Things that annoy you...

That's still nuts. I mean sure it happens on rare occasions. Example: someone is distracted and thinks the light is red, someone is texting and not paying attention, a pedestrian is about to cross the road at the intersection, the person stopping at a green light is wanting to make a left turn and waiting for oncoming traffic to pass.

I read your post and it's clear to me you have the hallmarks of an impatient driver. I suspect if you're encountering people stopping at green lights in front of you for none of the above reasons, the fault is yours for tailgating and or driving to fast. I will come to a slow down if someone is riding my bumper.

In your friends case, who thinks the bus driver is slowing down for a green light in hopes it's going turning yellow then red, that is also nuts.

A bus driver who did that on a regular basis would get rear ended, ticketed for a traffic violation and fired from their job. Besides all the reasons I explained in my last post for a driver to slow down or stop at a green light...There's also this: a person on a bus can't see everything on the road in front of the bus or on the side of the streets, but the bus driver can. I suspect your friend takes too late of a bus route and is in danger of being late to work, thus causing her to be anxious and over critical.

^ I'm guessing you gave Driving Miss Daisy ;

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Can't say I've really seen people do that (not around here - NJ - anyway) if anything it's the opposite - they speed up for green or orange lights!

But what you're describing may be people slowing due to an intersection (as opposed to wanting the light to change) - and the thing is, I've even heard safety officials say it's a good idea to drop speed at dangerous intersections (because you never know when someone might run the light, turn right on red unexpectedly, etc.). Could this be the reason for what you're describing?

Let me know if you've heard this - at a dangerous intersection or when children are present on the sidewalks, you should let your foot hover above your brake as a safety precaution? Don't know when or where I heard that, but I've heard it (could be another reason for people to be slowing down at green lights).

lol, yewz gaiz!

I agree with those safety considerations.

This is on a 4-lane highway through a rural area that intersects a 4-lane bypass with dedicated turn lanes both left and right. No crosswalks or pedestrian interactions. Speed limit is 45 there. There's nothing unique about this intersection other than the above average slow down of west-bound drivers. Every few days there is a driver or two side by side that drop to 30 and decreasing on approach to a green light.

If there is a cluster of 3 or more cars, they are all forced to slow down regardless of how close or far we are behind the lead or how spaced apart the vehicles are from each other. 4' or 30 car lengths, slowing through a green light causes bottlenecking and a risk for unnecessary congestion, if not panic by other drivers believing the slow down is in response to some unseen emergency situation.

I do not mean to imply sudden braking to avoid rear-ending someone who is slowing down. It's common in the more rural areas here that dogs and deer will jump into traffic so keeping a safe distance from the vehicle in front of me is important to allow time to respond. It still frustrates me to see a car up ahead slowing down for a green light. If I maintain the speed limit then I will eventually gain ground and have to slow down as well. It is an annoyance.

The heart of my issue is a seeming lack of awareness with a lot of drivers in my neck of the woods. Left lane is for passing and be considerate to and mindful of other drivers around you. Accommodate when it is safe, and check your mirrors constantly.

I rarely notice it anywhere else but through this rural stretch of highway. That is part of my daily commute so I experience it often. It seems to be either elderly or random nuts texting on their phone. Whatever the cause, it affects traffic as a whole.

Simple explanation: Americans don’t know how to drive.

Complex explanation: Americans don’t know the rules of the road because there are so many so they just pretend that half of them don’t exist and do whatever they want because this is the land of the free and the home of the insane.

This reminds me of something I even made up an acronym for: BFNAR...
"Braking For No Apparent Reason"

I often associate this one with older drivers.
I'll be on a highway where the speed is 55, keeping a safe distance from the car in front of me when all of a sudden they'll just slam on their brakes for no apparent reason - no kids in the road, no deer jumping in front of their car, no sirens & red flashing lights, no pile-up ahead, no sudden oil slick... nothing!

(The only thing I can discern is they may be lost or looking for a landmark and then, when they see a sign or something, instead of putting on their blinker, pulling over to the shoulder and slowing down - in that order - they just hit their brakes as some sort of reflex reaction, even if they are in the middle lane of a multi-lane highway!)

It's not a common occurrence, but in 38 years of driving, I've experienced this "phenomenon" a few times.

There is a literally tiny old lady who I see at Sunday mass. Not only is she tiny & very old, poor thing is almost bent in half with, I’m guessing, severe arthritis or the like. But fellow parishioners boast that she still drives. WTH! Can’t even imagine how she sees over the steering wheel, but this is Connecticut where nobody walks anywhere if they can drive there.

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Orange lights??? I'm in New Jersey every once in a while, and I've never seen any orange traffic lights.


It's always a good idea to be prepared to brake when approaching an intersection. Too many people think that the right turn on red law means that they can just make a right turn when their light is red, and the oncoming traffic will just stop for them.

It's like the people who think that when they put their turn signal on, they can just change lanes immediately and the car in the next lane will just slam on their brakes.

A friend of mine has a bumper sticker that says "I brake for hallucinations".


I don't know which is worse, the idiots who hit their brakes in the middle of a multi-lane highway, or the idiots who speed up to cross in front of traffic going 65 mph, and make a quick exit from a multi-lane highway with no warning.

When I went to visit my parents in Florida, there were a lot of moving cars that looked like there was nobody driving them, but when we drove past them and looked in the driver's seat, there was a small elderly person with gray hair, who could barely see over the dashboard, driving the car. My mother called them "q-tips" because all you could see from behind was the very top of their hair, and it looked like the top of a Q-tip.

I love freaking people out by making a left turn at a red light. There’s only one place in my city where you can do it and people lose their mind when you do it.

Most of our traffic lights have the crosswalk countdown. If I can see the countdown and know I won't be making the light unless I gun it, I'm letting off the gas. I like taking it easy on my brakes.

The wife.
Constantly

Yeah. Crosswalk timers are HUGE aids in predicting intersection breaks. I love them on several levels. That post was more rural area highway lights.

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Am I the only one sensing shades of Joaquin Phoenix in Her with this? o.O

On a sidenote: I wonder what the effect on footfall would be if crosswalk timers were to be voiced by Scarlett Johansson? I know that I would quite likely just stand at the crossing and listen for a few cycles before even contemplating actually setting foot onto the road

Me too, and my brakes last twice as long as many peoples brakes do.

I hate it when drivers speed up to a stop sign, looking like they're going to run it, then in the last 10 feet, slam on the brakes, ugh! Stupid people.

They call them "Yellow" lights - but they're not yellow - they are orange.
A compromise is calling them "Amber" - but they are still more orange than amber - they're not as orange as the fruit, but still a less-bright shade of orange!

Then there's the guy in front of you in a line of unmoving traffic at a red light - he leaves about 3 car spaces between him and the car in front of him... and every 5 seconds or so he pulls up about 6 inches, then stops, then waits for about 5 or 10 seconds, then moves up another 6 inches... and continues this bizarre behavior that appears to have no logical purpose until the light changes and traffic starts moving.

Why not just pull up behind the car in front of you and hold position? Why this inching up every few seconds? What's that supposed to accomplish?