I spend about half an hour on highways each time I commute to or from work, and quite a bit of time on secondary roads and side roads in the course of chauffering children around town, running errands, etc. If I do nothing else but work, I put 500 miles on the mini van each week. So I feel qualified to comment on what the Long Island drivers seem to be doing out there.
Here are some observations that cause me to want to cover my eyes and scream (which I do not do while driving, of course):
1. People don't seem to come to a full stop often when making a right on red, but often do turn right on red when there is a short gap in oncoming traffic that is just large enough to fit their car. Worse still, I've seen many people cause drivers to screech to a stop, or slow down rapidly, because they've made a right turn from a side street onto a major road when it was clearly not legal or safe to do so.
2. People seem to delight in being the last car to make a left turn after the green arrow has been extinguished and before straight-going traffic has reached the middle of the intersection. People who are waiting for the green light so they can move forward are anxious to hit the accelerator the nanosecond they see the red light disappear. Little sports cars and huge eight cylinder trucks are going to be through there lickety split. It's not like the late left turners can say "Whoops, I got crushed so I'll hit Restart."
3. Are stop signs in residential areas optional if the driver doesn't think anyone else is coming? What, not much risk of getting creamed so we aim to shave a few seconds off our best time?
4. I wish I could see the thought bubbles working in this situation. The other driver may be imagining, "I know I got to the all-way stop after you did, but I'm probably in more of a hurry than you are and I'm definitely more important than you." Sigh. Not too much fun to explain to the kids why the other driver went first, and what to do about it. And what NOT to do about it.
5. Way too many drivers still do not use turn signals when changing lanes on highways. When I see a car drifting over the lane boundary, I can never tell whether the driver intends to come into my lane, or whether the driver is sleepy or drugged or distracted or nervous or hasn't seen that there is another car alongside. If the turn signal is not used, and I can't get away from this driver, I keep watching for a repeat performance of the drifting. It's nerve wracking, I tell ya.
6. More regarding lane changes: this reminds me most of video games. If there is a space in between two vehicles in the next lane that is slightly larger than the vehicle I am driving, I would never think of quickly zipping in there. But many drivers do just that. They zip in and out as though they are avoiding hurdles on a computer or TV screen, or if all of a sudden they realize they must drive over a particular spot to pick up 500 bonus points. Yikes. I have also wondered whether some drivers believe that there is a force field around their vehicle, sort of like virtual bumper cars, that prevents another vehicle from entering their space no matter what kind of crazy maneuver they make.
7. I have seen countless drivers on the Long Island Expressway and on the Sunrise Highway who zip in front of a tractor trailer in order to escape from the dreadfully slow traffic in their lane, only to discover that there's someone in the way and that they must immediately slam on the brakes. I give these truck drivers a lot of credit for their alertness and skill because, by rights, they ought to routinely be mowing down these people. I guess they take it in stride because it must happen dozens of times in just one long distance run, but my heart is in my mouth every time I see it. Particularly if I'm in one of the adjoining lanes and could catch residual effects of the crash.
That's probably enough for now. Is it helping me to verbalize some of my greatest daily fears? I don't know; I'll have to see when I get on the road later...
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