work in the insurance industry. The wave from the other driver is known as "The wave of Death"