Recent driving annoyances (1)
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Jun 11, 2007
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When you're out of things to say, go back to basics. I'd say driving, travel, and social interaction provide the most material for this website, so here it goes:
Two things have recently made me mad while driving: - Stop light creep. For reasons unknown and unexplainable, some people slowly decelerate at a traffic light and leave about 20 feet between themselves and the car in front of them, from which point they proceed to creep a few inches intermittently for the duration of the red light. The reason this is annoying is at least twofold: (a) It does absolutely nothing to "prolong brake life", "increase gas mileage", or any other supposed energy/wear savings; (b) It makes me look like an idiot. When I stop at a stop light, I stop, usually because I don't want to have to keep looking at the car in front of me. I look around, change the radio station, fix my comb-over, etc. And then when I look back in front of me, there's 20 feet of open space because of the idiot in front of me. Thanks, idiots.
- Delayed blinker. People minimize the usefulness of a car's blinker. When I'm sitting at a stop light or stop sign, waiting to make a turn, I hate having to wait for a person that's making a right turn onto the road I'm currently on. This person is the limiting factor in this situation. If he/she wasn't there, I could make a right, make a left, go straight, or blast off into space. The possibilities are endless. But waiting for that person coming from my left means I can't do anything until they (a) go past me or (b) turn on my road. So it really makes me mad when the person either waits until the last minute to use their turn signal or doesn't even use it at all. Surely they see me sitting at the intersection. Surely they know they have the ability to decrease the time I wait there.
- Residential traffic. I live in a residential community. There's no such thing as thru-traffic. There are houses in every direction, and most houses come with 6-10 cars (this may be an exaggeration). The problem with these tiny streets is that not only do they lack street signs (not that big of a deal), they lack stop signs (a slightly bigger deal). Most people stop at road intersections either because they remember when there used to be a stop sign, or simply because they're not stupid. But a frighteningly large number of people come to a quasi-stop, look one way, then go. This would be fine if traffic moved one way or you were willing to lose your life while making a turn. The problem is that traffic goes both ways, so these people never see me when I'm coming and they pull out in front of me and experience the wrath of my angry yet slightly wimpy horn. And since I'm not the center of the universe, I'm forced to assume this doesn't only happen to me. It must happen all the time, to all kinds of people.
#travel
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