We have a few intersections in town where two lanes turn in the same direction. For example on a certain three lane road, if you're in the left lane you must turn left and if you're in either of the two right hand lanes, you have to turn right.
There are Bott's dots lines in the intersection indicating to drivers that they are supposed to stay in their respective lanes during the turn. If you start your right turn from the right lane, you're supposed to finish in the right lane. If you start in the left lane, you finish in the left lane.
What baffles me is when people want to be in the left lane after they turn, but they begin their turn from the right lane. They will either change to the left lane mid-turn, or wait until the turn is barely completed then dive to the left with a single blink of the turn signal. If you want to be in the left lane when you finish your turn, why not be in the left lane when you START the turn?
And it's usually the same commuters every morning who make this maneuver, cutting off the car or bus in the other lane. So, it's not like it's a fluke, confusion thing.
Just another example of the ME FIRST mentality.
Everyone else be damned...
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Dear Officer Smith,
Yes, in every rush hour I notice there's a sort of grouping of cars that travel along together at the same range of speed starting at around the same time, and then the hot-doggers just keep banging on through one group and the next further on.
What amazes me always is the amount of adjustment the good (or at least community-minded) drivers make for the hotdoggers.
For every jerk that makes it through by breaking the rules, there are untold adjustments by more prudent people. They are carrying the hotdoggers load for him.
Ann T.
For some reason now I have this stuck in my head...
"To everything turn, turn, turn..."
Thanks, Smitty.
We discussed that rule during our Citizens Police Academy. Sooo many people do that!
As a transit and school bus driver, I see this all the time. People who are so impatient and can't wait for others to get out of their way just so they can get to the same destination about 20 seconds sooner!
"Just another example of the ME FIRST mentality.
Everyone else be damned..."
Welcome to America!
Like it or not, but the jerks with no regard for anything except their own goals tend to succeed an order of magnitude more often than the "nice guys" could ever hope to...
-Former Nice Guy.
I'm so glad I'm not the only person who HATES this. :)
There is a similar intersection near where I live, where there are 2 left turn lanes. The inside turn lane can go into either the inside or the middle lane around the corner, while the outside turn lane is supposed to go into the outside lane only (this is all according to the white lines on the pavement).
A lot of drivers, though, start out in the outside turn lane and then cut left across the dashed white line to end up in the middle lane.
So I take great glee in turning from the inside lane into the middle lane - which IS allowed - and honking like hell at any idiots who try to cross into my lane.
I realize I may get myself hit during my little object lesson someday, but dammit, I want to teach these people to follow the RULES. :P
Whwn I started reading I was getting ready to be sympathetic to some poor stranger getting lost, but as I read on, I saw that wasn't appropriate.
The weird part with this kind of stuff is that (in 99% of cases) it doesn't get you any where any faster then following the rules...
(I do hope you temper justice with mercy to the occassional lost or confused oout-of-towner, though.
I remember once being in a similar situation - I was about 21, driving down to vist my grandma and taking my younger sister (17) with me. She was map-reading. We approach a BIG junction - 3 or four lanes to pick from. Little sister tells me in plenty of time that we need to turn right, so I get us neatly streamed into the right turn lane as soon as the lanes start to be separately marked. ... as the other lanes fill up, she pauses, looks again at the map and says brightly "Oh, did I say right? I meant left!" ..
In our defenc, we didn't cut across anywhere, we sat there indicating and smiling apologetically at people who kindly let us out. )
That whole "staying in your own turn lane" thing drives me absolutely batty!
I mean seriously, how hard is it to stay in your own fricking lane while completing a fricking turn!
Is this the kind of thing you can ticket for? Just curious.
No, not the lame "me first" mentality but the switching lanes thing....
This is one of several of my "traffic pet peeves". It's just about tied with "idiots who don't know how to merge".
I learned to drive at age 15 (yes it was legal way back then) in CA. After living all over the US I am still amazed at how folks drive in the south!
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