Posted on 03/13/2013 2:05:22 PM PDT by djf
OK, I'm driving to the store.
On the way to the store, there is a T in the road, I approach it not on the cross street, but on the leg of the T, so I have the STOP sign in front of me. So I stop. I'm gonna turn left.
Coming up from my right is an Econoline van or somesuch. He has the right of way.
He stops and decides he wants to wave me on. He has plenty of room to make the turn.
I sit there staring at his stupid face for about twenty seconds, and of course, as soon as I think he's totally brain-dead and get ready to take my foot off the brake, his van starts rolling. You could bet your kids eyes that it would happen that way...
So he turns and passes me with a big grin and a wave, and I'm about ready to flip him the bird!
So... if he waves me on like that, even though he has the right of way, am I breaking the law if I go? Odds are, for me at least, that I would just sit there, I DO NOT appreciate the uncertainty he started by not following the rules of the road!
Opinions? Anybody else have this happen?
Dang, I hate that. I’m with you though - a reasonable exception is a vehicle that can’t physically make the turn unless you go first.
I can’t text even sitting on my couch, much less when I’m driving.
I NEVER use a mobile device when I’m driving.
NEVER.
I encounter a similar situation every day leaving work. We are at the top of a hill, and you really can’t see traffic coming from the left or the right, and I have to make a left turn...so you just have to gun it and pray. No problem.
But then there are the cars exiting the apartment complex from across the street. Ninety percent of them are making a right turn...no problem. But they wave at me, like they want to let me go first. So now, in addition to swinging my head left and right looking for traffic, I now have to keep my eye on a third point...to make sure they R-e-a-l-l-y aren’t going. Its physically impossible. So I just sit there until they make their right turn...which takes around a half second and is incredibly easy for them...if they’d just take the right of way.
Some states have adopted the zipper approach where the sign says to maintain your lane until the merge, and then take turns merging. It actually works fairly well. It's better than everyone merging at once and leaving an entire lane empty, thus allowing said line-jumper, to get the jump on everyone else.
I pretend that I don’t see them. The right of way rules are quite clear.
I have always maintained that if you got the exact proper combination of four drivers to arrive at a four-way stop at precisely the same time...
The world would come to a complete and total standstill.
So the guy waves you on, you stare at him stupidly and then seem annoyed when he gets tired of waiting for you to go?
If someone shows me a courtesy, i accept it gracefully.
Don’t know if you were breaking the law or not but it would take one crazy cop to ticket you for it if he witnessed the whole thing. I do agree with you that people should avoid creating uncertainty in other drivers by doing unexpected things.
About the only time I’ll yield to someone who does not have the right of way is if I see that person wants to make a right turn from a parking lot, say, onto the main thoroughfare but cannot because traffic is extremely heavy and he happens to be situated only four or five car lengths from a busy intersection. As soon as the light turns red, traffic blocks him because it comes to a stop but if the light is green, no one will let him in. It’s hard not to take pity on someone in that situation, because I’ve been there myself and I always appreciate it when someone waves me on.
However, you have to be careful; once I waved on an elderly lady whose nationality I won’t mention, and what did she do? Did she make a right turn into my lane as I expected? No! She decided she was going to cross four heavily congested lanes of rush hour traffic, come hell or high water and make a left turn at the intersection! So she pulled into my lane crossways, blocking me and everyone behind me, until some guy to my left was also fool enough to wave her on. And so on until she had made it into the inside lane where she made her left turn! Needless to say, people behind me were probably cursing me out good.
So nowadays, if I think you look like you just stepped off the boat, or you look like a total jerk or nimrod, I’m inclined not to let you in.
If i have to make a left with right of way and thrre’s a car on the side street also turning left and there is no other traffic, why not let him go?
Either i slow down, wave him out, he pulls out in front of me, then i can make a leisurely left onto the side street.
Or, i have to more cautiously turn and avoid his vehicle, then he can pull out after me. It makes less sense that way, especially if road conditions are less than ideal, or lanes are narrow and visibility for him is poor. Which it usually is in sw pa.
There's something not quite right about the sound of that. :-)
-PJ
Kumbaya, m’Lord, Kumbaya....
DAMN! Didn’t see that dump truck coming!
The rules of the road are safety first and drive defensively.
“Be nice” ain’t on the list of things in the traffic manuals.
Courtesy costs nothing. Where do you think this dump truck is coming from?
I am picturing a t intersection of normal 2 lane roads. He is on your right wanting to turn left. You want to turn left to be going in the same direction he is now going.
Onviously if a dump truck is coming from your left you would be wise not to pull out, no matter who waves.
I usually flip the switch in my Aston Martin and rake them with machine gun fire as they go by.
So I guess your point is I was cranky and mean to the kindly old gentleman.
Tuff crap.
I’m still alive!
My point is you’re making something sinister out of an attempt to show you a courtesy.
I’m still not clear where the threat to your life was in this situation. Are there more lanes or other drivers involved you are not telling us about?
Easy. Break eye contact by looking at your lap. They always move on right away, because they are no longer questioning whether you will accept their suggestion to go first.
The only time I go when waived on is if it appears that there is something hindering the other driver such that they are unable to proceed and do not intend to proceed regardless of my intent.
A driver can yield the right of way. I never trust people who do that however.
My opinion is that there’s not much that makes me more angry on the road than some jack*ss who has the rightofway and decides to be courteous by stopping and waiting for me to go ahead - the rules of the road are there to keep traffic flowing, and shouldn’t be subject to individual interpretation.....
When I moved into my neighborhood, there was an intersection right up the street from my house. I would go down my street, take a right on the larger street that had many streets like mine off of it, and go through the intersection without stopping...the smaller, crossing street had stop signs, the main road had none.
Very sensible. The way it should be.
A couple of years ago, I come home from work, and...lo and behold, as I come down the main street, there is a stop sign on the larger street, and there are no signs on the smaller crossing street.
I almost went right through, I wasn’t paying attention. WTF? It made absolutely no sense. None.
I called Town Hall the next day, and nobody knew anything about it. Typical.
Now, when I come up to that damned intersection, there is almost always a car coming down the smaller side street, and it invariably stops.
DRIVES ME FRIKKING CRAZY.
I am on the main road, and I HAVE THE STOP SIGN! That is bad enough, but the damned idiots on the cross road, who DON’T have a stop...STOP!
I sat there for about 20 seconds while some dipstick stopped there and was trying to wave me through. I swear, I would have sat there for ten minutes, if that is what it took to make that mental midget go through.
I am all for giving people a break on the road, and do so, but this just sticks in my craw. I have even thought about going out there some night, digging them up and replanting the signs where they should be.
I have always suspected it is some jerkoff who works for the town who got the signage changed.
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