Is it me or does it seem that most people are either ignorant of, or have no clue about some of the more basic rules of the road?
Case in point- I was exiting the expressway and the traffic lights were dead. A whole string of them on this 4 lane highway were out. Most people were just whizzing through without hesitation. Very few people slowed down let alone stopped. Some cross traffic blew through too. Doesn’t anyone know you’re supposed to treat it as a stop sign if the lights are out? I saw at least three near T-bones and was almost rear ended several times when I came to stop before proceeding in turn. What goes through the mind of someone approaching an intersection where all of the lights are out and they don’t even slow down???
Heck, where I live they don’t stop for lights that actually WORK! Everybody delays entering an intersection on green because of red light runners.
Another traffic law failing; merging onto the highway. The cars ON the highway have the right of way, NOT the car entering from the on-ramp!
So the drivers who stay in the right lane even though there’s plenty of room to the left, bunch up and tailgate when approaching a busy entrance just enjoy proving that point.
I’ll move to the left, even though I don’t legally have to, just to give the other guy a break.
“courtesy lane change” as mentioned below.
So many selfish drivers.
TwinTurbo It has been at least 3 decades since I’ve had to deal with non functioning traffic signals. Drivers treated the intersections as 4 way stops like they were supposed to. Now days some drivers only stop at red lights and signs if cross traffic is to close. They don’t no what a yield sign means and no knowledge that uncontrolled intersections even exist.
I haven’t really noticed that as much as people at four way stops. You don’t have to wait for everyone to come up to the stop sign and stop and then you can go. You can go right away after you stop. That’s what four way stops mean. Other cars stop. You don’t have to wait for them. Maybe you’ve got all day but I don’t.
And I’m sick and tired of people waving me on. Don’t wave me on. I can figure out when to go on my own without your help. You go when its your turn and I’ll go when its mine. You aren’t being nice, you are being stupid and transfering liability for that kid on the bike from me to you. Stop it. Secondly, I’m not looking at your silly face and your hand on the steering wheel. I’m looking at your car and other surroundings so while you are trying to get my attention with your little hand wave, others are waiting for you.
they wave you on because they don t understsnd right of way rules. sometimes I will just sit there if they have the right of way and don t know. plus they won t use the blinkers. it gets worse every week itseems
"Another traffic law failing; merging onto the highway. The cars ON the highway have the right of way, NOT the car entering from the on-ramp!"
Well, that’s where ROW and common courtesy intersect. You might not be required to get over, but just like holding a door for somebody, good manners says to get over to make life easier, if it’s no hardship to you.
Make no mistake about it: you may be within your rights not to get over…but you’re exercising your right to be a tool.
cruisin’ down the interstate , I’ve moved to the left lane to smoothly continue around the OBVIOUS simi I’ll be nearing soon and effortlessly pass as neither of us in in either’s way.
YET…
You’d think the car in front of me…still in the right lane…would do the same and we’d both '‘ease on down the road.’'
you’d think !
You’d think they would actually USE any one of their THREE mirrors and see ME nearing them as they slow for the , now impending blockage of a SEMI they could see for a mile !
But NO…they wait …and wait…for me to be two feet from their rear bumper to ZIP OVER merely two feet in front of my front bumper …
— and they get bent outa shape mistakenly thinking that I’M ??? tailgating ???
it was not MY choice , but YOURS, to pick how close you would place your bumper to mine
dude, you can take that wonderful finger of yours you so proudly diplayed to me and…
you wanna change lanes BEHIND me…the road is all yours. …gee do you think you MIRRORS would have given you a clue ?
And I'm sick and tired of people waving me on. Don't wave me on. I can figure out when to go on my own without your help.
I HATE being waved on…especially when the other person has the right-of-way.
4-way stops here in New England are very dangerous. I think people know what the rules are…but they just don’t care. I came to a 4-way stop one time…The car to my right arrived a little before I did. He continued and I waited…Then the 4 cars behind him went through the stop-sign also - with less then 1’ gap between them. Just plain RUDE drivers. At times like that I wish I had a real beater…then when it was my turn…plow through and see how many I can hit. They’d all have a hard time explaining that.
Turn Signals are also ignored in New England…From my observation…less then 5% of all drivers use their signals all the time. Less then half even use them when turning. Very very few use them when changing lanes.
Right-on-red - That’s another good one here. Right-on-red in New England means…if the light is red and you’re turning right…then you don’t have to stop or yield…just turn right doing 30mph+. That was my first accident when I moved to NH some 30 years ago. Guy went right through the red-light and clipped my bumper…He gets out of his car and is furious…then starts yelling at me in a heavy French-Canadian accent…that he’s allowed to turn right on red…he finally shut up when the cop handed him a ticket for failing to stop and yield.
“Well, that’s where ROW and common courtesy intersect. You might not be required to get over, but just like holding a door for somebody, good manners says to get over to make life easier, if it’s no hardship to you. Make no mistake about it: you may be within your rights not to get over…but you’re exercising your right to be a tool.”
+++++!!!
When I am entering an expressway, I am able to get my Outback up to at least 70 mph by the end of the on-ramp, and I am often able to get it going faster than that in order to NOT get into anyone’s way if they refuse to exercise a “courtesy lane change”. However, there is the occasional tool who decides that this is his opportunity to suddenly speed-up in order to try to block me from entering the expressway. What is that all about?
The biggest failing of the people who refuse to execute a courtesy lane change is when there is a very slow-moving vehicle at the head of a group of cars on the on-ramp. Because a truck (or a little old lady) is driving at only ~35 mph, that causes everyone behind that rolling roadblock to also merge at a dangerously slow rate of speed.
You would think that the right lane hogs would either execute a courtesy lane change at that point, or that they would at least allow cars to merge. However, on a few occasions, I have had these tools essentially force me–and a couple of cars behind me–onto the shoulder because they would not let us enter the right lane.
What is that all about? (Other than being an anal sphincter)
Moving over to allow merging seems to be relative to which intersection they’re at.
Yes, the exact same vehicles will move over at all on ramps …except…for some odd reason…a chosen few.
I-40 New Mexico, exit 26.
From rt 66, getting ON to I-40. If I’m getting on to EAST bound I-40 I can count on a smooth merge as everyone , cars and semis, graciously move over.
BUT
when I’m getting on to WEST bound , at the same on-ramps 26, I’ll guarantee you 9 times out of ten, that those same drivers will NOT move over an inch !
strange but true.
Now, just try teaching all THIS to a 14 year old learner.
I told her, ‘‘you KNOW how to drive the truck, extermely well in fact. BUT it’s all these other yayhoos you need to learn to read.’’
When traffic lights are out in the DC area at least one radio station makes a point of reminding listeners that they should treat those intersections as if they have a 4-way stop sign. And they repeat the message at least twice to drive the message home.
Rules? What rules? Apparently they do not apply in the DC metro area. Around here it seems if you drive any type of SUV or luxury sport eurotrash you can just do as you please.
@PvtPublic, you just so wrong about those drivers. You left every other kind of car off the list. My I-95 commutes show pick-ups, dump trucks, semis, Camrys, and just about anything you can name are extremely aggressive. I often see a string or 4 to 6 vehicles in the left lane no more than 2 car lengths apart and going at least 80 MPH.
Rules and road are what’s referred to as oxymorons I think…
It’s gotten to the point when a light goes green I always hesitate and take another look before proceeding. Maybe it’s due to (in my opinion anyway) a much too large segment of society has no patience. They want to get from A to B as quicky as possible no matter how long the trail of destruction or the number of frayed nerves left behind.
A wealthy farmer who lived down the road from me was killed a few years back when he never checked either direction on a completely flat, wide open stretch of terrain and got flattened by a Burlington Northern train.
A few weeks later 2 cars were parked there with 4 elderly people laying wreaths at the site. So where did they park? One with the nose of their car abutting the tracks and the other vehicle completely astraddle the tracks. This on a railway with a high volume of freight trains moving at higher speeds…
Remembering "No officer the light was green so I turned left and he hit me! Officer are you sure the light was not yellow? No it was green I turned and he hit me! No turn arrow of course, as both lanes were green, got my deductible 5 years later. Of course that was 20 plus years ago, things may have changed or not.
