# Left Turn-Signal Laggers Draw My Ire **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 25, 2015, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-turn-signal-laggers-draw-my-ire/718534 "2015-04-25T22:11:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-turn-signal-laggers-draw-my-ire/718534/41 "2015-04-27T19:20:26Z")
Can I complain about that one guy in a white pickup truck? When you take the freeway exit to get to my place, right when you come off the freeway, there’s a shopping mall on the left. To get to it, you need to cut across the road that leads to the on-ramp. It’s in the suburbs, so the traffic isn’t too bad, but you usually have to wait for a few cars to pass before you can make the turn. Luckily, the city planners thought this through, and put in a turn lane that you can wait in until there’s a hole in traffic big enough to get through. And there’s this one guy in a white pickup truck _who cannot figure this the fuck out._ His afternoon commute and my afternoon commute apparently synch up, because I see him once or twice a week. Every time, he just stops in the same lane he was in when he was taking the off ramp, about fifty feet back, until he can turn. Meanwhile, cars are backing up onto the freeway, because no one can get around him. Fucker’s going to cause an accident one day when someone comes off the ramp too fast without realizing that there’s a human-shaped piece of cholesterol blocking the way. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-turn-signal-laggers-draw-my-ire/718534/42 "2015-04-28T00:22:43Z")
I complain about drivers in Thailand, but at least I don’t have to worry about this problem. AFAIK, all traffic signals in Thailand are set up (e.g., as 4-way lights) so that turners and interfering oncomers never have simultaneous green lights. (Those familiar with Thai driving etiquette and common-sense will applaud this decision by the authorities.) ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-turn-signal-laggers-draw-my-ire/718534/43 "2015-04-28T02:59:01Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > The only people who deserve a meat hook up the ass more than left turn laggers are the dipshits that insist on leaving five feet of space between them and the car ahead of them. Like the LTLs they usually have their nose buried in their goddamned phone, and the result is the same; half the amount of cars get through the light. Before anyone chimes in with “I do that in case I get rear ended”, perhaps you do - this board is made up of the most virtuous and well intended individuals - but I would bet anything the rest of the 99% are preoccupied with their devices. Pay some fucking attention. I sure wish they’d ban texting / talking without hands free while driving. I bet I could shave twenty minutes off of my commute. Yeah, see, they did that here. No texting, no hands-on phone use. Still, at every goddamn red light the phones all come out like a crazy Pavlovian reaction, but at every green arrow? Crickets. What’s worse than the ones who leave a gap are the jackholes who stop 20 feet back from the stop line. Guess who’s not getting the arrow at all that way, jerk! Thanks for making us all wait because you had to be extra-super safe! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-turn-signal-laggers-draw-my-ire/718534/44 "2015-04-29T11:33:17Z")
I was with you all the way until the Craftsman electric drill… Son, what you need is to get yourself a Bosch Hammer Drill with the 3/4" chuck with a 16" x18" SDS-plus Carbide tipped masonry bit. This will ensure proper penetration and punch out the other side much easier. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-turn-signal-laggers-draw-my-ire/718534/45 "2015-04-30T18:51:22Z")
> [@Tibby or Not Tibby](#): > > I’m an ambulance driver, nimrod. You want my passengers to bleed out from multiple gun-shot wounds because some other nimrod decides to fall asleep at the light? Should I tell the victims to call 911 at least 10 minutes before they get gunned down like dogs in the street just in case some butthead decides to hold up traffic on the way to the hospital!!! > > Yeah, alright, I’m not an ambulance driver, but I could be. In any event, idiot drivers don’t have carte blanche to remain stationary at green lights. You can get ticketed for going too slow; you should also get ticketed for not moving at all. Just the other day I was near an ambulance driver trying to turn left with lights and sirens blaring - but the idiots on the crossing road paid not attention at all. And I fully support this pitting. My big left turn is into a street where they have recently build enough apartments to house small countries, but the traffic engineers seem not to have noticed to add more time to the light. The left arrow doesn’t come on first, or last, but in the middle of the green light, after enough time to view Gone with the Wind. There are two turn lanes, but traffic backs up to the through lane quite commonly. Yet some people take forever to start, and more feel they need fifty feet of space between them and the car just turning, and others need to proceed very slowly to make sure they wind up in the proper lane, this apparently being their first solo driving experience. Once we finally get onto this street there are people who took the left of the two turn lanes because it was shorter, but then have to move right two lanes right away to get to the apartments. But them I don’t really blame. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-turn-signal-laggers-draw-my-ire/718534/46 "2015-04-30T20:22:51Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > … > And I fully support this pitting. My big left turn is into a street where they have recently build enough apartments to house small countries, but the traffic engineers seem not to have noticed to add more time to the light. The left arrow doesn’t come on first, or last, but in the middle of the green light, after enough time to view Gone with the Wind. There are two turn lanes, but traffic backs up to the through lane quite commonly. Yet some people take forever to start, and more feel they need fifty feet of space between them and the car just turning, and others need to proceed very slowly to make sure they wind up in the proper lane, this apparently being their first solo driving experience. > … Yes, I have a few situations like that (too short turn arrows) in my neck of the woods, too—I don’t like it either. But, what I really can’t stand are situations where there should be a turn light, but there isn’t. Particularly, side streets with a stop sign that intersect with larger, heavily-trafficked roads, and you need to either go straight across, or turn left. I get quite anxious in those situations because I know, although unlikely, it’s theoretically possible for there never to be a break in the cross-road traffic and I could be stuck at the stop sign for all of eternity. In case you’re wondering, I developed a bad case of agoraphobia about a decade ago, which manifests in me mainly as claustrophobia in situations that I cannot control. It hasn’t impacted my life too badly: I just can’t ride in airplanes, trains or boats, cross long bridges, get stuck in traffic jams or take elevators. I’m not too keen about being stopped at RR signals waiting for long trains to pass, either. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-turn-signal-laggers-draw-my-ire/718534/47 "2015-05-01T17:32:27Z")
I add to this pitting idiot pedestrians who take the left-turn signal as a perfect time to lollygag into the pedestrian crossing, moving with the speed of a Galapagos tortoise. I’ve been told that “assisting survival of the fittest” isn’t a defense to hitting one of them. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-turn-signal-laggers-draw-my-ire/718534/48 "2015-05-01T19:19:56Z")
> [@Tibby or Not Tibby](#): > > Yes, I have a few situations like that (too short turn arrows) in my neck of the woods, too—I don’t like it either. But, what I really can’t stand are situations where there should be a turn light, but there isn’t. Particularly, side streets with a stop sign that intersect with larger, heavily-trafficked roads, and you need to either go straight across, or turn left. I get quite anxious in those situations because I know, although unlikely, it’s theoretically possible for there never to be a break in the cross-road traffic and I could be stuck at the stop sign for all of eternity. One good thing about California is that they are into turn lights and turn lanes here. Most turns into heavily trafficed streets have them. There are a few places with turns from a stop sign, but you can usually go a block and get a light. I’m from the East, and this is one of the few things (the other being the weather) which is better out here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-turn-signal-laggers-draw-my-ire/718534.md?page=2)