That's it, I can't take it anymore. I have to vent.
Why can't people figure out 4-way stops?
Seriously, are they that hard? Here's what you do - if someone gets to a 4-way stop before you, you let them go. If you get there at the same time, whoever is on the right goes first. That's it.
Pretty simple, right? Apparently not, because it seems half the people I meet at these things heven't the least idea what they're supposed to do.
Should I go? No, I think he does. Well wait, he's not moving and I got here 10 seconds before him, so maybe that means I go. Oh, this person just pulled up on the other side. I better wait until he goes. Or how about I just pull forward ten feet into the middle of the intersection and stop? Yeah, that should facilitate an efficient transit for everyone.
If you say that last line in a Brian Regan voice, it's at least 5 times funnier.
As far as I can tell this is what goes on in these peoples' minds. Maybe we need to call a town meeting or something to address the issue. You know, we sound a big gong, the whole city gathers at town hall, the mayor does a 5-minute presentation (with role play) on proper 4-way stop etiquette, the old people get a chance to gripe about how fast college students drive, we all have donuts and go home happy. Problem solved.
Of course, we're still figuring out how to use our blinkers in this town, so expecting everyone to successfully pull off omething as cryptic and intricate as the 4-way stop procedure may be asking a little too much.
Oh yeah, and while we're on the subject, here's another thing that makes me mad -- people driving while on their cell-phones. Hey, thanks for risking the lives of everyone around you just so you can talk to your roommate about what happened on Lost or how your boyfriend thinks you talk too much five minutes sooner than if you just waited until you got home. We all appreciate it.
Ok, I'm done. Thanks for letting me vent. Now that I look back at the post, I guess my purpose in writing today was to show how most people are stupid, but I'm not.
I hope that's what you take away from this: most people are stupid, but not me.
Hey, have a good one.
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4 comments:
Try going to some of the more advanced cities of your state, where the rotary intersection has been introduced. There you'll find locals fearfully driving in circles, sometimes stopping in the middle of them, waiting for sweet mercy to let them run out of gas so they can turn out in the direction of their choice, if only behind a tow-truck.
The best thing to happen at a four-way stop is for someone to tell you to go when actually they should go, and then they get indignant when you make them go first, rejecting their benevolent offer. I love that.
It seems like the rotary intersection is the bane of old people and college students. For one, the yield sign is quite confusing in a "I think this means stop" kind of way. Add that the one-way arrows don't really make sense (wait, you go this way around it?) to our older citizens and you get a surprise every time you go through one. I'd hate to see what would happen if we put them on big intersections like they do back east.
I thought Lost is reason enough to start a conversation while driving a potentially lethal weapon.
Four-way stops + driving in the Western US = me at the brink of insanity.
I have also played out the town meeting scenario in my head on several occasions. I find it almost disturbingly surprising that I am merely the first reader to mention "left turn in front of ongoing traffic" approach at clearing up the gridlock. To me it seems that all widely understood and accepted rules at four-way stop LIGHTS are rendered irrelevant in this apparently mind-boggling scenario. On several occasions I have nearly intentionally barreled into the left-turners when they glaringly pull in front of me as I am going straight. Do they think that they have the right of way just because they have been waiting longer than me to cross? The answer would be yes ONLY if there is no crossing traffic and they unquestionably arrived (at least a couple of seconds) before me. If we are both waiting for crossing traffic to get through the intersection, and both at a complete stop when that traffic finally is through the intersection, all ideas of "I was here first" are nullified, just like at a stop LIGHT. Shouldn't we all be focused on applying widely-used rules of traffic in the intersection rather than trying to accurately determine and make mental notes as to which of the potential several cars arrived first, down to the millisecond? That is why if there are only two cars and both are arriving at about the same time, the one to the right goes first -- a public display that shows RULES should always TRUMP the mental notes.
Anyway, the through traffic (me) should first smoothly go straight, and the left-turner (glaring idiot) easily turns in behind when it is clear. Left-turners have never had the right-o-way in the history of driving in the US. Furthermore, if this is repeated by the next set of crossing traffic, we see the true magic of the system, as two cars can actually be going through the intersection in opposite directions at the same time on a regular interval! Whether simple or not, I just realized that it does not seem so simple when put into words, and the amount of people that will clearly understand my feeble attempt to explain may very well equal the empty set.
Growing up driving in the southern US where the system I just explained is basic knowledge, I cannot remember a single instance in which there has been confusion, hesitation, anger, acts of "benevolence", rejection, or much less an accident.
Yes I must vent also. Thanks for reading this far.
~jeff (www.foster2.com)
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