Here in NYC, all turns on red are illegal except where specifcally marked (and I can only think of three marked turns in all of Manhattan). Surprisingly, it is one of the few traffic rules people actually obey. Nonetheless, I still get morons from out of state behind me, honking and gesturing to try and force me to make an illegal turn so that they can also make an illegal turn. And run over a half-dozen pedestrians in the process. Um, no.
mischievous
On my way to work, there is an intersection where the center lane goes straight, the leftmost lane is for left turns only and the rightmost lane is for right turns only. The right lane is clearly marked with signs on the side of the road and LARGE PAINTED LETTERS RIGHT ON THE ROAD THAT THIS LANE IS FOR RIGHT TURNS ONLY. There is a short righthand lane on the other side of the intersection that allows the perpendicular right-turners to merge into the straight lane.
So we get the occassional moron who, after racing past all the cars that acknowledge that to go straight, they must not be in the rightmost lane, pulls up to the red light in the right most lane, and when the light turns green, stomps on the gas to get into the straight lane ahead of the cars already in the straight lane! AAARRRGGGHHH! This has caused many near-accidents.
We also get the asshats who go straight in the rightmost lane to turn right into the gas station at the corner, which kind of screws up the people in straight lane who also want to turn right into that gas station, but know to do so requires going straight first!!!
What is it about the right lane that inspires such laughing-in-the-face-of-death risk-taking behavior??? Do traffic violations not count if they occur in the right lane?
Thank you for listening. This has been bugging me for some time… Thanks for the OP, RSSchen.
Does NYC have enormous signs pointing out their variance on the law at all the entrances to the city? If not, I would suggest that it is the city and not those from out of the area that is most at fault, here.
I make a point of checking out the state laws (right on red, basic speed limit for unmarked roads, stopping for school busses on multilane roads when approaching from ahead, U-turns, etc.) before I begin a trip, but I do not generally think to go looking for every municipal variance. If the city (even one as large as NYC) varies from the norm, it is not appropriate to get mad at people who have no idea that the city thinks it is special.
So that they could yell at you to ‘get back in the bike lane’ whenever you have to get anywhere or make a left turn and such. Call it segregation light.
But of course my signal was on. I want everyone around me to be aware of my intents and purposes. I signal to the point of excessive and it bugs my husband. I figure you can’t get pissed at the person who won’t let you over into their lane if they don’t know you want to go there. Nobody’s a mind reader (assuming). My hub lacksadaisically changes lanes and such with no signal and it drives me mad.
Had the guy been in the lane within say 4 feet of the lane divider on the left, TWO cars could make a turn. The lane’s that wide. And it’s the corner of a Starbucks, where everybody turns to share their $$ with the coffee-mongers. Of which I am one. But I wasn’t going to SB that day. I just think people are too damn oblivious (that’s the word I usually use) to anything other than themselves.
The rant that keeps on giving I guess – other people’s obliviousness.
And yet you admit to not always using your turn signals.
Why?
For some reason I just gotta know the answer to this.
I hate it when I focus on a trivial issue
I had a “bad” sort of eye-opening once. One of my acquiantances actually told me that when she gets back in her car after grocery shopping (or whatever) and someone is waiting for her spot, that she will take a little extra long because she knows it’s pissing someone off.
I’d had that happen to me before, but I never considered that people willfully inconvenience others to gain a little sense of power. It really astounded me.
Since, I’ve heard people HERE at the Dope say that they’ve done it. . .they usually form some weird sort of rationalization, like the person shouldn’t ASSUME they’re leaving (the horror!) or they could drive further away to find a spot.
The term “antisocial behavior” is usually ascribed to murderers, or gangs, or vandals, but there’s a type of antisocial behavior practiced by people who probably think they’re not antisocial – the disruption of one’s fellow man who has done no wrong to the perpetrator.
You don’t need to give money to the United Way or work in a soup kitchen to spread a little good will in the world. Act a little considerate from time to time; don’t willfully dawdle when you get in your car, and look out for cars behind you when you get in a shared straight/turn lane.
“You know we’re living in a SOCIETY!” [/constanza]
You know what? I think the right response to this is to just pull in behind them and block their asses in. If they want to toodle around for a while, you can too. When they honk to be let out, you back up and they’ll get moving post haste.
Yeah, as if I’d ever actually do that. Big wimp.
Worse yet was yesterday when there were these two goons going slowly two abreast on the BIKE LANE. Which is a dual carriageway, so to speak. The moron in the left lane only moved away when there was another bike coming in the opposite direction, completely hampering my ability to pass.
So I set them on fire.
I occasionally deliberately take my time when I know someone wants my spot. Why? Because some people can be very obnoxious about it: inching their car forwards, revving the engine a little in neutral, making exasperated faces when you drop something you’re loading into your trunk. If someone wants to be obnoxious to me, they can expect the same thing in return. Especially if I’m in a bad mood and have time to waste.
One jerk honked at me while I was packing things into the trunk so that they don’t slide around. There were plenty of extra parking spots, he just didn’t want to walk the extra fifty feet. I sat in my car and called a friend on my cell phone until he finally left, revving his little family-sedan engine like a maniac. Asshole.
see.
OK, what grinds my gears is when you wish to enter a parking lot by making a right turn, yet the person who happens to be leaving the parking lot at the same time decides that they needed to exit the lot down the center of the exit. So you can’t turn in,theres no room, the cars behind you are waiting. And to make matters worse, this person is probably waiting to make a left turn as well.
Please, when leaving a parking area, move to the right. Is that so hard?
I’m with you on the lack of awareness of one’s surroundings. I’m not saying I see everything, but I can generally tell when a person is going to try to abruptly switch into my lane. I can also glance ahead and see, there, that person is going to try to make a turn right in front of me. Or, this intersection has this corner that’s always crazy.
People seem to be shocked by the same things, every time!
Then there are the pedestrians in the parking lot who walk in a long, slow, diagonal fashion down the driving lane (is that what to call it?), effectively blocking traffic from getting through. I’m pretty sure it’s not deliberate, but just another example of utter obliviousness to one’s surroundings. When I’m walking in a parking lot, I cut quickly straight across driving lanes and then keep close to one side or the other so that cars can pass, too.
Sitting and waiting in the driving lane for someone to leave a parking spot when there is an open spot less than 150 feet away annoys me because they are blocking the driving lane and people behind them are trapped.
There are very few situations where waiting for a spot to open is a reasonable thing to do, and I’m sure others will be along shortly to point them out. I’m just saying that waiting for a spot is almost always a rude and inconsiderate thing to do.
Or, when they stick so far out of the driveway that you have to slow to swerve into the other lane to avoid hitting the nose of their obnoxious car.
This happened to me a few months back and I had grown so tired of it (where I live the lanes on the main street are rather narrow so when some numbnuts decides to stop halfway out the driveway, he ends up blocking 2/3 of the right lane) and I motioned to him that he was too far back. He flipped me off!
Assholes.
You asked for a reasonable example of doing this? How about if there are no handicapped spaces available, and my knee is so painful that an extra 150 feet can make the difference between going to the store at all or just staying home? Doesn’t happen all that often, but trust me, there are days when I can’t make that extra 150 feet, but I really want to do my own shopping.
But I agree that most of the time it’s annoying, especially if traffic piles up behind you. The most egregious example of that is not long ago where my husband was able to squeeze by a woman waiting for a spot right next to the elevator in a parking garage; he went up two floors and found about 20 open spaces right next to the same elevator, but when he drove back out of the garage 15 minutes later she was still sitting there forcing everyone to squeeze by her with molecules to spare, waiting for someone who was apparently just sitting in their car! Sometimes people truly are idiots.
I love this place. Where else can you possibly commiserate with so many people from so many different places on so many common issues? Oh, other boards? No, thanks, I’ll stick with my Dope! I’m a dope junkie. haha
We dopers should all move somewhere together so that we never again have to be subjected to the idiocy/inconsideration/obliviousness/EOW’s that is/are – everybody else!
I wasn’t really asking for one. I just know this place and knew that any exception to any statement would be pointed out, regardless of how small the exception.
I fully acknowledge there are legitimate reasons why someone needs to be just that much closer to the store in spite of the fact it inconveniences other people. I just think those situations are very, very few and far between.
For me, I don’t really care. If someone wants my spot I will neither slow down what I’m doing nor rush because of them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people waiting on a spot (with cars behind them) with an open spot just 3 or 4 beyond.