Racing Towards Red Lights

Every day, at the same exact place, at the same exact time, the same exact thing happens.

Panel A. This is a four-lane road, there's no turn lane. So the people (green arrow) who are turning (against traffic) into the parking lot of their work, are nearly rear-ended by Speedy Gonzales (red arrow), who by God has important places to be RIGHT NOW. These VIPs usually swoop right back in front of "the obstacle" just to...teach them some kind of lesson, I suppose. And, invariably, they accelerate.

Panel B is even funnier, because no sooner than they swoop back in to lane 3, there's ANOTHER set of people turning into ANOTHER parking lot! Again, they SWOOP around, barely avoiding a collision, as they bury the accelerator through the floorboard. Vroom! That'll teach 'em!

Panel C...straining their shitty four-cylinder to it's breaking point, they come face-to-face with...a RED LIGHT. They SLAM on their brakes, and barely avoid ANOTHER collision. Now...I always thought that the reason why they have red lights is to let you know that you'll be stopping soon.

Don't accelerate towards a red light, Einstein! Speedy Gonzales almost gets into three wrecks, burns up his engine, his gasoline, and his brake pads, all so he can sit at a red light. And this shouldn't be a surprise: the same cars turn into the same parking lots at the same time every day.

They just like to stop and take off really fast because it's cool. You aren't seeing how cool that is? Is that totally lost on you?!?
:)

Of course, see thread: So what's so hard about driving?
No really...I get it. I was just saying this morning how people on the highway speed up really fast to get around me when they can see that the cars ahead of me are going just as slow. So they run around me to only put on their brake lights because the car ahead is guess what? Going just as slow...They can see that, but it doesn't seem to register until they are wedged between the two vehicles and have to get back in the other lane and hop in front of the car ahead, who of course, has a car in front of them moving slowly as well......They don't seem to be able to look ahead at all. I'm not sure how you drive staring at your steering wheel. They must be, because some people do not take into account what is going on in front of them by 10 feet or less. Over 10 feet is way out expectation. Where are they looking that they don't see anything that's actually going on? I would like to know where to look in case I want to ignore reality too...but I don't see that place. I can understand if people get lost in thought while driving or have a minor error in judgement while driving. But to be driving intently, and be such a screw up...I don't know...

:) Rant.

Must be like one of those "Zoolander" aberrations where he couldn't make a left turn. "I have never been able to plan ahead."

they're pretending they're flying!

:D

Cloud;432088 wrote:

they're pretending they're flying!

:D

See thread: What's so hard about driving?
:D

So Cloud, when am I supposed to be driving you around?
:p

why do you hate Hispanics?

j/k


I then slowly glide up next to them waiting at the light (in lane 4, Panel 1) and give them that yer an azzole look.

Flint, one time, like three weeks ago, they floored it and made it through on the yellow, and they keep chasing that dragon, because it will happen again some day. By God.

Problem: When they crawl up right behind you and try to push you forward.

Solution: Slowly remove your foot from the accelerator till a speed of appx 20 mph has been achieved.

Alternate Solution: Get your slow ass out of the mother fucking passing lane you passive aggressive piece of shit!
*cough*
:blush:

lol @ Jinx

classicman;432127 wrote:

Problem: When they crawl up right behind you and try to push you forward.

Solution: Slowly remove your foot from the accelerator till a speed of appx 20 mph has been achieved.

Bonus: Watch as they blast into the next lane, only to be immediately confronted with the line of 50 cars that you could clearly see from a mile back. Since, as Cicero pointed out, they can't see past 10 feet in front of them, they make dumbass decisions, and end up 50 cars behind you.
__________________

I've mentioned this before... my theory is that they are "selling low" in traffic. We all know to buy low and sell high.

But they switch lanes every time something bad happens in their lane. This guarantees that they will not see the good events in that lane. They pick another lane, absorb the impact of another bad event, and switch lanes again.

They are "selling" their lane at a low point and "buying" another lane at a high point! They consistently make bad deals in the traffic market.

I watch these people, as I cross town, and after a few miles of spastic lane changes and rapid acceleration/deceleration, they fall so far behind that I can't even see them in my rearview mirror anymore. For all their effort, they only fall further and further behind the flow of traffic.

jinx;432131 wrote:

Alternate Solution: Get your slow ass out of the mother fucking passing lane you passive aggressive piece of shit!
*cough* :blush:

I do this when I'm not in the passing lane.

jinx;432131 wrote:

Alternate Solution: Get your slow ass out of the mother fucking passing lane you passive aggressive piece of shit!
*cough*
:blush:

So, is it the passing lane (my preference too) or is the left hand turn lane? I sense a built in conflict here.

we have red-light cameras being installed on our town. While not specifically addressing this issue, I do notice that there are a lot fewer people racing toward the lights on these intersections.

in my extensive experience, it has been decided that a full 60% of car (meaning four and six wheel vehicles) cannot pass the drivers' test if administered right NOW.

I see examples of this and many other foolish things every day...all in the name of grabbing a few feet of space. These are infants functioning in adult bodies. And WHY in the name of GHOD are they ALWAYS driving compact pickups?

ONe of these days I'm going to make good on my threats to install a PA system and a dash camera in my truck so that I can document the stupidity I see every day and also to be able to make my thoughts known to these fools.

I could tell story after story but you'd not believe me anyway.

Yeah and I want to know when the fuck someone said you don't have to bother indicating anymore! This is really pissing me off locally.

Just thought I'd say...

Aliantha;432197 wrote:

Yeah and I want to know when the fuck someone said you don't have to bother indicating anymore!

Welcome to Santa Fe. And don't bother stopping at stop signs.

Here's an example of typical stop sign and red light behavior...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMLvjwdyHMs

:D

Around where I live, my pet peeves are:

* People who drive as if they are the only ones on the road. These are the kind of people who straddle the line between the lanes, and drive out of the exact middle of the carpark exit instead of keeping to one side so other cars can also enter the carpark.

* People who do not come to a complete stop at traffic lights in a timely manner, and instead slow down with a large gap in front and then creep, creep, creep, creep, creep, creep, creep, creep ... Man I hate that.

* People who change lanes and then blink their indicator once as if to let you know what they have just done.

Edit ...

* I also don't like people who change lanes needlessly.

My least favourite of all:

* People who cut me off in traffic by zooming out of my blind spot at the last possible second so they can get in front of me after the lane merge instead of behind me.

BigV;432148 wrote:

So, is it the passing lane (my preference too) or is the left hand turn lane? I sense a built in conflict here.

Around here, the roads that have passing lanes and actually allow left turns, have a whole seperate lane dedicated to that purpose. Otherwise you gotta do the jug handle thing from the right, we have a lots of those.

Aliantha;432197 wrote:

Yeah and I want to know when the fuck someone said you don't have to bother indicating anymore! This is really pissing me off locally.

Just thought I'd say...

You said "indicating", as in using your traffic indicator. Here the most common term is "turn signal". My first car (way back in the day) was a 1968 Triumph TR250. Love that car... Anyway, it, too, had a little stalk protruding from the left hand side of the steering column close to wheel. When it was raised or lowered a couple of inches it lit the lights at the corners of the car as you would expect as well as a little green faceted jewel on the instrument panel. The legend under this jewel was "trafficator". :)

1960s. Germany we called the waving arms mox-nix sticks.

A friend of mine had the turn signal stick break in his piece-of-crap car in high school. It wouldn't blink when it was engaged, just stayed solidly lit.

He felt very strongly about the importance of using one's turn signal, but at the same time could not afford to fix it--so he would manually flip the stick up and down repeatedly whenever he needed to signal a turn, even while sitting through stoplights and other delays.

Clodfobble;432330 wrote:

A friend of mine had the turn signal stick break in his piece-of-crap car in high school. It wouldn't blink when it was engaged, just stayed solidly lit.

Did he know this from an outside inspection of the car? Because that is what happens when a blinker bulb burns out and it's time to replace the bulb.

Huh. I don't know, I haven't talked to him since about 1997... :)

I am so glad I found this thread. I thought I was the only one left on the planet that noticed, or cared about driving safety and courtesy. Thank you all.

none of you have seen ANYTHING till youve seen chinese drivers. Its bad here but worse in the mainland.
Ever heard of 'chinese red light'? theres a reason its called that.

also, when turning left on a six-lane road, the proper etiquette is to go to the far-right lane and cut across all the intervening lanes. i shit you not.

Don't even get me started on bad driving habits.

Cicero;432203 wrote:

Welcome to Santa Fe. And don't bother stopping at stop signs.

Here's an example of typical stop sign and red light behavior...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMLvjwdyHMs

:D

Cicero- did you see the note about this clip? they changed the stop sign to a yield sign :headshake

binky;432481 wrote:

Cicero- did you see the note about this clip? they changed the stop sign to a yield sign :headshake

lol! No I didn't...lol!

I'm glad they did that, it's so busy downtown there, I'd hate for people to never get the chance to have an accident.
:p

In South Carolina turn signals are not required, unless your cutting someone off.
The far left lane is known as the through-lane, and is where you go and stay if you aren't turning off anywhere.
It is also S.O.P. to drive with your left foot on the brake so that your brake lights are on, even when accelerating away from a green light.
Most everyone makes turns as if they were driving a tractor and trailer, i.e. keep as far right as possible until you turn left or vice-versa.
I think I prefer NYC where the right-of-way goes to whoever's front bumper is in front.