Everyone Else is Stopped for a Reason

[Dips]

You know how every now and then someone will think they're cleverer than all the other drivers out there? So the fact that everyone else is stopped at a green light registers to the cleverer driver that he was only one smart enough to see that the light was green?

So he goes anyway instead of speculating why nobody else is going?

And sideswipes the school bus with kids getting off it?

My daughter just told me yesterday that happened when she was in high school.

Nobody was hurt. The bus stop was at a light on a 4 lane undivided highway. J was getting off the bus and she heard the noise. The bus lurched a bit.

They were a bit startled and puzzled as you are right after an accident you didn't see coming.

The bus driver whipped her window open and started blessing out the person who had hit the bus. To his credit he didn't try to run away. He had pulled to the side of the road in front of the bus.

J saw him get out of his car, walk back, pick something up off the road and hand it to the driver through the window. He never said a word, just listened to the blessing out which was going on continuously.

The thing he handed her was the stop sign that swings out on the driver's side when the bus door is open.

[AtDIelement]

He can say bye bye to his license.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Nice.

I love how people always say "well, the guy was stopped in the road for no reason!"

What they mean is "the guy was stopped in the road for a reason I completely missed."

Thank God no kids were hurt.

[blas]

My mom and I witnessed someone nearly bash into a road block Monday morning.

My own fault, I forgot that I'd seen on the news the Friday before that there would be construction going on there all of this current week, fixing a spot where the pavement buckled last summer.

Anyway, we get to the pileup, both getting into the left lane as soon as we see the sign warning that the right lane is closed. You have your typical assholes who wait until the last minute and beg to be let in....

Then you have this lovely specimen who waited until the last second.

I honestly covered my face because I actually believed that this moron was going to bash right into the road blocker. This person was still going the regular speed limit just seconds before slamming the brakes and almost making contact with the block.

And someone was too nice and let them in. I would have made them wait.

You see traffic backed up for nearly a mile and you still think you can go 70 mph and whizz past?

[Sleepwalker]

There's one of those on my way to work. Three signs saying right lane must exit, these are large, flashing signs mind you, and yet at least half of my trips to work involve seeing some moron decide that flirting with death via concrete wall or car collision is better than having to detour for all of half a mile before getting back on the freeway.

[LillFilly]

So true, so true. I hate people like that. Have had it happen lots of times. I brake for a couple of deer bounding in front of me, horn. I brake for the kids in the road, horn. I stop because of the traffic backed-up from the car accident in front of me, horn and cue people trying to cut-in to get that extra 3-feet further; I refuse to move because they're just being rude.

On the job, I chase-down people that pull-out from behind me and blast-through the crosswalk because they figure I'm just sitting in the lane for no reason...No, I'm stopped for the little old lady that you almost ran over! If I can catch them, I chew them out, or if they're going slow enough while trying to pass I turn just enough so I block their way

[Difdi]

You see traffic backed up for nearly a mile and you still think you can go 70 mph and whizz past?

Actually, from a traffic flow standpoint (my uncle actually designs roads and highways for a living, and he swears to this), everybody would get by the lane closure a heck of a lot faster if everyone already in the closed lane stayed in the closed lane until the last minute, and the people in the open lane allowed them to merge.

You generally only get mile-long backups when people abandon the closed lane a mile before it's closed (at the first sign) and/or the people up at the actual road blockage in the open lane don't let anyone merge. It's the constriction of traffic flow that causes the massive backup.

[Zellie Crescent]

I have a good one from my high school days, and this one I observed from inside the bus on the way home. We were stopped in front of this kid's place (I forget his name), and he got off the bus. The guy behind us was apparently in a hurry and honked his horn at us, we don't move in 3 seconds so he honks again. The kid is almost to his door and the guy gets fed up, he passes us on the right driving up on the lawn to go around us. None of us could believe it happened, I only hope he lost his license since then.

[Magpie]

Actually, from a traffic flow standpoint (my uncle actually designs roads and highways for a living, and he swears to this), everybody would get by the lane closure a heck of a lot faster if everyone already in the closed lane stayed in the closed lane until the last minute, and the people in the open lane allowed them to merge.

I believe this only applies if people actually follow the "rules" for a merge, which aren't really followed, and since no one knows or follows them, trying to do so doesn't actually save any time. .

[mattm04]

I can see a similar accident happen in my area. A nearby city, which once had a decent sized industrial area whit a rail line has converted the rail line to a bike path. Because it is still a industrial area with some manufacturing and a few DC's on the road it is a wide road due to the heavy truck traffic.

I have stopped for people on the bike path only to be passed by some idiot on the left coming close to hitting the people crossing in the cross walk. In the last week or so the has been a very heavy police presence in that area with unmarked cars. I hope the get some morons.

[ADoyle90815]

I saw something like that yesterday on my way home from work, where someone didn't seem to care that the high school was done for the day, and that there were kids crossing at the intersection. This person almost took off my back bumper when he got in the other lane when there was a slight traffic jam at an intersection where students were crossing. That person almost rear ended another car in the other lane.

One time I got a horn was when yes, I did get the green arrow to turn left, but there was also an emergency vehicle with their lights on and sirens blaring, so I decided it was best to let that vehicle go first, but the person behind me didn't like that at all.

[Crescent Cat]

I've been honked at and flipped off for stopping at a red light.

[roothorick]

Actually, from a traffic flow standpoint (my uncle actually designs roads and highways for a living, and he swears to this), everybody would get by the lane closure a heck of a lot faster if everyone already in the closed lane stayed in the closed lane until the last minute, and the people in the open lane allowed them to merge.

You generally only get mile-long backups when people abandon the closed lane a mile before it's closed (at the first sign) and/or the people up at the actual road blockage in the open lane don't let anyone merge. It's the constriction of traffic flow that causes the massive backup.

THIS. When I see the signs I make a point of positioning myself to merge without slowing down... but people just don't seem to get it.

Zipper formation should be part of driver's ed. Seriously.

[Andara Bledin]

Actually, from a traffic flow standpoint (my uncle actually designs roads and highways for a living, and he swears to this), everybody would get by the lane closure a heck of a lot faster if everyone already in the closed lane stayed in the closed lane until the last minute, and the people in the open lane allowed them to merge.

THIS. When I see the signs I make a point of positioning myself to merge without slowing down... but people just don't seem to get it.

Zipper formation should be part of driver's ed. Seriously.

Seconded. Don't move over at the first sign that the lane is closing; wait until you're relatively near where the cones are actually moving into the lane, and merge there. As said, it should work like a zipper, with cars alternating who gets to go, as with any natural (as opposed to temporary) merge setup.

Plus, if you do it right, and you're merging at the point where the lanes actually come together, you can take your sweet time actually moving into the resulting single lane and block the s who want to try to gun it and cut in.

^-.-^

[Ironclad Alibi]

Seconded. Don't move over at the first sign that the lane is closing; wait until you're relatively near where the cones are actually moving into the lane, and merge there. As said, it should work like a zipper, with cars alternating who gets to go, as with any natural (as opposed to temporary) merge setup.

I have always figured that if you merge early, you get to merge twice or more. So I stay in the lane until I get to the merge point.