<p>Television commercials that play at twice the volume as the show you’re watching on TV.</p>
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<p>Sorry to put my safety first. With the way people run red lights, you better believe I’m going to make sure it’s clear before I enter the intersection.</p>
<p>Speaking of intersections, my pet peeve are those who are going to make a left turn, but sit behind the light rather than enter the intersection, when it is green. Remember in driver’ Ed , the “point of no return”? Then everyone ends up waiting, then the light turns again and we are still stuck. No courteous rules of the road, anymore. It really is a ME society.</p>
<p>But you don’t have to wait five seconds. If you’re the first car in the turn lane, you should be assessing traffic flow before your light turns green. I do it every time. Obviously if a driver has not shown signs of slowing down for their own red light, you don’t go, but 99% of the time, I’m just talking about people who are not paying attention to the traffic signals and when they change. </p>
<p>I remember my first behind the wheel lesson when I was 15 years old. One of the best things our instructor taught us was to think about how our driving choices impact those behind us. This not only applies to going when the light turns green, but going the speed limit, especially if you’re on a two-lane road. I have one stretch of road I travel frequently, about seven miles, that I could almost swear I’ve never gone the entire length without getting behind someone who is inevitably going at least ten miles under the speed limit, on a perfectly sunny day. And the line of cars stacked up behind them ten deep. But the slow car has not a car in front of them for at least a half mile. </p>
<p>Putting your foot on the accelerator when the turn signal actually turns green (as you’re assessing the intersection at the same time) is not unsafe driving.</p>
<p>milkandsugar - around here, if you pull out in the intersection before you are clear to turn, and get stuck there, and the light turns red, and you can’t go because someone from the opposite direction is running a yellow light, so you’re then basically running a red light, you can get ticketed.</p>
<p>I’m not saying people don’t do it, but I won’t because I don’t want to risk a traffic ticket.</p>
<p>Another big one is getting tickets for driving on the shoulders, or driving on the yellow ‘do not drive on’ lines that precede a left turn lane. I see cops giving tickets for that all the time.</p>
<p>add: by the way, I’m one of the ones who several years ago got a ticket for driving on a shoulder to get around a left-turning car.</p>
<p>It’s a free for all on the road and there is no more courteous driving going on. Left lane is for passing. When did everyone forget that.
Teriwtt,
When I was a teen in drivers Ed, we were taught that when the light turns green you can advance into the intersection and wait your turn to make the left. You were in your legal right to make the turn even if the light turn red because you were beyond the light, this was known as “point of no return”. Of course you always practiced safe driving and you had to make your turn because the side traffic could not advance until you made your turn.</p>
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My father would pick things up that were in his way and throw them out on the lawn. It was a pretty effective technique.</p>
<p>I haven’t read this whole thread so perhaps this has been mentioned. (I hope no one is peevish about people who post without reading. ;)) Why is it that every waiting room (automobile service, doctor’s office, whatever) now has a large flat screen television turned on (loudly) and tuned in to some annoying talk show? Even when there is no one else waiting there is no way to turn it off. Thanks anyway, but I brought a book.</p>
<p>^^the last dr office I was in had it tuned to Fox News…hmm</p>
<p>I was reading the NYTimes…haha</p>
<p>You should have started reading out loud.</p>
<p>^^^ipad with music.
Another one - people who are late. If you have a hard time getting ready or it’s not a good time, just tell me, but don’t make me wait, because I’ve had to cut my meetings short or hang up on calls just to get there on time.</p>
<p>@ #56 – Guilty as charged, thumper! I always like to know the rationale behind an answer, and I figure others do too (because everyone is just like me :p). So I can get a little wordy.</p>
<p>Ha! I love the “hide the back pack” idea & will try it. This should get the kids attention. (One year, I picked up some Christmas presents early and hid them until Christmas. I forgot I bought them and found them four months later.)</p>
<p>It also really bugs me when I’m talking with beloved son/daughter when driving in the car or whatever, and they are constantly texting - carrying on four conversations at once. We’ve had some nice talks about “text etiquette.”</p>
<p>LasMa, I was NOT referring to you.</p>
<p>Back to driving - I hate people who gridlock. If there is a line of cars stacked up in front of you at an intersection and your light is green, do NOT enter the intersection until the line has moved forward sufficiently that you can make it all the way across the intersection. Otherwise you’re sitting in the middle of the intersection when the light turns red, and now you’re blocking all the people trying to pull out from the side streets!</p>
<p>I believe this term, gridlocking, originated in Manhattan. And I believe if the light turns red and you are caught sitting in the intersection, you deserve a big fat ticket. Do not enter the intersection until you can get thru to the other side!</p>
<p>Follow-up pet peeve to the above (lafalums post). I wait until I can get through an intersection, but then the )<em>@*</em><em>$^+$_^</em> people waiting to make a right turn pull out, preventing me from ever being able to get through the intersection to the other side. Then I get stuck at the light when it changes. They could have waited!! I had the green but was being courteous so as not to block the intersection. Grrr…</p>
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<p>Nope, that’s illegal not to mention dangerous. Because at many intersections if you do that, you’ve now blocked a car from the other direction who wants to turn left. I am starting to see more and more intersections where you can only turn left with a green arrow…</p>
<p>thumper – Oh whew! :D</p>
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<p>I was taught the “point of no return” rule in drivers ed four years ago, and our drivers ed is taught by active state troopers. Maybe this is a regional thing. I didn’t like to do it when I was learning to drive but they /insisted/, and if you don’t do it the entire left turn lane of cars will honk at you until you do. You’re also taught to make sure the intersection is clear before you proceed through, I would imagine in part because of this.</p>
<p>That’s my other pet peeve. People who honk stupidly. Like for example, you WILL get a ticket for running the red light if you don’t come to a complete stop before proceeding at a blinking red-- you are supposed to treat blinking reds as a stop sign and my family /has/ gotten tickets for rolling through before. But without fail, if you stop you either have someone running up behind you so close you think you’re about to get rearended, or they beep until you move. Or if you’re waiting to turn right on red and can’t see into the intersection because there’s a gigantic hummer to your left blocking your line of sight and you can’t pull up because they are already parked five feet in front of the line and you’d be in the middle of the intersection, and people honk when you don’t turn-- if you can’t see that traffic is clear, you can’t turn. Or my personal favorite, the intersection next to my house is no turn on red from 9am to 9pm, so I’ll be sitting there in that time period and getting beeped at for not turning on red when it isn’t even legal to do that.</p>
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It is not illegal. First of all you will not be blocking the car in the opposite direction wanting to make a left turn, because they are in their point of no return and of course you always practice safe driving. You have to use your judgement and not block a car that needs to turn, you can only advance if the intersection is clear. Use your JUDGEMENT! It’s not an arbitrary rule.
Even with a green arrow turn lane, you can still advance into the intersection, if the light turns green.</p>