I grew up in Rochester, NY. With Kodak, the Eastman School, The University of Rochester, the Dryden Theatre, and the House of Guitars, the place was dripping with cult-cha. Nature always seeking balance, it was also dripping with louts. The pickup truck tribe was especially prominent. Almost every pickup truck in Rochester was parked with the right-hand tires centered on the right-side parking space stripe, so that the lout could disable two spaces but deny that he was disabling two spaces.
When I moved to Durham, they didn’t do that. But they had a whole different set of incompetences. Most people don’t use their turn signals here – that’s famous among forum-dwellers. But the most interesting thing that the hillbillies here do is that when they’re staging for a left turn, they place their vehicles as far to the right as possible. The wheels could be up on the curb. But damm it, they’re gonna take that turn from the very far right. God forbit a right-on-red driver should pass them up.
Do you have any regional proclivities to share? We don’t want “I hate when they…”. We want something that is identifiable as a local quirk.
The only place I’ve lived other than where I live now was Colorado. The unusual thing I notice here in San Jose, that I didn’t in Colorado, is that if I’m going grocery shopping say, and I park 10 or 12 spaces from any other car, like way in the back of the parking lot, invariably when I return there will be a car or truck parked right next to me, or right behind me so I can’t access the trunk. Yet there will remain like 10-12 empty adjacent parking spots , places they could have parked without having my car in the way of them getting in and out etc.
I’m not sure if it’s a San Jose thing, or just San Jose is a more urban environment that where I lived in Colorado. But it’s very puzzling.
Honking if you don’t get away from the red light within a couple of seconds is more common here too, but I think that’s just b/c the traffic congestion is worse.
Wisconsin, gets tough some times at a four way stop, the first person is so courteous he wants to let the late arrivers go first, so there ends up a you go wave, followed by a no you go wave, but in all honesty it is probably due to the fact that out of staters consider 5 seconds after the light turns red it is still okay to go if you are moving, and stop really means proceed without caution. t-bone is not just a steak!
NH… people use the handicap spaces to leave their carts in. Drives me nuts. At the local big-box hardware store recently there were even three of the large heavy duty trucks left in the handicap spaces. Yesterday, at a different store, it was a shopping cart.
@the_same_mountainbike luckily we don’t seem to have that problem, but I can sure see it as an aggravation. Sure I walk the extra paces to put my shopping cart in the designated place, even pull a cart from the parking lot to use in the store. Old school kindness courteousness and thoughtful actions are a thing of the past I fear.
Thanks Barky. I don’t mind carts on the lines next to the posts where they don’t interfere with use of the space, but many who need these spaces cannot get out of the car and move the carts without unnecessary pain, and those heavy duty construction carts I simply cannot move. Struggling to get through the day is hard enough. We don’t need the extra work.
I was unable to open the link you provided, however I appreciate the consideration you show daily.
Trouble opening the link also, working on it but here are the lyrics, maybe you can hear the song in your head @the_same_mountainbike you are the best,
All through the day, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine
All through the night, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine
Now they’re frightened of leaving it
Everyone’s weaving it
Coming on strong all the time
All through the day I me mine
All I can hear, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine
Even those tears, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine
No-one’s frightened of playing it
Everyone’s saying it
Flowing more freely than wine
All through the day I me mine
All I can hear, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine
Even those tears, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine
No-one’s frightened of playing it
Everyone’s saying it
Flowing more freely than wine
All through your life I me mine
@George_San_Jose about a week ago we had a 1968ish Olds Cutlass Convertible pull into a spot right behind a late model Chevy Suburban the, the owner of the Cutlass looked back as he was walking to the store and saw that the Suburban had it’s backup lights on (For some reason on GM trucks they illuminate when you at least unlock the truck with the remote) almost gave the guy a heart attack. But then he figured out that the Suburban wasn’t even running at the time. The Suburban did have to pull forwards a little bit to get the rear hatch open.
One thing that grates on me here is farmers at times choosing to park in the roadway; be it county dirt road, county paved highway, or even a paved state highway.
I’ve seen them park in the road instead of the shoulder to check fences or cattle, etc. In one instance 2 pickups facing opposite directions were parked blocking both lanes of traffic, engines off, while the 2 farmers were standing between the trucks, leaning against the fenders, and carrying on a conversation about cattle futures, wheat prices, or whatever.
Traffic in each direction was having to veer around onto the shoulder to pass them. The really irritating part is that each side of the road there had a very wide shoulder that would have accomodated both on the same side. Too lazy to park I guess.
In another instance 2 farmers left their pickup astraddle of the center line and BOTH doors wide open while they walked off to repair a fence or something. Cars passing had to drive off in the weeds to get around these clowns.
If I were a state trooper and found that situation their pickup would be on the tow truck very soon no matter how much they complained.
I park 10 or 12 spaces from any other car, like way in the back of the parking lot, invariably when I return there will be a car or truck parked right next to me,
For me that’s a strategy thing. If I see your nice Mercedes parked out in the middle of nowhere, then hey, you’re the one guy in the whole parking lot that I can guarantee will not door me. I’m parking next to you!
It’s good for you too - no one’s gonna door you, on that side anyway, as long as my car is there.
We lived in Saudi Arabia for 3 years, and the standard procedure at any intersection is that when the light turns green everybody waits 2-3 seconds before they move. This is because about 80% of the time there will be somebody in one of the right lanes who wants to make a left turn and will just cut right across in front of everyone else. This happens regularly and nobody even bothers to honk or get irritated. They just wait for it.
NH, I have seen this quirk several times. On a two lane highway (one lane in each direction) cars would drive half in the breakdown lane where they could, swerving back to the correct lane where the breakdown lane was blocked, then back into the breakdown lane again when past the blockage.
Someone told me it was to give as much clearance as possible against someone illegally passing from the other direction.
One thing regional here in NH and MA is if someone is exiting a driveway or business and turning left…they’ll put their front end out just far enough that you either have to stop or hit them. They’ll block the whole north bound lane trying to turn onto the left bound.
Oh how I wish I had my 66 Fleetwod many times. I’d tear the front of their car right off…Gee officer - he just pulled right.
As for shopping carts…I’ve seen people parked right next to the return area on their left…but leave their cart on the right directly behind another car. Very inconsiderate and rude.
Like the OP, something that particularly annoys me is the way that many people veer partially into the right lane before making a left turn. One would think that these folks are driving an 18-wheeler, rather than a car, SUV, crossover, or pickup truck.
(You couldn’t make that turn unless you turned that wide? Really?)
I also find it amazingly dangerous that people sitting in left turn lanes frequently stop their vehicles so far to the right in those left turn lanes that they are sitting–literally–an inch or two from traffic zipping past them on the right at 45 mph–or higher. When I am sitting in a left turn lane, I always look in my mirror, and almost always I find that the vehicles in back of me are several inches further to the right than I am. Unfortunately, when one of these oblivious clowns gets “clipped” by a passing car, I might wind up getting hit when that clown’s vehicle is pushed forward. :-((
These are probably the same folks who–when stopped on the shoulder of an expressway–never seem to move far enough away from the right lane, and wind up parking their vehicle right on the line separating their stopped vehicle from the traffic zooming along at 65 mph–again only an inch or two away.
Why are so many people oblivious to the danger of having their stopped vehicle so close to high-speed travel lanes?
Oh, and incidentally, these behaviors don’t seem to be regional.
I have seen them all over The US.
@db4690, the left on red thing occurs in a lot of places. Columbia, SC is one place where they’ve taken it to ridiculous lengths. A train of 5 or more cars will continue through the light after it turns red. It is as if the light never turned at all. With an unbroken line of traffic, the folks with the green light cannot move. It is an institution and called Driving Southern says my daughter.
There are several things in the DC/Baltimore area that are strange, and one of the strangest is waiting in the intersection for traffic ahead to move. Recently I and many others were stuck through a light cycle because cars and trucks pulled into the intersection behind a line of stopped traffic, blocking six lanes from moving. Not only is it illegal, they did it about a half mile from the State Police barracks.
“one of the strangest is waiting in the intersection for traffic ahead to move.”
In NYC, many intersections have large “Don’t Block the Box” signs, with a pictogram showing an aerial depiction of an intersection. On the intersection’s pavement, there are diagonal lines showing where “the box” is located.
No, it doesn’t totally stop this selfish type of driving behavior, but it does help because the NYPD frequently tickets drivers who “block the box”. The penalty in NY is a hefty fine plus 2 points on one’s license.