# Why do people take off slow?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-off-slow/472639>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 14, 2008, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-off-slow/472639 "2008-11-14T00:54:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-off-slow/472639/41 "2008-11-15T03:03:03Z")

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After checking locations, I just wanted to say how happy I am that so many of you are not driving in the Las Vegas valley. Thank you.

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**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-off-slow/472639/42 "2008-11-15T03:15:44Z")

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But we drive our car to Vegas on our vacations. MUWAHAHAHAHAHA!

ETA: On our first day in Vegas, we weren’t in town for more than 15 minutes when we saw our first accident.

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**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-take-off-slow/472639/43 "2008-11-15T04:32:39Z")

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> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#):
>
> Had I not seen endless accidents caused by someone running a red light, accidentally or purposefully, I would not feel obliged to scope things out.

If you are at an intersection where you can’t see the cross-traffic, I can understand your hesitation as I’d be doing the same thing, but at a normal intersection you can see which cars are coming to a stop and which are not before your light turns green. So, when your light turns green you should be ready to GO. You should not start checking once your light does turn green, you should just be confirming what you have already observed: a matter of a second or less.

The one place where I tend to be cautious at is on turning right at an intersection or onto a road. If you are the second car waiting to turn the tendency is to look left to see when a space is open to allow you to turn safely. I only look at the car in front of me and don’t even look left until they have completely turned. I’ve driven into the back of a person who was driving out of a parking lot and stopped for no apparent rational reason part way through their turn and I’ve had someone drive into the back of me when I had to stop because a person changed lanes in the middle of the intersection into the lane I was turning into.

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