Friday, February 03, 2012

They Gave YOU A License To Drive??

Our local Walmart is accessed from the main highway.  On the other side of the highway is Target.  To help with traffic, there is a 4-way traffic light.  This, of course, isn't the most efficient way to keep traffic flowing on a highway, but when you don't have freeways or interstates, this is the way things are done.  (Also, the closest thing we have to four lane highways for the majority of the UP are stretches of 'passing lanes.')

I went shopping earlier and the first place I had to go to was Walmart.  When I got to the traffic light for my turn, there was one other vehicle in front of me and the light was just turning red.  I got into the left-turn lane and proceeded to wait for the green light.  However, the driver of the vehicle in front of me decided he didn't want to wait and MADE THE LEFT TURN ON A RED LIGHT!!!!!  This absolutely left me flabbergasted--which I don't understand because this is AT LEAST the second time in the last year that I have seen the exact same thing.  It was just sheer luck that there were no vehicles coming down the highway at the time the guy made the turn.  This could have turned into one bloody mess.

I am nowhere close to the world's best driver--actually, I could be better and I know it.  I have had brain farts while I've been driving and I certainly hope that is what happened to the driver tonight.  Otherwise, this person IS going to be the cause of someone's very serious accident at some time in the future.

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:17 PM

    Sadly, these people don't think about the other person, only themselves.

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  2. It really is frightening to see people do things like this!

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  3. Wow. They made a left turn on a RED light? That's insane!

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  4. And I've seen this happen more than once in the same spot!!!!! I just don't get it...

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  5. What's worse is people who don't want to wait ten seconds for someone in front of them to make a left turn, and swerve into the right-hand lane to pass, often right in front of me. This happens so much that I have to be very alert whenever I drive. It seems that no one is learning the "unwritten rules of the road" as well as the rules they have to learn to get a driver's license. Part of it could also be selfishness, and of course I've seen people yakking on cell phones and not paying attention to the traffic-including turning left on red.

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  6. I am hoping the driver of the car in front of you did indeed have a brain "fart". When you are so used to stop signs instead of lights (as I am assuming in your area is true)sometimes the brain is so used to "stop look and go" that the light does not factor in to a busy brain. I only say this because as we have more and more lights where I live, I often have to stop myself from going on a red light, because hey, I stopped, I can go now!

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  7. janet: A lot of the problems are directly connected to cell phone usage, I believe.

    kristi: Actually, I'm not too sure which we have more of: stop signs or traffic lights. It seems as if every traffic problem in this town is 'fixed' by putting up a stop sign. When THAT doesn't take care of the problem--BIG surprise--then they put up a traffic light. Doesn't fix the problem and causes more of these types of brain 'farts.' Everybody DEFINITELY has to be a defensive driver these days.

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