Tag: courtesy

/ geoffand / 1 Comment

When being a nice guy backfires: Traffic edition

I have an easy commute. A hair over 7.5 miles straight up a surface street, never too bad traffic. I am never in a hurry (well, very rarely), so I am often willing to let someone in who is leaving a driveway.

But today I goofed. I waved some lady who was trying to get out of a gas station. I figured she wanted to just merge into traffic. BZZT

She took my opening, then proceeded in slowly obstructing ALL traffic to get to the left turn lane. Sigh.

So I, and several other (justifiably pissed off) people missed the green light while this tool stopped traffic to get to the left turn lane.

When I am in a similar situation, I :

  • Take a deep breath. Really, it isn’t the end of the world.
  • Merge into traffic, but look for the next convenient (and safe) place to make a U turn.
  • And get to where I want to go a minute or two later.

What I don’t do is obstruct 3 lanes of traffic, hanging in limbo, just to “make” that next left turn. Sheesh.

/ geoffand

Arizona Quirks

No secret is the fact that I moved from Tucson to Chandler last summer. So far, the experience has been great. Roads are better maintained, there are streetlights, and most of the neighborhoods are well planned, and laid out with plenty of green space. My wife and I compare it to “Sunnyvale” where no dangerous critters are allowed.  Cool so far.

However, there is a problem. It appears that people think it is OK to ride their bikes on the sidewalks. Apart from young children (say, less than 8 years old), all people should be riding in the street and obeying the rules of the road. But that appears to be missing in Arizona. Today, at lunch, I was walking (for exercise) and was almost creamed by a cyclist riding very fast on the sidewalk. I have been out with my dogs, walking on the sidewalk, and again, almost taken clean out. On a busy road (Gilbert Road).

Da fuq is up with that?

Later: Do they not teach kids here how to use hand signals?