Los Angeles Traffic Woes
My commute was worse than usual today, and what started as a mildly annoyed status post on Facebook expanded to a rant of more epic proportions, so I'll share it here instead. Perhaps I would benefit from being a more relaxed driver, but I know I'm not the only one with LA-induced road rage, so please, commiserate with me.
My Top 10 Los Angeles Commuting Peeves:
1. People who ride the far right lane to go faster than everyone else, only to get stuck behind a bus or stopped by a lane closure. They then aggressively insert their nose into the next lane over, and some even stick their hands out the window in a coercive "stop" gesture to the next driver.
2. People who don't use their turn signals.
3. People who try to inch into the left turn lane when there's no room for them, thus effectively blocking the whole left lane of traffic until the light changes.
4. People who drift in the direction they are planning to turn and slow down considerably in anticipation many blocks before their target intersection.
5. Jaywalkers. Especially those who are too lazy to walk another 100 feet up the street to the crosswalk and choose to dash across four lanes of rush hour traffic instead, and/or those who very irresponsibly jaywalk with young children or strollers in heavy urban traffic.
6. Buses, and intersections with no left turn lanes or no left turn arrow. Because of these "road hazards," the center lane should be the fastest. But it isn't, because lots of other people realize this, too.
7. Motorcycles that ride between lanes.
8. Bumps and potholes. Also the construction that fixes the bumps and potholes.
9. Extremely variable commute time. Going the same route at the same time every day, my commute has taken about 30 minutes on the low end of the spectrum, and about 75 at most.
10. Left-turners who take advantage of stopped traffic to cross an intersection, then fail to yield right-of-way when the traffic flow starts again.
My Top 10 Los Angeles Commuting Peeves:
1. People who ride the far right lane to go faster than everyone else, only to get stuck behind a bus or stopped by a lane closure. They then aggressively insert their nose into the next lane over, and some even stick their hands out the window in a coercive "stop" gesture to the next driver.
2. People who don't use their turn signals.
3. People who try to inch into the left turn lane when there's no room for them, thus effectively blocking the whole left lane of traffic until the light changes.
4. People who drift in the direction they are planning to turn and slow down considerably in anticipation many blocks before their target intersection.
5. Jaywalkers. Especially those who are too lazy to walk another 100 feet up the street to the crosswalk and choose to dash across four lanes of rush hour traffic instead, and/or those who very irresponsibly jaywalk with young children or strollers in heavy urban traffic.
6. Buses, and intersections with no left turn lanes or no left turn arrow. Because of these "road hazards," the center lane should be the fastest. But it isn't, because lots of other people realize this, too.
7. Motorcycles that ride between lanes.
8. Bumps and potholes. Also the construction that fixes the bumps and potholes.
9. Extremely variable commute time. Going the same route at the same time every day, my commute has taken about 30 minutes on the low end of the spectrum, and about 75 at most.
10. Left-turners who take advantage of stopped traffic to cross an intersection, then fail to yield right-of-way when the traffic flow starts again.
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