If you drive, you'll know what I'm about to describe, which is what I like to call "left turn madness"
Many streets have up to three lanes of traffic in each direction, with a continuous left turn lane. At certain times of a work day, trying to turn left is close to impossible, but still some drivers will pull into the continuous left turn lane and hope some good Samaritan will let them in. This is usually near a traffic light. The only problem is everyone is trying to get home, could care less the driver wants to turn, and that any driver that allows them to start their turn could cause a wreck.
Still, someone will allow them in; and they might get enough others to let them across, but there is always the possibility someone will be flying down the far right lane and t-bone the care trying to turn left. I've seen that and traffic becomes even worse.
I have no advice. Common sense dictates travelling to a good crossing point, turning into a parking lot, a quick drive to the next exit, and then pulling back into traffic travelling in the opposite direction. That way, the driver is in the right lane, and they only have to pull into wherever they were going.
A Walmart near an intersection seem to attract these type of drivers, and I don't want to comment any further.
I don't get why drivers do this as well. And the ones that think they are being helpful by stopping one lane to let someone turn while there's one or two lanes with free flowing traffic beside them are being anything but, they're just making things even more unsafe. Personally I'd just as soon make three right turns rather than one unsafe left.
ReplyDeleteI think it has a lot to do with ignorance. While I've driven over a million miles, and seen more things than I care to see, many haven't driven enough to see the carnage of ignorance.
DeleteYou have described the "Michigan Left" in your solution, but that doesn't mean I recommend the brainiac highway engineers used here.
ReplyDeleteThere are too many "uh oh" problems with a Michigan left, and too many drivers that will find them.
DeleteSounds like Lumberton or Port Arthur to me.
ReplyDelete"Yes" is the correct answer, but Bridge City inspired the post.
DeleteI don't get over the Bridge too much. Haven't been out that way since I went to David Self in Orange to get my Found On Roadside Dead fixed last summer.
DeleteAnd, this ladies and gentlemen, is why I don't live anywhere where you have three lanes of traffic each way. Even the interstates up here are only two lanes. I absolutely cannot imagine dealing with traffic like that.
ReplyDelete