People who are in the left turn lane, but for whatever reason steer into the adjacent lane in order to complete a wi-i-i-i-i-de left turn. Moron.
People who gun the gas and make a quick left turn at the green light even though there are cars on the othe side of the intersection who are going straight and have the right of way.
Craigslist flakes.
People who process every. damn. thing out loud.
People in the left turn lane who refuse to enter the intersection and wait for oncoming traffic to clear.
Since we’re being leftists: the traffic light to turn left out of my gym, which up until about a week ago was timed reasonably, but which some genius changed to allow only two cars to make it through, or fewer if the driver in front is paying attention to his phone instead of the signal, so I’m now lucky to make it out in fewer than four cycles.
The “Ottawa left turn” - into the right lane, then a blithe, non-signalled lane change into the PROPER left lane, thereby causing stomping of brakes and shaking of fists.:smack:
Or the idiots coming out of the drive-through at the local Tim’s without checking oncoming traffic, thereby causing more stomping of brakes and shaking of fists. I hope they spill their coffee.:smack:
On a non-traffic note, people invited to a national meeting months ago who do not respond until the last possible minute, after all the hotel rooms are sold out and there are no decent flights left. And I don’t care if you are a “friend” of the grand grandboss, I still can’t get you into “this” hotel because you don’t like the one where I did manage to find a room.:smack:
Just go away. Everyone.
Groups of walkers who block both lanes of the multi-use path. Annoying for anyone trying to get by them. Which is pretty much everyone else on the path, since the group is invariably walking at a snail’s pace.
People who step off a bus or subway car or escalator and stop to extend the handle of their wheeled suitcase, then start forward again leaving their suitcase in place in the doorway until the handle begins to tip it over and tow it behind them. Seriously, there are lots of people behind you. Move out of the chokepoint before fiddling with your gear!
People who multiply all surface street speed limits by 2. And also behave like yellow lights are twice as long as they really are.
Why yes, I do live in Florida. How did you know?
The Charmin boy bear telling his friends that new Ultra Charmin keeps their underwear clean. The darn kid bears aren’t wearing any clothes at all!!
At least they didn’t ask the rabbit whether shit stuck to his fur.
I have had this argument in the past. Judge Judy is adamant that you must not enter the turn lane until you have a chance to get through the intersection. My argument is that if you have a green light, you can get in the lane and wait till it clears, even if that means going through the intersection after the light has changed.
This is one of those religious topics that apparently varies in legality from state to state.
On left-turners:
Drivers at the stop light in the left lane, who are turning left, but who don’t turn their signal on until after the light turns green, so now all the people who got behind you because they thought you were going straight are stuck.
People who race up to you in the adjacent lane (you are in the right hand lane), then cut in front of you sans indicator light, slam on their brakes and make an immediate right turn. After you’ve gotten your heart rate back to something resembling normal, you notice there is no one behind you for 10 car lengths. So why the urgency to cut in front of me?
I am, by the way, going 10 miles OVER the speed limit, so it wasn’t that.
I can better this, although I can’t explain what i observed.
Several times I have been at the end of a line of people who were resuming normal speed as we left one light and approached another. We were all driving forward, but because we started from a complete stop, we were still relatively nose-to-tail. Most if us intended to turn right at the light we were approaching, hence had no incentive to move into the left lane.
Up on my left came a lone car. No one else in the left lane. This car started to pass me, then suddenly put on a blinker and cut in front of me, to get into the line turning right up ahead.
I don’t doubt they wanted to turn right. The problem I have is that I was the LAST car. If you are willing to cut into line to turn right to save some time, why cut in almost at the absolute back of the line? And if you aren’t in that much of a hurry, why cut anyone off at all? You’re only saving one car length by cutting off the last guy. It’s like the person was compelled to cut someone else off, but not in a hurry to get anywhere.
Baffling, and it’s happened multiple times.
People at the gym who don’t seem to have good hygiene. I stepped into someone’s low-hanging funk cloud today and it made me gag
As a guess - they weren’t paying attention to what lane they were in, and figured out they needed to move over as they got next to you. So they get some minor props for not trying to force in at the front of the line, I guess.
That’s very simple to explain.
Most drivers do not look more than a car length or two ahead of their own car. What’s happening to cars in the distance ahead is irrelevant to them.
They are also constantly surprised that their intersection is coming up. They only think about it once they can directly see it. The idea that, say, passing 6th Street is a cue to get ready to turn at 4th Street is utterly absent. When and only when they directly see 4th Street will they begin to prepare to turn there.
With that background …
As that driver approached your line of cars all they saw was the back of your car. They did not see or process any of the cars in front of you. If you happen to drive a SUV or pickup this is especially true. They also had no idea if the place they wanted to turn was the very next block, in the next mile, or another 3 miles ahead.
So they tried to pass you, the only car on the road in their mental model of traffic. Then suddenly they noticed the cross street they wanted. And/or suddenly they saw the car in front of you. And perhaps the one in front of them.
So they fixed the problem the only way they know how: barge into your lane in front of you.
The reason they didn’t slow strongly and join in behind you once they saw what was really happening was also simple: Retracting their move so as to get behind you would only happen if they recognized they had made a mistake. But these folks drive like this all the time. They don’t see their actions as erroneous, because every turn in traffic happens like this. It’s all ops normal to them.
I can hardly wait for Googlemobiles to take these people out of the driver’s seat.