self sighting - traffic lights are for lusers!

[PepperElf]

Yeah traffic lights are for other people and lusers apparently.... cos i was braindead enough to run a red light today



no flashing lights though. and i don't think the light was a camera one but... yeah. bleh. i am a jerk and apologize to the other drivers on the road today for doing that.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Don't feel too bad. I almost did the same thing a couple of weeks ago.

I was tunnel-visioning-- looking ahead to the next traffic light (which was green) instead of the current one. As I'm coming up on the intersection (literally passing the white "stop" line), I suddenly realize "OH SHIT IT'S RED AND THERE ARE CARS!"

I hit the brakes, came up short of actually intersecting traffic, then hurriedly put the reverse on and backed up until I was safely out of the way. I was smacking myself at how stupid I'd been.

[Kogarashi]

Well, you and I can be together, because I've done that a couple of times in my life. Oops.

[Food Lady]

I haven't run stoplights, but I've run a stopsign twice. I've also backed up over a curb, gone the wrong way down a one-way, and driven into a ditch at 5 miles an hour. I am not a good driver.

[BrenDAnn]

I've run a stop sign. I've gone the wrong way down a one-way. I've backed into cars behind me when trying to reverse to give a semi more room to make a turn at an intersection...twice. So no you aren't the only one who is a bad driver here. Also, my mother, rest her soul, once ran two different red lights in two different spots in the same town on her way through said town. Yeah...Thankfully neither intersection was busy at all!

[blas]

I got caught running a stop sign out in the country that I didn't know was there. And was caught because, apparently, others must, too, because a cop was hiding by the meat market nearby.

If it makes you feel better, the other day, I lost it and almost just went flying out into the middle of traffic at an unprotected left because for some reason I thought I could go.

[bhskittykatt]

Don't feel too bad. I almost did the same thing a couple of weeks ago.

I was tunnel-visioning-- looking ahead to the next traffic light (which was green) instead of the current one. As I'm coming up on the intersection (literally passing the white "stop" line), I suddenly realize "OH SHIT IT'S RED AND THERE ARE CARS!"

Hubs and I are both guilty of that at some point or another, too.

[Beki710]

I think that most drivers at one point or another have made mistakes like this just because our minds are elsewhere, it's an unfamiliar area or we are focussing on other things. I've definitely gone down streets marked as no entry and turned at intersections marked no turning before...

[sms001]

Jumping on the 'We've all done..." bandwagon here to reassure Pepper. The thing is, it usually makes us BETTER drivers. The SC mentality is to blame others and let it go, but we are all owning our mistakes.
That said, this is the reason that I am one of the few techie/sf/futurist type people that I know that DOES NOT WANT flying cars!!! Good Gord, we have enough problems in two dimensional traffic!

[dalesys]

For me it's the little deficiency expert in the back of my head saying: "I've [looked both ways/checked the mirror/seen the green light] a bazilian times. Bet your hooters I've done it this time. Go!"

[KiaKat]

There's an intersection between my house and the supermarket/strip malls. it's a protected straight/right turn, rather than a protected left... because the road bottlenecks severely at that point, and it's a truck route.

I can't tell you how many people (husband included) forget that the green arrow IS NOT THE LEFT. I'm surprised there aren't more accidents at that intersection, given the number of tourists around here.

[Despina83]

Flew right threw a red light once on an unfamiliar route. Thank God it was late and no one was around so I didn't hit anyone. I wasn't even going fast at all, somehow I was looking at the light and it just didn't even register with me-not until I was past the light. I couldn't believe I did that. Scary.

[Andara Bledin]

My most recent driving oops was flying right through a stop. Thankfully, there was nobody else around, so nobody saw me doe it. My mind told me what I was doing just as it was too late to do anything else but go through.

The only time I've run a red was when the sun was in my eyes and I couldn't actually see that it was red, and I was really trying. A cop saw me do it and followed me for two blocks before deciding I wasn't worth pulling over.

^-.-^