Well you are for sure. Just because you and your ilk disagree means nothing. I consider you amoung the rank and file assholes who like to make others wait, don’t pay attention on the roads, and generally make life more difficult than it has to be. You have your opinion, I have mine, even if its not as popular.
Okay, the funny thing is that you assume I don’t turn on red. I do whenever possible. But when others don’t turn on red even when the road is clear and they have an unobstructed view? I just say, “dang” and then, y’know, not care.
I guess you’re just a better person than me. I get upset when I’m made to wait when there is clear opportunity not to.
You will enjoy your life much more if you don’t get upset over such inconsequential matters.
I enjoy life much better when I am at home with my feet up rather than sitting behind some incosiderate asshole who is either to ignorant to know that it is okay to pull out into the intersection to turn left when the way is clear, or to stupid to grasp the concept of “right on red”.
Amen brother.
And before yet another person tells me "they don’t have to turn on red…save it. I understood that long before you pointed it out. But just because someone does not have to do something does not mean they shouldn’t be nice and do it so they aren’t holding everyone up. If you can’t understand that concept already then there isn’t much hope for me explaining it in painful detail to you.
Well… assuming the above is not a joke that I’m whooshing (I do see this attitude commonly here in Knoxville)
You’re not just wasting your time, you’re wasting the time of everybody behind you. If you sit at a light for a minute because you think "the city’ needs to slow down, you’re causing everybody else to wait a minute as well - if you have 25 people who could’ve kept moving except for your refusal to turn… well, you just wasted 25 minutes. And given that we have a limited amount of time to spend in this Universe (by my calculations, about 1/250,000,000,000 of the life of the universe (or so)), and that the amount of time given to one is uncertain, I’d appreciate it if you got out of my way - I’ve things to do and no time to do them in! 
The second level of hell is reserved for the jerks who pull into the right lane at the light but who don’t intend to turn right. If you are going to have to wait anyway, wait behind the guy one lane over. Leave the right lane open as long as possible to allow those who can and will turn right on red to do so.
People!!
PLEASE answer my question! Why do people going straight in a lane that allows a right-on-red hog the entire lane so nobody can make their turn!!
There’s gotta be somebody out there that sees/performs this abomination. Why…why…why…
mumbling incoherently about being completely overlooked
Oh, and ITA with Bongmaster. People are oblivious to anyone else’s priorities, clearly because they’re unaware of them. This is nature. However, the thing is called “consideration”. Now say it slowly – con-sid-er-a-tion. Good. I try to stay the hell out of people’s way or inconvenience them as little as possible. If everybody hustled through the crosswalks while a car is waiting, or used a blinker when pulling over out of the blue, or just pulled over when they’re lost, the world would be a better place to drive.
The one reason I can come up with is if, as a local, you know that the light won’t stay green long enough for you to get through the lane so you get in the right lane.
Yeah, it’s Darwian. But at least it’s a reason, which is what you asked for Uncle.
I’m glad that somebody finally asked that!
Perhaps they have to turn right immediately after the intersection. Or perhaps they just turned onto the road and didn’t have the opportunity to change lanes.
RSSchen,
Teach!
One of my peeves are when the first 3 people in the left turn lane (green arrow) seem to count to 10 before making the turn after the previous car.
Car -gap-gap-gap-gap-gap- Car -gap-gap-gap-gap- Car - red light.
By the time the 3rd car moves the arrow is red. Please think of others and MAKE THE TURN IN A TIMELY MANNER!
We can’t always leave work 5 minutes early, and child care providers depend on the pick up parent to be on time. One light could take 5 minutes, depending on the number of people waiting to make the turn. If 3 or 4 no turners block that lane in succession and wait for the light to change (pedestrians cross on the green) it could be a long wait. If someone’s commute includes a few intersections like that the ride might be increased by quite a bit more than the minute you mentioned.
Allow me also to be recognized as one of the morons who won’t pull into an intersection when waiting to turn left. Doing so saves no time in practical terms, often blocks the view of the person behind you, and forces you to run a red light probably half the time, which is illegal and dangerous.
Why doesn’t it save time? If you are on a busy road where there is a string of oncoming traffic stretching for miles, you could be there all day if you don’t pull into the intersection. That little window when the lights change is often your only chance to move (and the only chance of the queue of poor quietly fuming folks stuck behind to be rid of you).
How? Assuming you’re not silly enough to turn your wheels to the left and inch your car across the centre line while you’re waiting, then you’re just blocking the same amount of the field of vision of the guy behind you as you would if you were back behind the line.
This is something a lot of people misunderstand. Unless US law is vastly different from its Australian cousin (and I doubt this), then moving on a red light is NOT illegal when turning left (turning right in this country). The crucial thing here is the STOP LINE. This is the line that is painted across the road that indicates where the first car should stop on a red. This is where that given traffic light has authority, NOT the entire intersection. Just this line. Once your front wheels are over that line, the light has no more meaning to you, and you are legally already through the intersection (if you were going straight ahead at speed and the light went red with only your front wheels over the line, then a cop would likely book you for running the yellow, but we’re not talking about that here). If you have pulled out into the intersection waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear, you might have to wait for one or two assholes on the other side to push their luck on the yellow and even red. This is not your fault. Even in the rare event that the light is so decidedly red that you’re still stuck there when the lights on the cross street have turned green and the cars there want to go, it’s still not your fault, and it’s not dangerous, because whatever is causing you to wait would have caused the cross street drivers to wait anyway had you not been there. And they are starting from a speed of 0 mph, so you won’t get T-boned either. It is in the road rules handbook here and is the way I was taught: “If you’ve pulled into the intersection to wait, and the light turns yellow or red, just wait for the next gap in the oncoming traffic and calmly and smoothly turn. You won’t be fined.”
This is a pet peeve of mine because I spend twelve years driving to work through an intersection like that. Turning right (we drive on the left in this country) at an intersection with never a gap in the oncoming traffic, and no turn arrows. The only only way to get around was to pull out into the intersection. Even if everybody did this properly, it still took a long time, because usually only one car could get through on each change, so if you were five cars back, then that was five light cycles you had to wait. And that was doing it properly. All it took was one overly timid fuckstick to sit behind the stop line, and the light would turn yellow, an oncoming aggressive Sydney cabbie would run his yellow (this was a main road to the airport), and then Mr Timid in front of me would have missed his chance, and we’re all forced to wait through another cycle.
In fact, NOT pulling out is illegal indirectly, because it requires you to MOVE OFF ON A YELLOW LIGHT. A yellow light, the way I was taught, means the same as a red one. Yellow means “STOP!”, only with the provision that you may proceed if it would be unsafe to stop due to speed/proximity to the intersection. Simply put, waiting behind the line to do these turns causes all manner of problems, and it’s usually down to timidity, which is as big a problem on the roads as over-confidence and aggression, and such people should not be licenced to drive, IMHO.
What TheLoadedDog says is broadly applicable to Britain. You’re expected to move out into a junction if you’re turning across traffic, otherwise you impede the flow of traffic. The lights do have the extra amber phase between green and red, plus extra all-red time, to ensure you can turn safely. And as it appears to be in Australia, jumping the lights applies to the stop line, not to actions once already in the junction.
Question for all you “OMG PULL INTO THE INTERSECTION AND TURN BECAUSE I’M IN SUCH A HURRY THAT I CAN’T SIT AT A LIGHT FOR MORE THAN A NANOSECOND” people: are you the same drivers that pass people trying to turn on side streets just so you don’t have to slow down at all?
There are a bunch of idiots who like to do that when I’m turning into my apartment complex, because the lanes are about 150% of a normal lane width. Just to annoy them, I make sure I don’t leave enough room on the right for their HumongoSUV so they have to slow down (since they’re doing 45 in a 25 anyway.)
That is my understanding also. Those old movies I watched two dozen years ago said to pull into the intersection, do not block oncoming traffic, and to keep your wheels straight. When an opening presented itself, go, including an opening due to a red light (as one was already in the intersection).
Same reasoning with it not being illegal to enter an intersection on a yellow (the ‘speed-up’ light 
) even if it turns to red while you are in the intersection.
I have to wonder at some of these rationalizations about being in a hurry and wasting time, used to justify inconsiderate, rude behavior.
How well do you think they’ll play to a jury in a vehicular homicide trial, or as a eulogy at your funeral after the accident caused by your impatience?
The stress you place on your body, by giving in to all those little bursts of anger, will shorten your life by a lot more than the time you, supposedly, save driving as if you owned the road.
Patience is about the only virtue most of use have left, think about that the next time you want to judge someone’s existance by the way you perceive one simple act.
My typing and proofreading skills suck. I guess I must be totally worthless.
I don’t give a shit about saving x amount of seconds, but I think people who don’t turn right on red when there isn’t any traffic for half a mile are rude assholes. Sorry.
What’s the fucking point of just sitting there when the road is clear?
“Well, I just don’t do that.” is bullshit. That is RUDE as HELL. (And to reiterate, I mean no traffic in any direction, I mean 30 cars could turn)
Oh, I forgot it gives you more time to yap on your fucking cell.
Here in Albuquerque, many major intersections have a green right turn arrow right after the red, and people still fucking sit there. WTF?