Lately I've been noticing that a lot of people seem to take forever going after the light turns green at an intersection, it makes me wonder what their problem is.
shareYou've heard of a New York minute? Well I'll tell you what a New York millisecond is. That is the interval between a light turning green and someone behind you honking their horn.
Nowadays, maybe people are texting while they are at a red light.
I drive a Miata so I'm always the first one off the line.
sharei drive a Supra but im not always at the head of the line, so it doesnt help.
Theres a junction near me where , in the direction I cross it , if the guy at the front dawdles any , it will be back on red before the 3rd car has crossed, or even the 2nd
I drive a Maserati, but that's just on weekends. During the week I either drive my Rolls or my Bentley.
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It's people fudgin around on their cell phones, no doubt about it. And their GPS maps. And all that other bullshit. It never used to be so bad as it is today. So many distractions. The only thing thing that really sets off my road rage is people not taking advantage of them green arrows.
share^ This. Distracted by cell phones or all the gadgets and gizmos that come in modern cars. My car will only let me reprogram the map when the car is stopped. No programming while driving! So if I have to enter a new address or choose a different route, I usually pull over and reprogram. Sometimes thatโs not feasible so I have to do it quickly during a red light.
shareOh yeah. I actually had someone raise their arm and give me the wait signal once at a green light. Wait? Wait for what?! Clearly they were trying to finish locking in their GPS route.
shareI wish all cars were auto-driving so we wouldn't need any traffic lights anymore.
shareI live in Boston and if someone takes more than half a second to go, the person behind them lays on their horn very aggressively....it's a great city lol
shareI used to notice this even long before cellphones were a ubiquitous thing, so it's not just people texting. I think people have always been slow to get going when the light turns green.
In the UK, the light goes yellow before it goes green - I do think it helps in alerting everyone that we all need to start moving. I don't know why the USA doesn't do yellow-to-green as well as yellow-to-red. Going straight from red to green doesn't help alert anyone.
Yellow before green wouldn't work in the US. Everyone would just take off on yellow. We're lucky if people stop on red here.
shareYellow is merely a suggestion.
shareJust like stop signs.
shareI was showing some friends around NYC, it was their first time there. They stop at a corner because there was a red light. It was just a typical street where it takes two seconds to cross (unlike the wider avenues). I pointed to the red light and said, "that's just a suggestion."
shareExcept now there are cameras all over. They even have special "speed cameras" now in many locations to nab people exceeding the 25 mph speed limit.
shareIt's yellow so briefly that you're kind of supposed to anyway.
There are drivers like that in the UK too, trust me, it's a human quality, not just an American quality. It still works. I can't tell you the timing but there aren't any problems with people taking off while there's still cross-traffic. T
It bugs me too. Especially when it is a green arrow for a left turn and the first person sits there for like 5 seconds before moving so I end being stuck at the light.
I agree with some of the others, it is probably people messing around on their phones. Just put the thing in your pocket when you're driving, sheesh!
People slow to go on the left turn arrow drive me crazy. Someone will honk the horn. Then they always give an annoyed glance in the rear view mirror before finally taking off as the light is turning yellow to red.
shareAnd then there is the traffic that runs their red light, meaning you have to wait even though your green arrow is on. It annoys me no end that they're using up my green arrow. ๐
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If you're young, you are firmly convinced that this is true. As you get older, you'll probably realize not so much.
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