12-02-2006, 12:14 AM
I got to thinking this morning, between near accidents, that I swear I have the most frustrating drive to and from work.
People will fill the intersection at 4 way stops if they have no where to go.. They could wait patiently at the stop sign and wait for traffic to move on, but nooooooo. And if you try to keep an intersection clear (as i attempt to anyways), people will fill it from the opposite direction, or right-turners will fill the intersection by taking wide rights until they have to parallel park in front of me waiting at the stop sign.
If I try that leaving work here, I will undoubtedly have someone honking in anger behind me, and then attempt to pass me and turn in front of me.. tho there is nowhere to go without blocking the intersection... hell, people will honk at me to make a blind left.. tho I know there are cars approaching, and I cannot confirm they are signalling to turn right (even if they decide to signal for their right turn).
The lanes on the streets coming to work are narrow. Narrow enough that I cannot see the line to either side in my side-view mirrors (mustang bulges create a 1 -2 ft blind spot down the side)... and people swerve around cyclists and whatnot without consideration of the cars around them... or they'll race oncoming traffic to pass a line of waiting cars at a red light to make it to a left turn lane before the light turns green... it's insane!
And this is on a 50kph street where people regularily do 90... like the blue porsche that saw the need to swerve around me this morning to get one spot closer to the red light.
Not to mention people who insist on making left hand turns from a main street's blind turn (solid white line - 40kph limit, but everyone's doing 70) onto a side street, not only are there very few breaks in the rapidly approaching traffic, but people waiting in the line will change out to the right (on a solid line) to cut off rear-approaching traffic.
And while all that is happening, someone on my right will undoubtedly be trying to turn out of the same side street on this blind turn to make a left into the busy main thoroughfare... figuring that since the left lane is slowed, he might as well block the right one.
Just today, as I was passing a private school coming up a street, there was a lineup of cars waiting to turn left at the light. Yes, this school has it's own traffic light. So I was stopped, and they were turning left from the main street into the private school... a lineup of porsche cyennes and BMW X5s... Now the driveway to the school is full as apparently rich kids all get their own car ride to school on rainy days. So there is no room to turn left.
The lady in the oncoming SUV did the RIGHT thing.. she waited patiently, leaving the intersection clear.
Then the light turned yellow.
She inched forward 3 feet into my lane.
And stopped.
I swear I thought she was going to make a break for it. And while that would have been a stupid move it wouln't have been as stupid as just sitting there with your car half in my lane.
I mean, how hard was it to not screw that up? All she had to do was keep her foot on the brake when the light turned yellow... but nooooooooo. It boggles the mind.
It's amazing.. you get to a certain offramp that exits onto the road leading to work here, the same lane I have to get into to make a right into the parking lot, there's often cars parked at the merge, waiting to make a left.
So you'd think that would make it easy for me to just drive ahead and merge right. You'd be wrong. Because there will be the usual complement of poorly maintained accords and toyotas trying to squeeze by, and in a flury of speed, try to merge into the lane I'm trying to merge out of at 60kph in a hundred feet.
then there's people that can't park within the lines at work and the usual stuff like that..
but seriously, I don't know how I come on site every day and get home without getting into an accident... it's only a matter of time I figure.
oh.. I forgot to mention the pedestrians that'll cross a street 30 feet from a traffic light, figuring that slowed traffic - stopped traffic. I had some guy almost run into the front right of my car this morning as I wasn't really expecting someone to run through traffic when we were clearly moving in (well in my lane anyways).
it's very stressful!
and rant off
People will fill the intersection at 4 way stops if they have no where to go.. They could wait patiently at the stop sign and wait for traffic to move on, but nooooooo. And if you try to keep an intersection clear (as i attempt to anyways), people will fill it from the opposite direction, or right-turners will fill the intersection by taking wide rights until they have to parallel park in front of me waiting at the stop sign.
If I try that leaving work here, I will undoubtedly have someone honking in anger behind me, and then attempt to pass me and turn in front of me.. tho there is nowhere to go without blocking the intersection... hell, people will honk at me to make a blind left.. tho I know there are cars approaching, and I cannot confirm they are signalling to turn right (even if they decide to signal for their right turn).
The lanes on the streets coming to work are narrow. Narrow enough that I cannot see the line to either side in my side-view mirrors (mustang bulges create a 1 -2 ft blind spot down the side)... and people swerve around cyclists and whatnot without consideration of the cars around them... or they'll race oncoming traffic to pass a line of waiting cars at a red light to make it to a left turn lane before the light turns green... it's insane!
And this is on a 50kph street where people regularily do 90... like the blue porsche that saw the need to swerve around me this morning to get one spot closer to the red light.
Not to mention people who insist on making left hand turns from a main street's blind turn (solid white line - 40kph limit, but everyone's doing 70) onto a side street, not only are there very few breaks in the rapidly approaching traffic, but people waiting in the line will change out to the right (on a solid line) to cut off rear-approaching traffic.
And while all that is happening, someone on my right will undoubtedly be trying to turn out of the same side street on this blind turn to make a left into the busy main thoroughfare... figuring that since the left lane is slowed, he might as well block the right one.
Just today, as I was passing a private school coming up a street, there was a lineup of cars waiting to turn left at the light. Yes, this school has it's own traffic light. So I was stopped, and they were turning left from the main street into the private school... a lineup of porsche cyennes and BMW X5s... Now the driveway to the school is full as apparently rich kids all get their own car ride to school on rainy days. So there is no room to turn left.
The lady in the oncoming SUV did the RIGHT thing.. she waited patiently, leaving the intersection clear.
Then the light turned yellow.
She inched forward 3 feet into my lane.
And stopped.
I swear I thought she was going to make a break for it. And while that would have been a stupid move it wouln't have been as stupid as just sitting there with your car half in my lane.
I mean, how hard was it to not screw that up? All she had to do was keep her foot on the brake when the light turned yellow... but nooooooooo. It boggles the mind.
It's amazing.. you get to a certain offramp that exits onto the road leading to work here, the same lane I have to get into to make a right into the parking lot, there's often cars parked at the merge, waiting to make a left.
So you'd think that would make it easy for me to just drive ahead and merge right. You'd be wrong. Because there will be the usual complement of poorly maintained accords and toyotas trying to squeeze by, and in a flury of speed, try to merge into the lane I'm trying to merge out of at 60kph in a hundred feet.
then there's people that can't park within the lines at work and the usual stuff like that..
but seriously, I don't know how I come on site every day and get home without getting into an accident... it's only a matter of time I figure.
oh.. I forgot to mention the pedestrians that'll cross a street 30 feet from a traffic light, figuring that slowed traffic - stopped traffic. I had some guy almost run into the front right of my car this morning as I wasn't really expecting someone to run through traffic when we were clearly moving in (well in my lane anyways).
it's very stressful!
and rant off