Twice in two days

[Catwoman2965]

Someone got lucky in spite of their stupidity. Twice, while waiting to go straight, at an intersection where there's a left turn arrow, both ways, first, a car in front of me, or next to me went, when the other side had the green arrow.

Fortunately for both, the other drivers were not going fast, and paying attention. I get we have brain blips, but its kind of scary.

[notalwaysright]

I've seen that, except the people going straight had the green, and the left turn arrow was red, and somebody turns left. Especially if the light to go straight turns green first, and someone waiting to turn sees the green and goes, even though they have a solid red in the turn lane.

Always makes me hold my breath.

[Lovecats]

I was sitting in the straight ahead lanes and the left turn light turned green. The guy ahead of me started to go but caught himself in time. Good thing too as the car turning left that he probably would've hit was a sheriff's car. The deputy driving just kinda looked at him and kept on going. I'm pretty sure the guy had an "oh, shit!" expression on his face.

[Catwoman2965]

I've caught myself wanting to go before, on the left turn green arrow, usually when I'm not quite paying attention, but never actually GONE.

[LoTech]

I've been cursing the automatic traffic lights in the large town to my south which ignore cars until they actually REACH the stop line. I prefer to slow down for traffic lights and drive through as they turn green instead of rushing up to them at full speed and screech to a halt in order to sit and wait for the light. It takes no more time, and saves gas by not having to accelerate from a dead stop.
But not in this town, no! If you aren't sitting and waiting for the light, you don't get a green light! I've lost track of the number of times I've seen the light turn red in the distance, slow down to time my arrival at a green light, and wind up waiting at the intersection while the opposing lane cycles through green, amber, and back to red and green for the crossing traffic.
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What makes it all the more infuriating is the smaller town to the north where the main intersection will actually ANTICIPATE your arrival at the light and change to amber/green immediately after the intersection clears, as your car approaches, from out beyond the end of the turn lane.
If traffic is sparse, those lights will switch to let cars through one at a time from each direction, as long as they don't arrive at the crossroads too close together, and no stopping required.
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Nothing is quite so stressful as knowing how well a thing can be done and having to sit through having it done badly.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Nothing is quite so stressful as knowing how well a thing can be done and having to sit through having it done badly.

I know that feeling.

There's at traffic light on the road I take to get home at night, and I'm coming down the road at like 11pm at night. Not much cross-traffic to speak of, maybe the occasional car or two.

But this ONE GODDAMN INTERSECTION, if you get that red, you're stuck for at least 30 seconds after the intersection clears before it'll go green->yellow->red. Doesn't matter that there was only one car and no pedestrians crossing the road, by golly, you're gonna sit the full 30 seconds.

I know, it's just 30 seconds, big deal. Well, it annoys me that EVERY OTHER INTERSECTION along that road switches from timed cycles to "as needed" cycles at that time of night, but NOT THIS ONE.

I can understand it during rush hour-- that intersection gets a lot of traffic at other times of day-- but by 11pm at night, it should be switched off to "as needed."

[Kogarashi]

I've been cursing the automatic traffic lights in the large town to my south which ignore cars until they actually REACH the stop line.

I hear you.

Everywhere else I've lived, intersections with sensors have the sensors placed so you can be a whole car-length, maybe two, behind the stop line and still trigger the light change, which is good for when you get those people who seem to think they need to actually sit that far back from the stop line (seriously people, you don't have to see the whole line and then some in your windshield while you're stopped).

But here in GA, I've found at least one intersection that only seems to have the sensors right AT the stop line, so only the lead car triggers them and only then if they're actually pulled up far enough. I even had to sit through several cycles of the light one night because of this, since the lead car wasn't pulled far enough forward. It ended up that several of us in line behind them ended up pulling into the right-turn lane and turning onto the side (major) street, then pulling a legal U-turn a bit down the road before returning to said intersection to make another right turn to complete what should have been just a simple straight-through-the-intersection originally. And that one person just sitting blissfully a car-length behind the stop line not seeming to realize that cross-traffic had had four green lights by this point.

The only other time I've sat behind someone that clueless, they at least had the excuse of being out on a Sunday drive and enjoying a smoke at a red light. Not a good excuse, mind, but an excuse. They were stopped three car-lengths behind the stop line (and thus out of sensor range) when we reached that light. The light was controlling traffic for a bridge that was temporarily one lane while bridge repairs were going on, and was sensor controlled since the road saw little enough traffic to warrant timed cycles. We were the third car behind the lead at this point, and far enough back that we didn't notice at first they were behind the sensor array. Until we realized we'd been sitting there so long with no oncoming cars and without a green light that the lead car wasn't on the sensors. People behind us started honking too, and finally the guy in the car in front of us got out of his car, walked up to the lead car, and started gesturing, pointing to the road in front of them. My aunt, who was driving, noted that she could see the lead driver smoking, and he didn't seem overly keen on getting a move on, judging from the other guy's gesturing while talking. But finally the one driver went back to his car, and the lead car pulled forward a bit. Lo and behold, within seconds of him pulling onto the sensors, the lights changed and we were all able to go.

[pudddykat]

There is an intersection just past a fire house and a police station. There is no right turn on red. Nearly everyday we see police cars turn right on red.

People are always driving stupid in my city. I am always thinking are you quite finished running your light so I can go now?