OK, here's another concept that I thought was pretty simple to comprehend, yet somehow cripples the drivers of St. Louis every time they come to a traffic light. It's the everyday task of turning left.
See? I told you it sounded easy. But I assure you the drivers of this town make it as difficult as possible.
Here's what happens: a car pulls up to a light with the intention of turning left, and they stop right at the line, waiting for a chance to turn as on-coming traffic makes its way through the intersection. And as traffic keeps coming, they just sit there. By this time a couple more cars pull up and wait behind the aforementioned car. Now, traffic is pretty heavy, and there hasn't been a chance to turn, so the car just continues to sit there, right at that line. And then the light turns yellow, and they sit there. And then it turns red, and now they have no chance of turning, so they miss the light. And this happens all the time. And it's the worst at intersections where there is a turn arrow, but it's not a "Left Turn on Arrow Only" kind of arrow. Because the idiot drivers here think, "I should probably just wait for the arrow. That seems like the safe, smart thing to do." Guess what? It's not.
And most of you are probably reading this thinking, "OK, sounds like that car did the right thing. What's the deal?"
Well, here's the deal. That car needs to pull into the intersection. I know, I know, it sounds scary and crazy. But I swear to you, it is not. You pull into the intersection so that if you happen to get a break in traffic you can quickly turn left. And if you don't get that break? Well, you're already in the intersection, so when the light turns yellow, or even red, and on-coming traffic has to come to a stop, you can turn left. And it's legal, because again, you're already in the intersection. And, executed properly, you can actually get two cars through the turn, assuming the second car is aggressive and paying attention.
See, what happens is drivers are just timid and scared and praying to god they get an arrow, because otherwise the whole process terrifies them. But it shouldn't be scary. It's simple. It's turning left. It's not complicated.
Unless, of course, you learned to drive in St. Louis.
St. Louis (drivers), you are a joke.
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I think that most don't want to get a ticket via the red light cameras, but they're not on every light.
ReplyDeleteBut, again, if you're already in the intersection, the law says you can complete your action to get out of the intersection, even if the light is red.
ReplyDeleteThis drives me through the god damn roof (of my car). It's rampant in Boston.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog idea, by the way. I might steal it to rag on this so-called "city."
This really bugs the hell out of me. And no one in St. Louis can explain to me why it happens.
ReplyDeleteMy reason for staying behind the stop line before turning left at an intersection is because that was the law when I was taught to drive. The law may have changed by now, but I had never even thought to pull into the intersection to wait until I moved to Illinois and noticed everyone doing it. It actually ticked me off because the person turning left after their light had turned red prevented me from driving at my newly green light. I would say this is the main reason that St. Louis drivers wait at the line to turn left. If it was the law when I got my license 5 years ago, I would assume it had been the law for many years before that as well.
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