design_mom
probably more like my dad than I care to admit
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2007
- Messages
- 6,220
My peeve isn't necessarily with drivers, but with people who berate other drivers online when the complainer is the one who is wrong. Two recent examples from our town facebook page.
1) There have been a lot of traffic circles/roundabouts installed around here in the last couple of years. These are relatively new to our area. Some people still don't know how to use them. Someone came on and ranted about how you're supposed to treat them like a zipper merge (you're not) and basically if you're too stupid to understand a zipper merge then you shouldn't be driving. You're actually supposed to yield to traffic that's already in the circle. They do not need to yield to traffic entering the circle. There are even yield signs posted at the entrances with further explanation that says "Yield to traffic in circle." The police, fire department, etc have all posted "instructions" on their websites, etc. The complainer is the one who doesn't know how to use the traffic circle. When this was pointed out to him (not by me), he still ranted that it's "polite" to let people in and still thought that anybody who didn't allow him to zipper merge into the traffic circle was acting like a jerk.
2) We recently had a storm that knocked out normal traffic signal function at a pretty big intersection in town. However, the emergency function kicked in which had the light flashing yellow along the main (4 lane) road, and flashing red at the secondary (2 lane) road. Apparently someone wanted to turn left from the secondary road and found it difficult to do so with 4 lanes of cross traffic that wasn't stopping. She came on the town web page and ranted that when the traffic lights are down you're supposed to treat the intersection like a four-way stop -- and ranting about the lack of civility and general traffic knowledge of the general public. She even posted a photo where you could clearly see the lights were yellow in cross traffic direction and red in hers. While she would have been right if there had been NO LIGHTS working at the intersection, she was incorrect about the particular situation. If the lights are flashing yellow, the cross traffic did NOT need to treat it like a stop. When someone (not me) pointed this out, the person still claimed that people were "rude" for not letting the secondary street traffic out/turn. She complained that she waited over 10 minutes before she could make her left turn (which means she was blocking everyone behind her for that entire time.) In reality, the complainer should have just realized that turning left wasn't going to be feasible, and she should have turned right, then found a safe place to turn around. *That* would have been the safe *and* polite thing to do.
I really do try to be polite to people and do the "nice thing" in most situations -- but driving is one of those cases where things would go SO much better if everyone just followed the rules (and knew the rules). Even if you're trying to be "nice," bad things happen when people do unexpected things, so just do what you're supposed to do. And, for goodness sake, if you DON'T know the rules look it up. And if you think you're the ONLY one who knows the rules, go ahead and look it up before you go on social media to blast everyone else. (At worst, you'll have a source to cite to educate everyone else... and at best, you might find out that you were actually the one who's wrong before you look like a fool.)
1) There have been a lot of traffic circles/roundabouts installed around here in the last couple of years. These are relatively new to our area. Some people still don't know how to use them. Someone came on and ranted about how you're supposed to treat them like a zipper merge (you're not) and basically if you're too stupid to understand a zipper merge then you shouldn't be driving. You're actually supposed to yield to traffic that's already in the circle. They do not need to yield to traffic entering the circle. There are even yield signs posted at the entrances with further explanation that says "Yield to traffic in circle." The police, fire department, etc have all posted "instructions" on their websites, etc. The complainer is the one who doesn't know how to use the traffic circle. When this was pointed out to him (not by me), he still ranted that it's "polite" to let people in and still thought that anybody who didn't allow him to zipper merge into the traffic circle was acting like a jerk.
2) We recently had a storm that knocked out normal traffic signal function at a pretty big intersection in town. However, the emergency function kicked in which had the light flashing yellow along the main (4 lane) road, and flashing red at the secondary (2 lane) road. Apparently someone wanted to turn left from the secondary road and found it difficult to do so with 4 lanes of cross traffic that wasn't stopping. She came on the town web page and ranted that when the traffic lights are down you're supposed to treat the intersection like a four-way stop -- and ranting about the lack of civility and general traffic knowledge of the general public. She even posted a photo where you could clearly see the lights were yellow in cross traffic direction and red in hers. While she would have been right if there had been NO LIGHTS working at the intersection, she was incorrect about the particular situation. If the lights are flashing yellow, the cross traffic did NOT need to treat it like a stop. When someone (not me) pointed this out, the person still claimed that people were "rude" for not letting the secondary street traffic out/turn. She complained that she waited over 10 minutes before she could make her left turn (which means she was blocking everyone behind her for that entire time.) In reality, the complainer should have just realized that turning left wasn't going to be feasible, and she should have turned right, then found a safe place to turn around. *That* would have been the safe *and* polite thing to do.
I really do try to be polite to people and do the "nice thing" in most situations -- but driving is one of those cases where things would go SO much better if everyone just followed the rules (and knew the rules). Even if you're trying to be "nice," bad things happen when people do unexpected things, so just do what you're supposed to do. And, for goodness sake, if you DON'T know the rules look it up. And if you think you're the ONLY one who knows the rules, go ahead and look it up before you go on social media to blast everyone else. (At worst, you'll have a source to cite to educate everyone else... and at best, you might find out that you were actually the one who's wrong before you look like a fool.)
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Do you not have distracted-driving laws where you live? Here it is a violation to use a cell phone in any way except 100% hands-free, while you are operating a vehicle (this includes at stop lights and in parking lots while the engine is running). The penalties aren’t as steep as a DUI but they are significant and if the act is found to be an aggravating factor in an accident that gets prosecuted, the sentence is increased.
