Road-related pet peeves

[kphoger]

Getting up to speed wasn't my trigger.  It's somebody pulling into the TWLTL right next to me and then matching my speed, thus being a rolling blockade when I want to pull into that lane to make a left turn.  Happened to me twice this week.

Speaking of keeping abreast:  The driver who slows down to make a lane change but keeps abreast of the vehicle already in that lane, thus driving slowly with the blinker on for a half mile.

Also:  Pedestrian signals that show Walk for two seconds, then show flashing Don't Walk and then solid Don't Walk for the remainder of the green light time.  Why even bother installing a pedestrian signal if it's going to be programmed to show Don't Walk all the time?

Inability to merge in general is a pet peeve of mine, and apparently not just mine.  Drivers who zoom up the on-ramp to exactly match my speed, then wonder why they can't easily get into my lane, then either floor it or step on their brakes as the accel space runs out...

[hbelkins]

If I'm in a place with photo enforcement (I'm looking at you, Kingsport, Tenn.) then I make sure I'm positioned behind the stop bar while waiting to make a left turn. I don't want to get caught out in the intersection when the light turns red and the camera goes off.

Is there any concrete evidence of left-turners being ticketed for going on red? That's just SOP for the first car in line in most places; I would be stunned if drivers are actually being ticketed for it if they're already waiting to turn.

I don't know, and I have no intention of finding out.

[pderocco]

Pedestrian signals that show Walk for two seconds, then show flashing Don't Walk and then solid Don't Walk for the remainder of the green light time.  Why even bother installing a pedestrian signal if it's going to be programmed to show Don't Walk all the time?

That's not "all the time", that's technically "all the time" minus two seconds, although people often start across during the countown based on their own ability to know how fast they can walk. The question is whether it does this only when the light is constantly cycling. In the middle of the night, is it normally green on the main drag, and red on the cross street until someone comes along? In that case, during the idle period are all directions showing Don't Walk indefinitely?

I recall that in Portland OR I used to see a lot of traffic lights that, late at night, stayed green with a Walk signal on the main road, until someone came along on the side street. The strange thing was, every minute or so the Walk signal would go into its Don't Walk countdown, and when it got to zero, go right back to Walk.

[vdeane]

People who honk at me when I'm at a "no right turn on red" intersection. No, I'm not going to break the law just because I probably won't get caught.

Generalizing, getting honked at for refusing to break the law period.  I seem to recall someone upthread mentioning honking at someone for not using the shoulder to make a right on red, despite driving on the shoulder like that being illegal.

Yeah, that was me. Technically going 56 mph on a 55 mph freeway is illegal too, doesn't mean no one does it or even that it's necessarily always the wrong thing to do in context with other laws. And yeah, I will admit that there are some locations where, if someone refuses to use the shoulder to turn right on red when it was literally expanded by the DOT (or county, town, or whatever) for that purpose, then I will just go around them if it's safe to do so. For all I know, there's a 50/50 chance it was their hazards on instead of their blinker anyways.

I pass by this sign often enough, to the point where I usually don't notice it.  Not sure why I did today, but this discussion was the first thing I thought of when I did.  Granted, it's not a state install (these are both town roads), but I do find it interesting that right as the shoulder widens out at the intersection there's a sign saying not to drive on it.

[webny99]

I pass by this sign often enough, to the point where I usually don't notice it.  Not sure why I did today, but this discussion was the first thing I thought of when I did.  Granted, it's not a state install (these are both town roads), but I do find it interesting that right as the shoulder widens out at the intersection there's a sign saying not to drive on it.

I'm curious if you have noticed whether it's common for people to drive on it anyways. I feel like in most similar situations (without the sign) those who don't use the shoulder would be the outlier, but maybe not here if the sign has any effect.

[vdeane]

I pass by this sign often enough, to the point where I usually don't notice it.  Not sure why I did today, but this discussion was the first thing I thought of when I did.  Granted, it's not a state install (these are both town roads), but I do find it interesting that right as the shoulder widens out at the intersection there's a sign saying not to drive on it.

I'm curious if you have noticed whether it's common for people to drive on it anyways. I feel like in most similar situations (without the sign) those who don't use the shoulder would be the outlier, but maybe not here if the sign has any effect.

It doesn't.  In fact, I think I see it here more often than elsewhere, probably because this is the highest AADT road I drive regularly where the shoulder widens out at an intersection like that.

Honestly, I feel like my driving behavior isn't very driven by what everyone else does when such contradicts how one is supposed to drive (when a situation is ambiguous is another story).  I pass turning vehicles on the shoulder and drive 5-7 mph over the limit mainly because I was encouraged to do so when I was learning; if left to my own devices, I probably wouldn't do either.  So my driving is a combination of following the law more strictly than others and how my parents drive (getting more like the former and less like the latter over time; I now keep right except to pass instead of sticking to the middle lane by default, and I turn into the rightmost/leftmost lane and do an immediate lane change if I need to unless a turn is too quick to even do that, while my parents would likely turn directly into whatever lane they need in such circumstances).  Honestly, I'd like to even stamp out the remaining behaviors, but that's in large part dependent on that 70 mph speed limit bill passing, as I'm not willing to make my Rochester/Albany drives take substantially longer to do it.