[Before I get to the point of this post, I need to gush about the fact that I just submitted my majorest project of the semester and it feels so good to have that done! Not only that, but I completed it on time with one minute to spare. I had thought it would be impossible.]
So as I went to submit my assignment today, I rode up to campus by bike. I noticed a cyclist traveling south on 7th East. He was a Serious Cyclist. I know that because he was wearing spandex. He needed to make a left-hand turn at an intersection. He was in the left lane waiting at a red light. When the light turned green, he pulled into the intersection to wait to make his left turn. The first car of the opposing traffic went through the intersection. The next car---the one that had the right of way---stopped and waved the cyclist through. The cyclist shook his head and waved the car through. This continued until the car finally went through the intersection as it should have in the first place.
It really bugs me to see cars break traffic rules to be nice. It bugs me because a lot of the time, they're making the roads more dangerous. Take Ambrosia's last car accident for example. She needed to turn left out of a parking lot. She needed to clear two lanes of traffic to get to the right side of the road. A car in the nearer lane of traffic saw that she had obviously been waiting for a while to get out of the parking lot, so it stopped to let her through. Ambrosia went through and was hit by a car in the next lane of traffic. Now, Ambrosia will be the first to admit that she shouldn't have gone through. But I'm just as ready to lynch the stupid car driver who thought it was a good idea to stop and let a car through when he/she couldn't control traffic in the next lane.
This is a common situation when I take the bus from work to school. My bus stop is across a four-lane highway. Usually, I clear the first two lanes, walk (or run) to the suicide land, and then clear the next two lanes before crossing the rest of the way. Often, a car in the nearer lane of traffic will stop to let me walk across. I shake my head and wave them to keep going. They become more insistent, waving me to cross the street...
...and meanwhile, cars in the lane left of them are whizzing past at body-splattering speeds!
And the people in the car waving me to cross start to get angry that I'm not taking advantage of their kindness. And so I start walking away from the street altogether to communicate to the people that there's no way that I'm going to cross in front of them. And then they flip me off and drive off in a bad mood.
So a message to all the drivers out there: Don't break traffic rules to be nice. Also, I hate you.
12 comments:
This is the spouse's least favorite thing about driving in this area. Too nice can cause more problems than it solves.
I admit that I will stop for a pedestrian and when the car in the other lane doesn't stop I honk and possibly gesture at the moving vehicle in question. Quit breaking the law you dweeb.
I am not above angry enforcement of driving rules.
Don't forget the inverse corrollary: if you're a pedestrian in a crosswalk and someone stops and you start to cross, no one else will stop for you.
Stupid, stupid drivers.
i am sorry this has nothing to do with your post but you've done 60 blogs i've only done like,6,(probably because i have no spare time!)(uhgh) sorry again that this has nothing to do with your post, i'll read it and comment.
i have no response to that.
soooory,61,.....61 posts
My favorite line:
Take Ambrosia's last car accident for example.
Why did the chicken cross the road?
It's not important: just a device.
Why did the BYU student cross the road?
Because a car was coming.
There is such an endless list of stupid things that driver's do or don't do. This is definitely one of them. I also hate drivers that get in front of me and then are apparently on a quest to find, stop for, and wave across every pedestrian in existence.
i have had these same sentiments so many times, mostly in reaction to a certain step-father who shall remain nameless. he will be turning left from the left turn lane (not at a light, just onto another street.) if there is someone pulling out of the same street onto which my step-father is trying to turn, he will stay far back so that if they want to turn left he can wave them on, being such a nice person. the other driver, obviously confused at this ridiculous request, often hesitates. my step-father then begins to cuss at them, and often begins to turn just as the other person decides to take him up on his offer. this results in total chaos. and regardless of how many times he has asked a police officer about the issue, he refuses to believe he actually has the right of way in this situation. so not only is he confusing and endangering himself and other drivers, he's not even really doing it to be nice! he just doesn't understand traffic rules, and refuses to change his current understanding. beware because he frequents the streets, but mostly in the salt lake area.
Cicada, remember the risk management class we attended? They're right with you: don't encourage jaywalkers, the class said. Slow down so you don't run them over, but don't wave them on. I'm hesitant to wave anyone on these days, no matter what, because with my luck a piano could fall on their heads and they sue me because I waved them.
One other annoying item: left-turners, especially at traffic lights, who think they have the right of way before right-turners. That's craziness. (Unless of course the light has turned red, the left-turners were stuck out in the middle of the intersection and were just clearing the way, and the right-turner failed to stop on red. That's different.)
Wow, you should check out New Jersey. I seriously thought I had seen it all in Happy Valley however....
Cram 10 million people into a 20 square mile area without any such thing as a grid system or normal speed limits. If you shake up these ingredients in a bag all that you get is a lot of f-bombing and shaking fists. My road rage hit an all time high about 2 months ago.
The left hand turn thing is a killer. There are more 'delayed green lights' out her than arrows so people turn that into regular driving etiquette. Good greif!
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Actually, according to many visits to traffic school in Provo, the polite, pedestrain-waving driver is obeying the law. And if he is stopped, the inner lane of traffic must also stop or he will be in violation of the law.
I'm not calling you wrong, I'm just throwing that out. I feel I must, what with me being an expert on Utah traffic laws and everything.
I think one more visit to that school and I'll have my associates....
Hahahaha. I only wish that had been my last accident. (The next accident, also not my last, may or may not have included a cyclist who later dated the roommate of one of my friends.)
Anyway, I will whole-heartedly support this movement to stop acting so nice on the roads. Yes, *acting*. Actually being nice would not involve encouraging people to do highly dangerous and occasionally illegal things and then becoming angry when they refuse. (In case anyone is wondering, I no longer avail myself of the "help" all the "nice" people are offering on the roads. And when I'm a pedestrian rather than a driver, I avoid making eye contact, even to the point of turning my back to the traffic, so that people won't try to be nice to me.)
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