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Ran into this winner while heading out to buy 50%-off Easter candy with Daughter today.
Driving through our residential area in town, the speed limit is 25mph. I've never gone above 30, partly because I don't know where any cops might be hiding, but mostly because it's a residential area. There are kids around.
So I'm driving about 30 or just under. I've got two cars behind me, both white (important), who while catching up weren't tailgating me. Props to them. We approach a red light, and I stop.
A moment later, a blue car comes squeaking up next to me in the single (but rather wide) lane, and stops with his car halfway over the stop line and thus sticking out about half a car-length past mine. I figure, "Okay, he's probably going to turn right as soon as the light changes. He's not signalling, but only about half the drivers in this city actually bother with turn signals."
The light changed. Blue car immediately starts driving out into the intersection and goes straight. Did I mention there's only one lane in either direction here? He basically rode the shoulder so he could pass no fewer than three cars at the intersection, and judging from how fast he was going and how quickly he got a whole block ahead of me, he must've been doing at least 40mph in a 25 zone.
Bonus Idiocy:
This one was far more dangerous than Mr. Line-Jumper above, but I didn't think it warranted its own thread.
Coming back from errands (with a bagful of Cadbury eggs and jelly beans, yum), I was driving along a larger street that's five lanes across (two either direction with turning lanes down the center). I was in the rightmost lane.
As I passed a shopping plaza, this pickup truck suddenly roared out of the parking lot into the lane to my immediate left, but it veered enough toward my lane that I tapped the brakes and swerved a bit to the right to hedge my bets against getting sideswiped. The truck stayed in the left lane, and we both approached a light that was already yellow. Before either of us reached it, it turned red. I slowed to a stop at the stop line.
The truck, on the other hand, toodled straight through, going no faster than the speed limit to very obviously run a red light across a busy intersection. Luckily, it seems the cars on the side streets hadn't quite reacted to their green light yet because the truck didn't cause any near-accidents. And what was so important that the truck had to run this red light?
It had to get into the left-turn lane at the next light to get on a small local highway (limited access). It was still there when I pulled up, and didn't get its green light until I got mine too. So, total amount of time saved by blatantly running a red light: 0 nanoseconds.
Other than that, traffic was sane and sensible (except for the one company van that seemed to want to pace me instead of letting me merge in front of it despite ample warning, but that was solved by giving my car a bit more gas and "taking the initiative," as my dad would put it).
Driving through our residential area in town, the speed limit is 25mph. I've never gone above 30, partly because I don't know where any cops might be hiding, but mostly because it's a residential area. There are kids around.
So I'm driving about 30 or just under. I've got two cars behind me, both white (important), who while catching up weren't tailgating me. Props to them. We approach a red light, and I stop.
A moment later, a blue car comes squeaking up next to me in the single (but rather wide) lane, and stops with his car halfway over the stop line and thus sticking out about half a car-length past mine. I figure, "Okay, he's probably going to turn right as soon as the light changes. He's not signalling, but only about half the drivers in this city actually bother with turn signals."
The light changed. Blue car immediately starts driving out into the intersection and goes straight. Did I mention there's only one lane in either direction here? He basically rode the shoulder so he could pass no fewer than three cars at the intersection, and judging from how fast he was going and how quickly he got a whole block ahead of me, he must've been doing at least 40mph in a 25 zone.
Bonus Idiocy:
This one was far more dangerous than Mr. Line-Jumper above, but I didn't think it warranted its own thread.
Coming back from errands (with a bagful of Cadbury eggs and jelly beans, yum), I was driving along a larger street that's five lanes across (two either direction with turning lanes down the center). I was in the rightmost lane.
As I passed a shopping plaza, this pickup truck suddenly roared out of the parking lot into the lane to my immediate left, but it veered enough toward my lane that I tapped the brakes and swerved a bit to the right to hedge my bets against getting sideswiped. The truck stayed in the left lane, and we both approached a light that was already yellow. Before either of us reached it, it turned red. I slowed to a stop at the stop line.
The truck, on the other hand, toodled straight through, going no faster than the speed limit to very obviously run a red light across a busy intersection. Luckily, it seems the cars on the side streets hadn't quite reacted to their green light yet because the truck didn't cause any near-accidents. And what was so important that the truck had to run this red light?
It had to get into the left-turn lane at the next light to get on a small local highway (limited access). It was still there when I pulled up, and didn't get its green light until I got mine too. So, total amount of time saved by blatantly running a red light: 0 nanoseconds.
Other than that, traffic was sane and sensible (except for the one company van that seemed to want to pace me instead of letting me merge in front of it despite ample warning, but that was solved by giving my car a bit more gas and "taking the initiative," as my dad would put it).
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zipping up beside me, and then he lays off the gas so I can't merge in behind him either. 
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